You know what Flutter is, right? Google’s brainchild, Flutter, is a mobile development platform that uses Dart as its programming language to let you develop high-quality, low-cost apps for Android, iOS, and other platforms. To make it even more fun and straightforward, Flutter offers numerous packages, mostly free, to fulfill your Flutter app development project requirements in a snap (okay, that’s a bit of a high exaggeration).
There are over (whopping…) 24,000 packages available in Pub.dev ecosystem, which is an official package repository for Flutter and Dart apps. The best part, the framework supports using shared packages developed and contributed by other developers to Flutter and Dart package ecosystems (you can contribute, too). What is a package, you may wonder (don’t tell me, dude)?
Well (duty calls, meh), a package is a collection of related code that you can import into your project to make it more quickly and easy to use. Flutter packages provide a convenient way to group related code and make it easier to find and use. Thus, by grouping associated codes into a package, you can reuse them in other projects as well.
Moreover, Futter packages are similar to npm modules, but they’re distributed as part of a package instead of globally. Flutter developers can use them to quickly create simple mobile apps without having to build the entire app from scratch (that’s what you want to be interested in).
In this post, we will discuss the best Flutter packages you can use to accelerate and heighten the performance of your (or any) Flutter development.
List of Top Flutter Packages
1 Path_provider
The file structure on the different devices differs based on their operating system; for example, Android’s file structure varies from iOS’s, Windows’s, Linux’s, etc. Hence, temporary files, downloads, and application documents are stored in different places. That is where the Path_provider plugin comes in handy. This Flutter package support iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and macOS and makes it easier to fetch the location of public or private documents from the filesystem.
2 Image_picker
This package gives you access to the mobile device’s gallery and camera to facilitate multiple images selection in the Flutter app. Image_picker package supports iOS and Android.
3 Google_maps_flutter
Every other app needs to integrate a map so that users don’t have to leave the app when they require navigation, for example, to track the order or to add accurate addresses. Hence, this Flutter package allows you to seamlessly integrate Google Maps into your Flutter Android and iOS app.
4 SQFLite
SQFLite is a self-contained, reliable, and embedded plugin for SQLite and works as a database engine that supports iOS and Android. It allows you to easily store data in the local database and perform CRUD operations, such as create, delete, update, etc.
5 Fl_chart
FL_Chart is an extensive, highly customizable chart library that allows you to present the magnitude of data in easily digestible charts, simplifying to predict current and future trends. The package is a must to use to build highly data-intensive apps. It supports Bar charts, Line charts, Pie charts, Radar charts, and more.
6 Firbase_auth
It is a Flutter plugin for performing OAuth sign-in flows using FirebaseAuth. In addition to Supporting Apple Sign-In for Firebase, the plugin is available for Android, iOS, and the Web. When Authentication by App is used, a pop-up is opened on top of the application, allowing the user to authenticate. If sign-in by Apple is used, a native flow is used.
7 Flutter_webview_plugin
If you want your users to visit web pages without leaving your app, Flutter_webview_plugin is for you. The Flutter package provides native WebView on top of the Flutter view on Android and iOS, enabling you to display WebView on both types of devices.
8 Device_info
If you want to fetch the current device details, the device_info package will help you get the unique Android and iOS device information, such as make, identifier, version, name, etc. The package is valuable when you don’t care about the operating system version, but you must know the exact details of streaming devices.
9 Location
This plugin makes real-time handling location on Android and iOS devices easier by allowing you to get the current geolocation of the mobile device. Further, you can use the location information to display maps, determine the exact direction the device is facing, calculate distance, and more.
10 Url_launcher
It is a Flutter plugin to launch URLs and supports phone, web, SMS, and email schemes. Using url_launcher, you can enable your app to launch the web browser, mail, dialer, map applications, and more.
11 Flame
Taking advantage of everything Flutter has to offer, Flame is an out-of-the-way game engine that simplifies the code developers need to write. The Flame package offers easy-to-use game-building solutions, harnessing the power from Flutter’s powerful infrastructure.
12 Hive
Hive is a lightweight and blazing-fast key-value NoSQL database for Flutter and Dart applications. Written in pure Dart, the package is easy-to-use for storing data offline (on local devices) and manipulating the data on a targeted device without numerous relations.
13 Cloud_firestore
Cloud_firestore is a flexible, scalable cloud database plugin that gives users access to the Firebase Cloud Firestore. You can use it for mobile, web, and server app development. In addition, this allows your application to read, write, and react to changes in Firestore in real-time.
By using real-time listeners, it keeps your data updated across your different apps and offers offline support. So that you can create apps that work no matter what the network connection or latency is.
14 Firebase_auth
Firebase Auth is a plugging that enables authentication on iOS and Android applications using phone numbers, passwords, and identity providers, such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It also provides many methods and utilities, enabling you to integrate protected and secured authentication into new or even existing Flutter applications.
Read Also: Top 10 Flutter Widgets
15 Flutter_bloc
It is state management for Flutter applications that allows you to implement the BLoC (Business Logic Component) design pattern in Flutter. In other words, it separates business logic from the UI. Hence, with flutter_bloc, your app’s state is decomposed into smaller and well-defined state machines, transforming events into zero, one, or multiple states.
16 Coverage
Using code coverage, you can generate a report showing you how your tests are covered by aggregating the data from each local package into one project-wide data file. Furthermore, the dart package ensures that each line of the code is tested and performs as expected. It also allows you to collect, format, and manipulate coverage data. You can collect coverage even from the Dart VM, formatting the data into pretty-printed or LCOV format.
17 Flutter_gen
To load assets (images, fonts, animations, Configuration files, etc.) in your Flutter app, you usually need to reference the asset using path strings, which is a risk because an assertion error can occur if you accidentally write a wrong asset path.
However, the Flutter_gen package is here to get you rid of string-based APIs. The package is a code generator for assets, including colors, fonts, and more. With the package, you can quickly generate compile-safe asset references without the dreadful assertion errors.
18 Connectivity
With the Flutter Connectivity plugin, apps can discover and configure networks, even if they are not connected to the Internet. It can also distinguish between cellular and WiFi networks on the device.
What package do you need for your Flutter app?
Flutter packages are a quick and easy way to develop apps. Using these packages allows Flutter developers to save time and money while building their products. Flutter allows developers to not only publish their work but also to contribute to the development of other packages. With the rise of Flutter packages, a robust Flutter community has been created, which can be beneficial for both developers and companies using this framework.
FAQ
1 What is a Flutter package
Flutter ships Dart code and assets to the device at build time so you can focus on your app. The Flutter team is working hard to create a set of high-quality, well-tested, functional packages to help you get started. These packages are maintained by the Flutter team and a growing community of contributors.
2 What is a pub package?
Pub or Pub.dev is a repository of dart and Flutter packages and a package manager for the Dart programming language that contains reusable libraries & packages contributed by the community for Flutter and general Dart programs.
3 Why use packages in Flutter development?
Using packages in Flutter development can help you save time and make your development process more efficient without sacrificing the quality of your app. You can use packages to avoid building common components from scratch and instead reuse components from other apps or libraries that you have already created.
The following are some of the benefits of using packages in Flutter development:
1. Save time and reduce errors;
2. Increase Flutter developers’ productivity;
3. Enhance the application quality;
4. Reduce time to market;
5. Speed up the development process;
6. Helps to bring new features;
7. Improve code readability.
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