In this webinar, our Head of Mobile discusses the existing end-to-end (E2E) testing solutions available on the market - their advantages, disadvantages, and limitations. You'll also learn how to set up your E2E testing environment and how to avoid common mistakes.
How to build a design system for a scalable Flutter app?
Albert Wolszon / Head of the Mobile UI Team
In this webinar, our Head of UI Flutter Guild covers how to build a design system for scalable mobile apps — including component libraries, tokens, typography, responsiveness and versioning — as well as the most common pitfalls to avoid.
4.7 Case study: LeanCode’s enhanced UI development with Widgetbook
Lucas Josefiak
Co-founder and CEO at Widgetbook
4.9 Flutter App Security Trends
Sergiy Yakymchuk
CEO at Talsec
When LeanCode first told me of their intentions to run an independent Flutter survey, I felt tremendous gratitude around our community’s generosity and collaborative spirit.
From the hosts of HumpDay Q&A to our countless open source contributors to now LeanCode’s survey, Google has long known that we could never accomplish all of our goals without our community. And so first and foremost, I want to thank the team at LeanCode for conceiving, designing, and executing this survey all on their own.
The Flutter team was certainly happy to assist them spread the word, but the survey’s true value came from its independence. Of course, this is an attribute my colleagues within Google’s walls are incapable of achieving, so initiatives like this are uniquely helpful.
I went into the results with an open mind, and as you’ll see below, came out heartened - Flutter’s road map is well aligned with what this survey suggests our developers want out of the framework. Of course, finite staff means not all items on the community’s collective wish list are currently receiving Google’s attention, but the Flutter team has already been hard at work on many of these topics for months.
One interesting result was Kotlin’s strong position as Flutter developers’ second favorite language. This is unsurprising for multiple reasons, including Kotlin’s obvious strengths and position within the Android ecosystem; but it suggests that Dart was wise to take inspiration from Kotlin when pursuing new language features. Null-safety, records, and pattern matching were all differentiators for Kotlin that the Dart core language team worked very hard to incorporate. It’s clear to me that this work delivered direct value to our ecosystem.
Another interesting result was that most new Flutter developers arrive not from other cross-platform frameworks, but from native development. When teams want to expand the reach of their established apps by adding more build targets, cross-platform frameworks make it possible to avoid multiplying their size, budget, and number of headaches. Flutter believes deeply that every great iOS app should be available on Android, and every great Android app should be available on iOS. Users around the world should all enjoy the best software experiences possible; as both developers and users.
Relatedly, 64.4% of teams distributing their software as web apps tells me that the colossal task of porting a once mobile-first framework to the web has succeeded. Admittedly, Flutter’s early Web days were humble - but the tripling of positive sentiment between the previous 3 years and next 2 years is a great signal. Three out of the four most anticipated upcoming features (SEO, hot reload in JavaScript, and WasmGC) being web-related also suggests serious demand for high quality, uncompromising web apps written in Flutter. And that’s great news, because the Flutter team has been working on all three for most of 2024!
The survey’s Net Promoter Score of 73 and the fact that 95.7% of respondents would choose Flutter again reflect a strong vote of confidence and matches data we’ve seen elsewhere that suggests professional experience with Flutter more than triples a developer’s probability of recommending the framework. This motivates us to keep innovating and supporting our developers to achieve even greater heights.
Despite the positive feedback, the survey also sheds light on some key areas where we can do better. Concerns about the discontinuation of product support, limitations with Web implementation, and challenges with hiring skilled Flutter developers stand out. The Flutter team is committed to working with the developer community to address these issues on an ongoing basis.
Flutter’s future depends on continued alignment between our goals and your wishes, so please know that responding to surveys is its own form of contribution. Flutter’s quarterly survey is our primary source of community sentiment, but LeanCode’s Flutter CTO survey added a fresh vantage point of where and how Flutter can improve. I would like to thank LeanCode for their diligent work in conducting this survey and to all of you CTOs and developers who participated. Now, let’s get back to work!
Flutter launched in 2018 with a bold promise: code once, run anywhere. This cross-platform vision was alluring, yet met with skepticism. Five and a half years later, the Flutter community has matured significantly. To understand the current state of affairs, we conducted a comprehensive survey, engaging nearly 300 CTOs, CIOs, and Tech Leads.
This report, based on real-world data, provides crucial insights to help you make informed decisions about incorporating Flutter into your technology stack.
What’s the verdict?
Is Flutter a good choice? With an NPS score of 73, the vast majority of respondents would enthusiastically recommend Flutter to their peers. Moreover, a staggering 95.5% of respondents would choose Flutter again when looking back on their experiences.
The speed advantage is significant.
Flutter’s advantages when it comes to development speed are undeniable. Over 56.4% of respondents reported a more than 50% increase in development speed compared to native approaches, with over 80% citing a minimum 20% improvement. These time and cost savings are simply too significant to ignore.
Is Flutter the ultimate solution?
Does it mean that you should close your eyes and choose Flutter no matter what? Absolutely not. This universe still has its points of friction, which are clearly highlighted by our respondents. Make sure you undertake your evaluation carefully.
Don’t just take our word for it: listen to the experts.
While Flutter boasts numerous strengths, it’s important to acknowledge the existing challenges. We’ve addressed these concerns directly through interviews with leading voices in the Flutter community.
This report is a testament to the strength and collaborative spirit of the Flutter community. This initiative was completely independent, with no financial support or input from Google. We are incredibly grateful to the partners who believed in our vision and supported this project: Widgetbook, Codemagic, Talsec, Shorebird, Serverpod, Devangels, Fluttercon, Flutter&Friends, Full Stack Flutter, Flutter Warsaw, Flutter Vienna, Flutter Hamburg, Flutter Berlin and Flutter Stockholm.
Thank you to our participants.
This report would not exist without the dedication of our participants. You, our valued respondents, generously devoted an average of 19 minutes of your valuable time to share your insights. On behalf of the entire LeanCode team, thank you for your contribution.
Now it’s your turn!
Dear Reader, now it’s your time to decide whether to join the Flutter universe and this great community. Years ago, I would have called that a brave decision. Today, with our report, you can make a data-driven decision. You’re welcome.
Flutter is becoming a default cross-platform technology.
Is Flutter still just a niche technology? That was the question echoing over the last couple of years among decision-makers who were scared to choose the stack, which can be exotic and cause maintenance problems. While it is clear that building two almost identical apps separately for both platforms makes no sense, it wasn’t clear which cross-platform framework to choose.
The entry level for new technology such as Flutter was also very high, with React Native being a strong candidate to solve the cross-platform challenge.
Yet, over time, due to developers’ great experience (stateful hot reload, excellent tooling, stable package, etc.), experts tend to gravitate towards Flutter, which is reflected by a renowned vanity metric: stars on GitHub.
The better developer experience is also reflected in the Flutter CTO Report, where 98% of CTOs gave positive feedback on Flutter, and 37.4% disliked React Native.
Enterprise companies using Flutter.
This coincided with the arrival of great case studies from experienced teams working on large-scale apps, which ignited the belief that everything is possible with Flutter. The abundant evidence coming from teams like Credit Agricole, BMW, Virgin, Tide, Philips, Tencent, Betterment, Toyota, and iRobot was really eye-opening. It proved that not only are large-scale apps achievable with Flutter but also that they are performant and bulletproof when it comes to security and penetration tests.
Companies are increasingly betting on Flutter.
Since Google I/O 2024, we have witnessed even more examples of companies using Flutter. LG confirmed its plans to shift the Flutter-based applications to tens of millions of users, Universal Studios presented their new systems built with Flutter to visitors of their amusement parks, and GEICO selected Flutter as the framework for optimizing and innovating digital experiences across multiple channels.
How does Google use Flutter?
What is more, Google itself is also making significant investments in building the Flutter teams internally, which ship new products. This portfolio of internal applications includes Google Pay, Google Earth, Google Ads, Google Classroom, YouTube Create, Google Cloud, Google One, Family Link, Crowd Source, Google Analytics, and many others.
Our survey also reflects this trend. From the Flutter CTO Report, we can see that size doesn’t matter. While Flutter remains powerful for PoC and MVPs, it is also widely adopted by larger teams, as almost 40% of Flutter teams have 6 or more Flutter Devs. What is more, according to the Flutter CTO Report, 13% of Flutter apps have an audience of 1M users and above.
Not surprisingly, Flutter is also becoming a default solution for large-scale apps. In our report, a dominant 85% consider Flutter suitable for large-scale projects, in comparison to 71.2% for the past 3 years.
Last but not least, there is no longer a problem with the shortage of developers on the market. Over the years, while Flutter was becoming more and more popular, we could observe that a substantial share of experts gained sufficient expertise to lead complex projects in Flutter. Therefore, new developers are more willing to migrate from both native Android (an increase from 42.3% to 51.9%) and iOS (an increase from 24.2% to 35.5%) ecosystems.
What else is worth noting and what the Report clearly shows is that Flutter’s capabilities are not limited to mobile applications. We can see that 64.4% of projects are using Flutter for Web implementation, which proves that the recent announcements regarding WASM stability are definitely a step in the right direction.
All in all, we see massive evidence supporting the claim that Flutter is a widely adopted, crossplatform framework, which is becoming a default solution for achieving the goal of targeting different interfaces from one codebase.
2. CTOs and Tech Leads have spoken
We have gathered qualified responses from almost 300 CTOs, CIOs, Tech Leads, and other Tech Executives from around 70 countries.
In this section, you will learn the following:
What career paths have our respondents taken?
What is the geographical coverage of the survey?
What industries are represented?
What is their experience with other technologies?
What is their opinion on other cross-platform frameworks?
We have collected exactly 300 submissions from nearly 70 countries. The purpose of this report is to create curated data with a focus on the high seniority of participants. Therefore, any submissions made by regular developers or junior developers were eliminated from the final dataset.
As a result, the total number of qualified submissions for the 1st edition of our Flutter CTO Survey was 281.
Our respondents answered 52 questions, taking an average of 19 minutes to complete the survey. We are beyond grateful for their effort and the insights they provided.
2.1 Respondent demographics
85% of respondents have more than 5Y of experience, and more than 50% have been in the IT business for more than 10Y. 40% of our respondents work in mobile teams with more than 5 developers, and 22.8% work in organizations with more than 200 people.
This clearly shows that although Flutter was initially embraced by smaller teams, the framework became increasingly popular among enterprise teams, who build large-scale applications using Flutter in their mobile development teams.
2.2 Industries represented
The Flutter CTO Report covers insights from all industries.
The fact that financial and healthcare-related applications are mentioned in the top 5 industries using Flutter is a clear indicator that Flutter is a reliable framework that allows users to build secure applications for the most demanding environments.
2.3 Global reach of respondents
Respondents come from nearly 70 countries on 6 continents.
2.4 Technology experience and opinions
Voices from CTOs and Tech Leads experienced in different programming languages and mobile development frameworks.
3. The road to Flutter
How companies are adopting Flutter.
In this section, you will learn the following:
What are the typical target platforms for Flutter apps?
What is the level of Flutter adoption?
What were the key arguments for starting with Flutter?
What were the strongest arguments against Flutter?
What were the steps companies took before starting with Flutter?
For companies still considering Flutter, the biggest risk is a non-technical one. They are afraid that Google will abandon Flutter. Anticipating those voices, we have invited Craig Labenz for an interview to ask the eternal question: Is Google going to kill off Flutter? He made his opinion very clear, using three powerful arguments. You can find the link to that interview in this section.
For those already using Flutter, it has proven itself to be a truly cross-platform framework. Only 30% of respondents use Flutter solely for iOS or Android apps, with the 3rd most popular target platform being the web, as indicated by a meaningful 64.4% of them.
3.1 The level of Flutter adoption
The majority of tech teams are migrating to Flutter for their entire product portfolio.
Flutter has proven to be a truly cross-platform framework, with only 30% of companies using it just for iOS and Android.
3.2 Scale of Flutter development
Flutter makes it easy to build multiple applications. More than 80% of respondents build more than one application.
Flutter also enables teams to build new products quickly, as more than 40% of respondents declare they managed 4 or more Flutter apps.
The impact of Flutter apps is growing. 36 responses came from teams serving a user base larger than 1M.
Flutter as a framework is also attractive to teams addressing a large user base. 30% of submissions were from apps with more than 100k users, and 13% were from apps with more than 1 million users.
3.3 Key drivers of choosing Flutter
Code reusability and developer experience are the key arguments in favor of using Flutter.
The idea of building multiple applications from one codebase is Flutter's biggest value proposition. This translates into lower development costs and/or shorter delivery times, though respondents mention these side effects of the core value less often.
From a technical perspective, developers find the experience, high performance, and ease of integrating native SDKs to be very attractive value drivers.
3.4. Barriers and concerns
Almost 65% of teams build their proof-of-concept apps first before starting regular development with Flutter.
There are various ways in which developers can start using Flutter in their projects. Since choosing the proper framework is an important decision, it is not surprising that companies are willing to invest time and resources in building PoC applications, taking courses, or hiring external consultants.
At LeanCode, we call this service Staff Augmentation 2.0. We provide the opportunity to form a hybrid team with in-house developers and senior Flutter consultants from LeanCode. This hands-on experience encourages knowledge transfer and helps our clients build their Flutter capabilities in the shortest possible time.
3.5 Starting with Flutter
The fear of Google discontinuing support was mentioned by 56% of respondents.
This eternal question is well addressed by Craig Labenz in the interview accompanying this report, “The Future of Flutter”. The second argument, about SEO support, was addressed by Kevin Moore in the interview, “Is Flutter for Web Production Ready?”. We strongly encourage you to listen to their opinions on both subjects.
While the first argument is fairly easy to dismiss, the second one is technical. No announcements have been made at the time of this report’s release indicating significant improvements in this area. Thirdly, 29% of respondents mentioned having difficulties hiring Flutter developers. The challenge of hiring good developers appears to be valid regardless of the technology discussed.
Choosing the right Flutter Architecture is by far the biggest problem for the teams starting with Flutter.
Since Flutter is still a very young framework regarding the technology lifecycle, it lacks default, well-established solutions in some areas. Take state management, for example. With options like Bloc, Riverpod, Provider, and others, it is easy to get confused and paralyzed by analysis.
Other obstacles mentioned in the survey are typical for researching new technologies, including questions about non-functional requirements (26%), native integrations (24.6%), and integrating with third-party SDKs (23.8%). These are areas where Flutter excels and do not appear on the list of challenges Flutter faces today.
4. Feedback after using Flutter
4.1 Overall satisfaction with Flutter
95.7% of respondents would choose Flutter again, and 52% are extremely likely (10/10) to recommend it.
CTOs, Tech Leads, and developers love Flutter. More than 50% of them are willing to recommend it to their peers. Is it perfect? Certainly not. An NPS of 73 points indicates there are still some points of friction to address. However, if asked whether they would make the decision to use Flutter once again, a staggering 95.7% of CTOs and Tech Leads would say yes, clearly showing that Flutter is the best alternative for them.
According to 56.4% of respondents, Flutter is more than 50% quicker compared to native development.
The true power of Flutter comes from the fact that it allows users to build applications for different platforms from one codebase, which improves the performance of the mobile development team. Yet, this value was hard to quantify. In our survey, we attempted to measure the improvement in efficiency based on the high seniority and experience of our respondents.
The majority declared Flutter to be more than 50% quicker than native technologies, and more than 80% said it is at least 20% quicker. These are savings that should not be ignored. This means that your team can finish a year-long backlog within 8 to 10 months, giving you plenty of room for new features.
4.2 Key challenges and barriers
The Flutter ecosystem still has some points of friction, with web-related user experience being the most frequently mentioned issue.
At the top of the list of concerns for teams currently using Flutter are features related to web UX issues, such as scrolling. This concern aligns with the high popularity of the web as a target platform for Flutter-based apps, as shown in the earlier parts of this report.
The good news is that these impediments have been addressed by the Flutter team, with the recent announcement that Flutter for Web will be stable for WASM. This is a major improvement that will vastly improve the performance of Flutter for Web applications in browsers supporting WASM.
The biggest challenges are related to architectural issues and initial decisions, which have resulted in technical debt.
Interestingly, 26.8% of teams would like to build a reusable architecture to implement their solutions in different applications. It is also notable that 23.9% of respondents find integration testing to be a persistent problem that needs to be addressed. This is the issue we aim to solve with one of our open-source packages called Patrol, a framework for integrated end-to-end (E2E) UI testing.
4.3 Backend and DevOps in the Flutter ecosystem
Flutter apps use different backend solutions, with Backend as a Service being the most popular approach.
Flutter originated as a UI development framework and has evolved into a truly powerful cross-platform development solution. It focuses on sharing the frontend business logic and the UI layer between different platforms.
Interestingly, development teams make varied choices regarding the backend for their systems. Our report sheds light on the technologies employed to handle the domain logic. It appears that the most popular solutions are known as Backend as a Service (BaaS), with Firebase being the obvious choice for Flutter.
This is fully understandable, as it is a way for Google to monetize their contribution to Flutter development. Additionally, it bodes well to see the high adoption of backend technologies typically associated with large-scale applications, such as Java (20.9%) and .NET (17.1%).
While AWS is the most popular cloud provider, Firebase and GCP also score highly.
GitHub actions are the most popular solution for CI/CD, closely followed by Codemagic.
Dart, originally created by Google for building complex, high-performance web applications, has increasingly found its niche primarily in mobile development. Known for its simplicity, strong typing, and native performance, Dart is beloved by programmers for its speed and ease of use. Its seamless integration with Flutter has revolutionized mobile app development, but Dart’s capabilities extend far beyond the frontend.
Dart on the server
Dart’s entrance into the backend development brings a host of benefits. Its strong typing and ahead-of-time compilation leads to fast execution and low latency, which are essential for high-performance backend applications. Dart’s concurrency model, based on asynchronous programming, makes it highly efficient at handling multiple simultaneous connections, a key requirement for modern server applications.
Moreover, using Dart for both frontend and backend development offers a unified language experience. This reduces the cognitive load on developers, who no longer need to switch contexts between different programming languages. It also streamlines the development process, allowing for a more consistent and maintainable codebase. In addition, developers can share code between frontend and backend.
Introducing Serverpod
Serverpod is a standout framework designed specifically to leverage Dart’s strengths for backend development. As an open-source, scalable app server, Serverpod provides a seamless bridge for Flutter developers to extend their applications into the backend. Its design focuses on making backend development as straightforward and efficient as possible, ensuring that developers can quickly become productive without a steep learning curve.
Serverpod offers a rich set of features that cater to the needs of modern backend development. It simplifies the creation of server endpoints and automates the generation of protocol and client-side code. This automation minimizes the potential for errors and allows developers to focus on writing business logic instead of boilerplate code.
The forthcoming release of Serverpod Cloud this fall is particularly noteworthy. This new service will simplify the deployment and management of Dart servers, allowing developers to deploy Serverpods with minimal effort and infrastructure management.
The competitive landscape
In the Dart backend ecosystem, Serverpod faces competition from frameworks like Dart Frog and newcomers such as Celest. Dart Frog is appreciated for its simplicity and quick setup, making it suitable for smaller projects or those needing a lightweight solution. Celest, although new, is gaining traction with its innovative features and active development community.
Conclusion
Dart’s potential on the backend is being realized through frameworks like Serverpod. By providing a powerful, easy-to-use backend solution tailored for Dart and Flutter developers, Serverpod makes it possible to harness the full capabilities of Dart across the entire development stack.
Note: What is Serverpod?
Serverpod is an open-source, scalable app server written in Dart for the Flutter community. It features automatic generation of protocol and client-side code, making remote endpoint calls as easy as local method calls. Additionally, Serverpod includes a revolutionary ORM that uses native Dart types.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of mobile app development, choosing the right tools can significantly impact your team’s productivity, efficiency, and code quality. For development teams leveraging Flutter, Codemagic offers a premier CI/CD (Continuous Integration/ Continuous Deployment) solution designed to streamline workflows, accelerate build processes, and ensure high-quality app releases.
Continuous integration
Every time a developer checks in new code, Codemagic starts a new build to ensure the application compiles correctly and no new bugs or issues are introduced. This immediate feedback loop is crucial in maintaining the integrity and quality of your application, preventing potential problems from reaching production. Additionally, Codemagic allows for the integration of static code analysis, unit tests, and comprehensive integration and end-to-end tests into your CI workflows, providing thorough quality coverage and further enhancing app reliability.
Continuous deployment
Codemagic simplifies the code signing and deployment process, allowing you to easily distribute your app to developers, testers, and stakeholders or directly to the App Store, Google Play, or other app stores. Your app builds can also be distributed using shareable build dashboards, and build notifications can be sent via email or Slack. This flexibility ensures that your app reaches the right hands promptly, facilitating faster feedback and more efficient iterations.
Why Flutter development teams choose Codemagic
Codemagic has established itself as the go-to CI/CD tool for Flutter development teams, and several factors contribute to its popularity and effectiveness. Launched in collaboration with Google during the official release of Flutter 1.0 in 2018, Codemagic has deep roots in the Flutter ecosystem. This long-standing relationship with Flutter ensures that Codemagic stays ahead in supporting the latest Flutter updates and features. Today, thousands of development teams rely on Codemagic to build, test, and publish their Flutter apps.
Fast build infrastructure
Codemagic offers a well-maintained and fast-build infrastructure, utilizing cutting-edge hardware such as Apple Silicon M2 machines to reduce build times. If you plan to build for other platforms, Windows and Linux machines are also available.
Timely software updates
Staying current with the latest development tools is crucial. Codemagic ensures that Xcode versions are made available within days of their release, including beta versions, keeping your development environment up-to-date and compatible with the latest advancements.
Extensive integration capabilities
Codemagic integrates seamlessly with numerous third-party services, enhancing its utility and flexibility. From real device testing and code testing services to project management solutions and code obfuscation tools, Codemagic provides comprehensive support to cover all aspects of your development workflow.
Support and community
Codemagic understands the importance of support and community and offers multiple support channels, including a Discord community, in-app chat support, GitHub Discussions, extensive documentation, and a repository of GitHub samples. These resources ensure that you have access to the assistance and knowledge you need to overcome any development challenges.
Transparent and flexible pricing
Codemagic’s pricing model is designed to be both transparent and flexible, catering to teams of all sizes and requirements. Their pay-as-you-go (PAYG) plan allows you to pay for the minutes you use, while their fixed plan offers unlimited build minutes with a specified number of parallel builds, which can be increased as your needs grow. Additional benefits include unlimited apps, unlimited team seats, standard support, and specialized plans for Enterprise teams, which feature SSO login, service level agreements, security compliance, signed NDAs, and priority support.
Conclusion
For CTOs and senior engineers considering Flutter as their development framework, Codemagic offers an unparalleled CI/CD solution that enhances productivity, ensures high code quality, and simplifies deployment processes. With its expert support, fast-build infrastructure, regular updates, extensive integrations, and flexible pricing, Codemagic stands out as a great choice for Flutter development teams. Embrace Codemagic to unlock the full potential of your Flutter projects and drive your development efforts to new heights.
Codemagic CI/CD is for mobile dev teams building Flutter apps. Build, test, and deploy your apps using fast Apple M2 machines. Integrate with third-party tools to monitor code quality, run tests, or update your project system. Pay for minutes used or get unlimited build minutes with an annual plan.
4.6 Developer tools and integrations
Two of the most integrated services are related to analytics and push notifications, with 78.9% and 76.9% of votes, respectively.
About LeanCode
LeanCode, a Warsaw-based software house, specializes in mobile and web application development with a strong focus on Flutter
The challenge
LeanCode aimed to set up a robust design system and component library. This was crucial for maintaining consistency and efficiency in their development process. Furthermore, they needed an effective way to share these components with a broader audience, including quality assurance teams and designers, for feedback. Initially, they managed this by deploying Widgetbook themselves, but as the number of branches increased, this approach became cumbersome. LeanCode required a more streamlined solution to make their UI components easily accessible to everyone involved.
The solution
LeanCode adopted Widgetbook to address their challenges. Widgetbook’s open-source package enables developers to catalog widgets in a central library and test them across various devices and themes. Widgetbook Cloud extends this by providing seamless hosting and management of multiple Widgetbook instances, greatly simplifying the workflow. Its automatic detection of visual bugs in pull requests allows LeanCode to swiftly review all UI changes in their Flutter apps. Additionally, Widgetbook Cloud supports LeanCode to keep its Figma files synchronized with the codebase. This integration significantly enhanced LeanCode’s quality assurance process by making component previews easily accessible to all team members.
New workflow
With Widgetbook Cloud, LeanCode introduced a more efficient workflow:
Integration: Each new project includes a Widgetbook setup with a dedicated instance of their design system.
Live Documentation: Clients now have access to live documentation of all design system components without additional maintenance or cost.
Quality Assurance: Strict client requirements for quality and component testing are met through Widgetbook Cloud. LeanCode deploys to the Cloud on every design system change, requiring a designer’s check as part of their pull request approval policy.
Key features utilized
LeanCode leverages several Widgetbook features:
Environment Testing: Addons for checking components against different locales, themes, and accessibility settings.
Branch Deployment: Deployment of main and feature branches, all accessible simultaneously in the Cloud.
Review Feature: Enhanced cooperation with QA participants through the review feature.
Golden Test Approach: Ongoing evolution of the review process with a focus on golden test-like methods.
Value derived
Widgetbook Cloud has helped to streamline LeanCode’s UI development and review processes. The platform lets LeanCode’s developers focus on their tasks and quickly identify shortcomings. The integration provides easy access for all stakeholders, enhancing collaboration and efficiency
LeanCode’s senior staff quantified their time savings of several weeks of development time.
At Widgetbook, we are grateful for having such a positive impact on LeanCode’s exceptional mobile development and for this excellent cooperation.
NOTE: What is Widgetbook?
Review all UI changes of your Flutter app with Widgetbook. Our open-source package allows you to catalog widgets in one design system and test them quickly in all use cases. Widgetbook Cloud automatically catches visual bugs in your pull request and syncs your Flutter widgets with Figma.
4.8 Flutter platform-specific integrations
Applications built with Flutter are rich in terms of platform-specific integrations, with permissions, camera, and deep links being among the most notable choices.
Flutter applications are known for their rich integration of powerful mobile features. More than 65% of apps built with Flutter utilize features such as permissions, camera, deep links, notifications, and location services.
This clearly shows how easy it is to integrate components in a Flutter app. It also highlights which components are most crucial from a business perspective when deciding to build a mobile application.
Flutter has gained significant traction within FinTech, underscoring the crucial need for robust security measures. The platform’s popularity attracts attention from both app developers and cybercriminals. Flutter’s strong security posture, evidenced by fewer reported vulnerabilities and CVEs, makes it a solid choice for developing sensitive apps.
Flutter Built-in Security
Flutter is more resilient to decompilation than native apps. Its binary packaging offers better protection of code and hardcoded data, although the number of Flutter-specific reverse engineering tools is increasing rapidly, continually broadening the potential threat landscape (e.g., reFlutter, flutter-spy, blutter).
Common Vulnerabilities
Despite its advantages, Flutter apps are not immune to common vulnerabilities:
Privileged Access Issues: Rooting and jailbreak concerns remain prevalent.
Dynamic Attacks: Techniques such as hooking frameworks (e.g., Frida, Xposed) pose significant risks.
App Cloning and Repackaging: Unauthorized duplication of apps is a persistent threat.
TLS Pinning Bypass: Critical for defending against man-in-the-middle attacks.
Session Hijacking and App Impersonation: Compromise user sessions and mimic legitimate apps.
Flutter developers must stay informed about security threats and evolving attack vectors across all supported platforms. This demands n-depth expertise and continuous learning, making app security a specialized area within software development.
Essential Security Hardening Measures
In the financial sector, regulators mandate the adoption of a range of security techniques, which can be categorized into three primary areas:
Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP): Implement client-side measures to monitor and react to integrity and environment compromises.
API Protection: Safeguard against app impersonation using tools like Firebase App Check, attestation services, or API protection SDKs such as AppiCrypt.
Anti-Malware: Detects and mitigates risks posed by malicious apps on client devices.
Basic controls can often be implemented using freemium or community-supported tools. However, advanced enterprise-grade protection typically requires custom development or commercial security solutions.
Advances in Mobile Security Tools for Flutter
The proliferation of app-to-API end-to-end protection solutions (such as App Attestation, AppiCrypt, and AppCheck) is effectively countering the escalating threats from mobileoriented API abuse. These threats encompass App impersonation techniques such as botnets, password enumeration scripts, data scraping, promotional abuse, fake registrations, and phishing campaigns
However, due to Flutter’s compiled nature, Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools have not yet reached the level of sophistication seen in native applications. This presents a challenge in maintaining security parity with other platforms. Conversely, the advent of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) analysis has simplified the examination of third-party dependencies, thus enhancing the thoroughness and effectiveness of security assessments.
Overall, while there are still areas needing improvement, the strides made in mobile security tools for Flutter demonstrate significant potential in safeguarding against complex and evolving threats.
Budget Considerations
App issuers should allocate 20% to 25% of development and maintenance budgets to security features. It’s crucial to recognize that due to the dynamic nature of attack vectors and operating system updates, ongoing maintenance costs for security features may be significantly higher than initially estimated.
Conclusion
Proactive security measures are not just beneficial but essential for app protection in today’s dynamic threat environment. Ensuring comprehensive security requires both strategic investment and dedicated expertise.
NOTE: What is Talsec?
Talsec is a community-driven mobile app security company. The core community product is freeRASP. The company is focusing on providing solutions for the Flutter community.
5. The Future of Flutter
How will Flutter meet the challenges of tomorrow?
In this section, you will learn the following:
How has sentiment toward Flutter changed over the last three years?
What are the most anticipated features according to the Flutter community?
How are development teams using AI?
The future looks bright for Flutter. The improvements to the framework expected this year seem well aligned with the community’s expectations. Flutter has matured and is increasingly becoming the default choice for large-scale applications. Teams using Flutter are also leveraging the advancements in AI, such as LLM (Large Language Models), within their development tools.
Google is actively encouraging developers to adopt their Gemini model by releasing the Flutter SDK. A recommended example of this SDK in action is an open-source package developed by LeanCode for automatic translation and localization of Flutter applications, utilizing Gemini and Vertex AI.
5.1 Flutter’s Maturity and Enterprise Readiness
Flutter is a mature framework ready for enterprise, large-scale applications.
In our report, we aimed to capture the sentiments of our respondents by asking them their opinions on several important topics surrounding the Flutter framework. This perspective spans the last three years and is compared with their expectations for the next two years.
The percentage of CTOs convinced that Flutter is suitable for large-scale applications increased from 71.2% to 85%, indicating a significant improvement in overall trust. This finding is consistent with other insights from the report, where more respondents now consider Flutter a serious alternative to web development frameworks, showing an increase from 15% to 33.8%.
5.2 Most Anticipated Features
Within the most expected features, 3 out of 5 are related to Flutter for Web.
The current roadmap of Flutter shows different ways the framework can develop as Google intended. We wanted to examine those paths and ask the community what improvements they wish to see.
Not surprisingly, the majority of votes were cast for web-related improvements. They range from features related to the developers’ experience, like hot-reload on the web, which gained votes from 58.8% of respondents, to WASM support for Web with 52.3%, which was recently announced as being production-ready.
5.3 AI in the Flutter Ecosystem
AI is entering the Flutter Universe.
Almost 64% of respondents have used AI tools in their development process. Among them, 26% apply Generative AI models to generate code, and 11.8% receive active support in their specific areas. AI not only supports processes related to code creation but also aids in testing and bug fixes. Developers’ experiences are rapidly enhanced by various AI applications, significantly boosting productivity.
5.4 Community & Knowledge
Flutter leaders are using both official and community-driven initiatives to keep up with the news.
What clearly differentiated Flutter from alternative cross-platform frameworks, even in its early days, was its excellent documentation and strong community support. This is underscored by respondents who cited official documentation as their primary knowledge source. Notably, unofficial newsletters from ‘Code with Andrea’, ‘FilledStacks’, and ‘FlutterTap’ are also valuable. For the latest Flutter news, you can subscribe to our newsletter at LeanCode.
6. About LeanCode
LeanCode is a software house from Warsaw, Poland. We specialize in Flutter app development and we are a leading provider of mobile apps for enterprises and scaleups. Additionally, we are an official Flutter consultancy firm.
6.1 Who we are
At LeanCode, our team of 80+ developers, designers, product owners, scrum masters, and QA engineers is dedicated to crafting exceptional mobile and web applications. Leveraging the power of Flutter, .NET, React, and other advanced technologies, we transform ideas into great apps.
6.2 Our expertise
The majority of our clients represent the Banking and Fintech industries. However, our expertise doesn’t stop there. We also develop innovative solutions for Marketplaces, Logistics, SportTech, MedTech, and beyond. Our clients span the globe, including the USA, UK, Germany, and Australia.
6.3 Awards and achievements
We were part of the Deloitte Fast 50 contest for CEE’s fastest-growing IT companies in 2021, and we made the EMEA Fast 500 list in 2023. Additionally, we were featured in the Financial Times 1000 Ranking for Europe’s Fastest-Growing Companies in 2023 and 2024, and we received accolades in the Forbes Diamonds 2023 and 2024 Rankings.
6.4 Community and innovation
At LeanCode, we believe in giving back to the community and fostering knowledge-sharing. In 2020, we co-founded Flutter Europe, and we’re the proud organizers of Flutter Warsaw, Europe’s largest Flutter meetup, boasting over 2,100 members worldwide.
We build our own frameworks (e.g., Patrol–an open-source UI Testing framework) and solutions, contribute to open-source projects, have our own custom Internship Program, and give lectures at several universities in Warsaw, Poland.
Got a project in mind? We’re excited to hear about your vision and explore how we can bring it to life. Let’s talk about your plans for using Flutter! Contact us
