Not going to lie: my university capstone project relied heavily on Flutter. Our core requirement was straightforward—we needed cross-platform support across Windows, Linux, and Android.
However, throughout development, I kept encountering friction points that made me question whether Flutter is truly ideal for newcomers.
1. Environment Setup is Painful for Cross-Platform Desktop #
Setting up a complete development environment in Flutter can be daunting for a beginner.
Because our target spanned three platforms (Windows, Linux, and Android), I needed local environments or hardware for all three. Not owning a local Windows machine meant I had to set up environments on lab computer is time-consuming process compared to web development.
For example, when learning web development earlier in my studies, setting up standard stacks like XAMPP or using VS Code with a browser on a fresh machine took minutes. The web ecosystem already has the ultimate cross-platform engine built into every machine: the web browser.
With Flutter, targeting Android, Windows, and Linux requires installing and configuring platform-specific toolchains (Android Studio, Visual Studio C++ build tools, Linux C dependencies, etc.). For absolute beginners, this setup process alone can be a major motivation killer.
2. Flutter is Still Rapidly Evolving (Leading to Outdated Tutorials) #
When I needed to implement an encryption feature, I found existing C and Go libraries on GitHub. I initially tried integrating the C version using Flutter’s dart:ffi and ffigen.
While researching, I discovered official Flutter content highlighting new features like Native Build Hooks designed to simplify linking dynamic libraries. However:
- Very few third-party tutorials explained the end-to-end process clearly.
- Official examples primarily covered simple cases like SQLite (a single header and source file with no external dependencies).
- Complex real-world cases (like libraries requiring specialized compilation flags and dynamic library bundling) were difficult to figure out without deep native experience.
3. High Overhead for Simple “Functional” Prototypes #
In academic settings, UI design is sometimes secondary to core functional requirements.
If you just need to prove a concept or test backend business logic, plain HTML/CSS allows you to iterate and test rapidly with zero UI framework overhead. Flutter, by contrast, forces you to grapple with its widget tree architecture, state management patterns, and design system choices right out of the gate.
If a beginner hasn’t mastered general programming concepts or traditional web paradigms yet, adding Flutter’s reactive UI layer adds unnecessary friction.
4. Distribution and Deployment Friction #
Deploying a web application is nearly frictionless and often free. On the other hand, deploying native mobile apps comes with explicit barriers:
- Google Play Console: $25 one-time fee.
- Apple Developer Program: $99/year recurring fee.
While Flutter offers deeper platform control (like background services on Android), most beginner projects don’t actually require those features. You end up paying the complexity tax for native capabilities without reaping the unique user-experience benefits.
Retrospective Thoughts #
If I could restart my capstone project today, I would start with web technologies.
Our original architecture required heavy local cryptographic operations (such as storing private keys securely), leading us to believe Flutter was essential for native performance and secure local storage. Later in development, our requirements shifted, rendering those native storage needs obsolete—but by then, it was too late to switch to web.
Flutter undoubtedly offers a higher performance ceiling, rich cross-platform potential, and impressive UI rendering capabilities. But reaching that potential requires a level of architectural maturity that beginners simply haven’t built yet.
It makes me wonder about Flutter’s long-term evolution. Will it ever evolve into a ubiquitous execution environment—almost like a second browser that streams Dart applications on demand without explicit local installation? Given Google’s historical experimentation with running Dart natively on the web [1] and Flutter’s non-standard rendering engine [2], it’s an interesting vision. But for now, for absolute beginners, starting with standard web technologies remains the smoother path.
References #
[1] Dart for the Entire Web (Dart Blog)
[2] An Overview of Flutter (Software Engineering Daily)