Flutter draws every pixel itself. That is the whole trade: you get an interface that is identical on iOS and Android and fully under the designer’s control, and you give up the platform’s own widgets underneath it.
Where that trade is a good one
Branded consumer apps, products with a strong bespoke design system, internal tools that must behave the same on every device, and anything where “why does the Android version look different” has been a recurring argument.
Where it is not
Apps that should feel native above all — an accessibility-critical utility, a finance app users expect to match the system, or a product built around platform components that Flutter has to re-implement. There, native Swift and Kotlin win.
How we build it
- State management chosen once, documented, and not mixed three ways
- Layouts checked against text scaling and screen reader output, since the framework does not inherit platform accessibility for free
- Native channels kept few and explicit for the device APIs that need them
- Golden tests on the screens the brand cares about most
Performance notes
Flutter is fast when the widget tree is not rebuilt more than it needs to be. Most jank we are asked to fix comes from rebuilding a whole screen for a change that affected one line of it. We profile on real mid-range hardware, not on a simulator.
Release
Both stores from one pipeline, with staged rollout on Android and TestFlight on iOS. Crash reporting is wired before the first external build, not after the first crash.
Compare with React Native, or see the wider mobile development picture and the full technology map.