4 ms·

I vouch for Flutter over React Native; we built https://macrocodex.app/ https://macrocodex.app/ with 16,000+ users already! And it's completely free no ads, no

I vouch for Flutter over React Native; we built https://macrocodex.app/ https://macrocodex.app/ with 16,000+ users already! And it's completely free no ads, no subscriptions, or donations, for the public benefit of improving health and fitness. It's a guaranteed weight loss or gain app; results within 2-5 weeks! Don't believe? well just read reviews. We do not have Revenue, so no money to spend on marketing. OK so that's brief description of what we built now flutter part: The Flutter development experience is very smooth; you rarely run into any issues, just be careful not to block the UI isolate. Sometimes bad structuring issues or ui bugs may end up blocking your UI. My experience is in Backend (java, rust, c++, go, ruby, python etc..) and this is the first time i built a mobile app. And same is true for other guys on the team. Some limitations are from the underlying platform and not Flutter. Initially, I thought the lack of OTA was a dealbreaker (as App Store / Play Store approvals are a slow loop) and Expo might be better, but the lack of OTA made me structure the app differently and it turned out it's not as big of a deal actually. We also managed to have a PWA app (for nearly free) by using Flutter web, so it also runs on devices which do not support the Play Store or App Store, giving us max coverage across the board. We tested react native but found it slow (your code runs in Hermes VM so you need to write native code to offload) and dev tools aren't as good as flutters imho. Dart AOT, which is what runs on iOS/Android, is much faster by default, so you'll hardly ever feel any need to write native code. And when you do need to write native code, we use some for WorkManager and HealthConnect it's very easy! Just be careful with R8; you might have to set rules (though most plugins ship with rules these days) but if you are writing native code in java/kotlin you may have to do this on your own, or it can sometimes break things! I am glad I picked Flutter over React Native! I had my doubts, but I am glad I looked at their "architecture" rather than the hype of the subreddits.

phoghed 2mo ago
I wanted to love flutter. It’s just so hard to commit to anything like this Google makes without a full expectation of getting rug pulled.
- faangguyindia 2mo ago
  I think they are planning to offload it to an open-source foundation! I remember having received a questionnaire along those lines!
- gumby271 2mo ago
  Flutter is 9 years old at this point. I do hope they move it its own open source foundation since a ton of apps use it, having all that under Google's control isn't the best (looking at you too Android)
  - phoghed 2mo ago
    Yeah now it might be ok but when it came out I didn’t want to bet on it. Around the same time at my job tried to build a design system off Google’s web component MD implementation and that shit stalled and then got fully abandoned.
    - gumby271 2mo ago
      Oh totally agreed, I went through the same thought process 8 years ago at my last job and decided against Flutter too. I really wanted to, it was just too new as a Google product. I'm happy I get to use it now, it's solid.
alternatex 2mo ago
As someone coming from MacroFactor, estimating macros on food is the hardest part of dieting. So your app is great but it tackles the part of dieting that people aren't stuggling with and doesn't address the part that they do struggle with. Most dieting apps are pushing for the AI photo and barcode scanning to make estimating easier and though far from perfect, it makes the whole experience at least somewhat doable.
- faangguyindia 2mo ago
  >As someone coming from MacroFactor, We've had many people who have unsubscribed from MacroFactor after using our MacroCodex. Not just this, we've also built MacroFactor Workout's rival Symbiote Workout app which is also completely free! it's now in Beta and under rapid developement. For calorie tracking, you've established apps like Cronometer and MyFitnessPal or they can use our completely free AI calorie tracker CalorieCodex! which does what you want! barcode scan / photo to calorie and macro output etc... >estimating macros on food is the hardest part of dieting. So your app is great but it tackles the part of dieting that people aren't stuggling with and doesn't address the part that they do struggle with. I believe MacroCodex actually targets the part most people are likely to struggle with and this is why it is able to provide guaranteed results! This app is not a calorie tracker, though it can pull calorie totals and weight from other apps using Health Connect on Android. To understand the problem we are solving, you'll need to read this: https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/rethink/adaptive-tdee/ https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/rethink/adaptive-tdee/ We've had to design this algorithm to figure out real maintenance calories: https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/macrocodex/smart-calorie-burn-v2/ https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/macrocodex/smart-calorie-bu... >Most dieting apps are pushing for the AI photo and barcode scanning to make estimating easier and though far from perfect, it makes the whole experience at least somewhat doable. We also have an AI calorie tracker; it's CalorieCodex. It's in BETA and can do Barcode/Photo using BYOK AI.
  - tuesdaynight 2mo ago
    Why free? Just trying to understand how the monetization will work. From your comments, it didn't look like open source
ramijames 2mo ago
I'll second this. I avoided React Native because I absolutely loathe using React in general (much prefer Vue/Nuxt or Svelte/SvelteKit). Flutter has been an absolute pleasure to build the mobile version of https://miserablyunemployed.com https://miserablyunemployed.com with. It's all really straightforward and I haven't experienced any real gotchas yet.

phoghed 2mo ago

I wanted to love flutter. It’s just so hard to commit to anything like this Google makes without a full expectation of getting rug pulled.

faangguyindia 2mo ago
I think they are planning to offload it to an open-source foundation! I remember having received a questionnaire along those lines!
gumby271 2mo ago
Flutter is 9 years old at this point. I do hope they move it its own open source foundation since a ton of apps use it, having all that under Google's control isn't the best (looking at you too Android)
- phoghed 2mo ago
  Yeah now it might be ok but when it came out I didn’t want to bet on it. Around the same time at my job tried to build a design system off Google’s web component MD implementation and that shit stalled and then got fully abandoned.
  - gumby271 2mo ago
    Oh totally agreed, I went through the same thought process 8 years ago at my last job and decided against Flutter too. I really wanted to, it was just too new as a Google product. I'm happy I get to use it now, it's solid.

alternatex 2mo ago

As someone coming from MacroFactor, estimating macros on food is the hardest part of dieting. So your app is great but it tackles the part of dieting that people aren't stuggling with and doesn't address the part that they do struggle with. Most dieting apps are pushing for the AI photo and barcode scanning to make estimating easier and though far from perfect, it makes the whole experience at least somewhat doable.

faangguyindia 2mo ago
>As someone coming from MacroFactor, We've had many people who have unsubscribed from MacroFactor after using our MacroCodex. Not just this, we've also built MacroFactor Workout's rival Symbiote Workout app which is also completely free! it's now in Beta and under rapid developement. For calorie tracking, you've established apps like Cronometer and MyFitnessPal or they can use our completely free AI calorie tracker CalorieCodex! which does what you want! barcode scan / photo to calorie and macro output etc... >estimating macros on food is the hardest part of dieting. So your app is great but it tackles the part of dieting that people aren't stuggling with and doesn't address the part that they do struggle with. I believe MacroCodex actually targets the part most people are likely to struggle with and this is why it is able to provide guaranteed results! This app is not a calorie tracker, though it can pull calorie totals and weight from other apps using Health Connect on Android. To understand the problem we are solving, you'll need to read this: https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/rethink/adaptive-tdee/ https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/rethink/adaptive-tdee/ We've had to design this algorithm to figure out real maintenance calories: https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/macrocodex/smart-calorie-burn-v2/ https://macrocodex.app/knowledge/macrocodex/smart-calorie-bu... >Most dieting apps are pushing for the AI photo and barcode scanning to make estimating easier and though far from perfect, it makes the whole experience at least somewhat doable. We also have an AI calorie tracker; it's CalorieCodex. It's in BETA and can do Barcode/Photo using BYOK AI.
- tuesdaynight 2mo ago
  Why free? Just trying to understand how the monetization will work. From your comments, it didn't look like open source

ramijames 2mo ago

I'll second this. I avoided React Native because I absolutely loathe using React in general (much prefer Vue/Nuxt or Svelte/SvelteKit). Flutter has been an absolute pleasure to build the mobile version of https://miserablyunemployed.com https://miserablyunemployed.com with. It's all really straightforward and I haven't experienced any real gotchas yet.