Flutter App Examples to Inspire Your Next Project

When Flutter was released, it was a dream for developers and businesses alike. Its single-codebase premise meant serious savings, both in time and money. And all without compromising on performance or aesthetics. In short: Flutter is the framework we’d all been looking for.

Okay, it’s not perfect. But it’s packed with potential. Big names like Google, BMW, Alibaba, and Realtor.com have all made top Flutter apps that perform exceptionally well. 

These Flutter use cases highlight exactly why and how Flutter has become a go-to framework for startups and established brands. So, let’s take a closer look.

We want to show you what your business can achieve with Flutter. Let’s explore some of the most high-profile Flutter apps built by companies, and see if you can get some inspo for your next product!

Beyond Hype - Why Flutter Deserves the Spotlight

Developers were tentative when Google released Flutter back in 2017. Today, there are well over one million Flutter apps out there. It seems Google’s promise of a high-performance “one codebase, many platforms” solution has paid off.

It’s no mystery why. Flutter addresses several key problems developers have had for decades:

• Performance: Flutter draws everything itself using the Skia graphics engine (not native UI components like React Native). Skia offers ultra-fast performance across systems.
• Design complexity: Skia also makes it possible to create extremely complex custom designs that work across device types and platforms.
• Native feel: Flutter apps are written in Dart, which compiles to fast native code. This gives apps a genuinely native feel.
• Cost: One team working with one codebase that supports multiple platforms means one thing: significantly lower cost.
• Speed: Developers can instantly see visual changes without restarting the app. No more frustrating UI reworking projects!

We’re going to dive into some real-world Flutter use cases (top Flutter apps that overcame business problems you might relate to), to show you just how powerful this framework really is.

Global Scale & High Performance: Apps That Handle Millions of Users

Flutter isn’t just for small products. Big-time players who can’t afford latency or downtime also rely on Flutter. Here are two great examples.

Example 1: Google Pay / Google Ads (Finance/Utility)

Google Pay and Google Ads have around 200 million and 7 million users, respectively. This makes these Google pillars some of the busiest apps in the world, and Google used Flutter to build them.

When it comes to Flutter for finance apps and utilities, it doesn’t disappoint. Google chose the framework for several notable reasons:

1. Reliability at scale: Flutter’s stable rendering engine (Skia) can support millions of daily active users without risking uptime.
2. Internal team velocity: Google has enjoyed much faster engineering, and therefore global rollouts, since migrating to Flutter.
3. UI consistency: Google’s branding is everything. To maintain their image, they can rely on Flutter’s Skia rendering to keep the Google “feel” everywhere and anywhere.

Example 2: BMW (Automotive/Utility)

When you’re in charge of the user experience for an automotive giant like BMW, you need to be sure your UIs are flawless. This includes both in apps and in complex in-car UI. Quite a challenge.

What Flutter offers:

1. Beautiful, high-quality UI: Flutter gives full control over animations, transitions, and visual fidelity. That means a seamless and polished UI across platforms.
2. Cross-platform code: Flutter’s architecture supports embedding via a custom embedder. That means BMW can integrate Flutter’s rendering and UI layer into their own embedded OS/hardware.
3. Scalable architecture: BMW relies on Flutter for scalable, universal rollouts of new features all around the world.

Custom Design & Creative Freedom: Apps That Define Their Brand

Not every app is hosting millions of daily users. For many, intricate UI is more important - and indeed the biggest differentiator. 

Let’s see how Flutter performs in this category.

Example 3: Reflectly (Health/Journaling)

Reflectly was one of the first high-profile Flutter use cases. Their app, which helps users navigate mental health challenges, relies on Flutter to deliver a seamless, design-heavy experience across devices.

Flutter is the obvious choice for a few key reasons:

1. Custom-design UI: Expressive transitions and personality-rich aesthetics are a central part of Reflectly’s brand identity. Flutter cuts out the “bridging” problem they had with other frameworks and makes complex UI logic easy.
2. Animations: Flutter’s built-in animation primitives and rendering make 60-FPS animations and transitions easy - without relying on platform-specific code!
3. Custom widgets: Flutter’s UI system is fully composable. This means every piece of the UI is a widget. It’s simple to extend or compose widgets to create completely new UI patterns in just a few clicks.

Example 4: Alibaba's Xianyu (eCommerce/Retail)

You might not know much about Xianyu if you’re in the West. But in China, it’s a big deal. It’s the country’s largest second-hand marketplace and has over 500 million users! And you guessed it: they use Flutter.

Flutter solves several challenges common in high-volume, fast-moving retail apps:

1. Smooth handling of rich media: Users can scroll through media-heavy lists with virtually no lag or errors, which is great for huge marketplaces like Xianyu.
2. Complex product listings: The composable widget system once again saves the day. For Alibaba, it means easy customization for product badges, prices, categories, timers, and more.
3. Rapid feature deployment: Ecommerce moves fast. Flutter allows the Xianyu team to roll out everything from weekly feature launches to seasonal sales with minimal effort.

Enterprise & Utilities: Apps That Solve Practical Problems

Sometimes users need solid, reliable apps that solve hard problems, not beautiful platforms with nice transitions. Flutter performs equally well here. Many leading companies have built top Flutter apps that deliver critical services where they’re needed most.

Here are some good examples.

Example 5: Viessmann’s ViCare (Energy/Utilities)

ViCare lets users control their Viessmann heating systems and energy storage, among other things, with real-time energy management. It’s a respected app that helps thousands of users operate their energy without hassle and at low cost.

Here’s why Flutter works for ViCare:

• Tight integrations: Flutter helps Viessmann integrate its app with physical hardware in people’s homes. That includes heat pumps, battery storage, smart thermostats, and more.
• Real-time data: One of the biggest perks of the ViCare app is that it lets users monitor energy flow data like consumption in real-time. Flutter provides this seamless two-way flow.
• Unified app structure: Instead of operating two complicated native apps, ViCare uses Flutter. This gives the user a unified experience. But it also helps Viessmann speed up mobile development and, you guessed it, cut costs.

Example 6: Tide (Banking/Finance)

Tide is the backbone of many UK SMEs’ finance operations. It offers a comprehensive mix of financing options that help businesses keep things running smoothly and business booming. As you can imagine, this requires a complex app structure: one that Flutter handles.

For Tide, Flutter provides:

1. Cross-platform consistency: Banking apps in particular need a consistent user experience that instills trust. The Tide experience is virtually identical on both iOS and Android.
2. Fast feature development: Fintech is dynamic. Payment features, invoicing tools, expense tracking - you name it, Flutter helps Tide improve their product continuously and without hassle.
3. Low maintenance costs: Tide is free to experiment and improve easily with a single-codebase framework. That reduces development costs by at least half.

Strategic Takeaways for Your Next Project

Considering Flutter for your next product? You’ve already taken the first step. Here are the main points that may just clinch the deal.

Why Flutter for Custom UI

One of Flutter’s biggest selling points is Skia. As an in-built graphics engine, Skia massively simplifies aesthetic consistency. It means that Flutter renders its own pixels, which bypasses frustrating OEM restrictions. Developers can easily create:

• Beautiful customized UIs with endless flexibility.
• Smooth transitions that don’t slow performance.
• Consistent cross-OS experiences that enhance the brand image.

Why Flutter for Time-to-Market

Single codebase. If we could sum up Flutter’s main advantage in two words, those would be them. The single-codebase advantage means you can get to market, and get new features to market, in record time.

• Cut development costs by 30-40% compared to separate native development.
• Easily adapt and customize features with zero delay.
• Provide two separate app experiences (iOS and Android) in one go.

When NOT to Choose Flutter

Despite the ample evidence of great Flutter apps built by companies, it’s not always the best framework for every product. It’s important to understand Flutter’s limitations as well as its advantages. So, here are a few examples where Flutter wouldn’t be our top pick:

1. When you need native platform features: Flutter doesn’t support all new platform APIs or device-specific SDKs, so you could spend a fair amount of time writing custom platform channels. If you need lots of native bridges, think again.
2. When you need maximum native performance: Flutter is fast. But it’s not necessarily as fast as native code for some ultra-low latency projects like 3D games or video editing.
3. When the app is very small: Some apps simply provide static content or one single-page tool. In this case, Flutter isn’t really necessary.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Flutter has proven itself time and time again in real-world apps. Giant companies like Google and Alibaba rely on it, as do smaller niche apps like Reflectly and Tide. The framework offers a massive single-codebase advantage that makes it easy for brands to:

• Develop cross-platform apps.
• Roll out new features.
• Maintain brand consistency.

But Flutter is its own framework, so there’s a learning curve if you’re used to others. You can cut this out entirely by teaming up with a trusted product development company like Tapptitude. Tap into our deep Flutter expertise and enjoy lightning-fast development from seasoned pros! 

FAQs

Is Flutter only suitable for simple applications?

No! Huge, complex platforms like eBay, Xianyu, Google Pay, and BMW all use Flutter to provide seamless experiences to millions of daily users. There’s no reason you can’t use Flutter to build complex apps that work perfectly across devices and OSs.

Does Flutter look "non-native" on iOS/Android?

No. Far from it. Flutter apps are written in Dart. Dart conveniently compiles to fast native code. This means every app experience looks and behaves natively - especially when you have experienced Flutter developers on your team.

Which major companies use Flutter?

Many big-name brands use Flutter. Google uses it for both Google Pay and Google Ads, and eBay, Alibaba (Xianyu), BMW, and Toyota all use Flutter apps. An array of other major businesses like Realtor and The New York Times also use Flutter. You’re in good company!

Is Flutter slower than native development?

No! In fact, it’s usually much quicker. You can essentially cut development time (and costs) in half by simply producing your multi-platform product in one single codebase. Speed is actually one of Flutter’s biggest advantages for businesses!