by Gary Worthington, More Than Monkeys

If you are a non-technical founder, “build a mobile app” sounds simple until you hit the first fork in the road.

“Do we build iOS first or Android first?”
“Do we need two teams?”
“How much is this going to cost?”
“Why does everyone look a bit stressed when I say ‘just like Uber, but for…’?”

Flutter is one of the most practical answers to those questions. Not because it is trendy, but because it fits how early-stage companies actually work: limited runway, fast learning, constant change.

This article explains Flutter in plain English, why it is a good fit for many startups, and how we use it at More Than Monkeys to get products launched without burning your budget for sport.

What Flutter is, in plain English

Flutter is a way to build a mobile app for iPhone and Android at the same time, using one codebase.

Think of it like building one product, one set of screens, one set of behaviours, then shipping it to both app stores.

You still end up with a proper iOS app and a proper Android app. You are not forcing a website into a phone-shaped box. You are building a real app, just more efficiently.

Proof it works in the real world

Two successful products I’ve worked on, Yepic and Cricket Allrounder, are Flutter apps.

Using Flutter meant the teams could iterate quickly without doubling the effort for every change. Product tweaks, UI changes, onboarding experiments, pricing screens, bug fixes, all moved faster because there was one place to build them.

It also kept testing sensible. Instead of maintaining two separate suites and two separate versions of “the same feature”, we could keep the bulk of automated testing in one codebase, focus device testing where it mattered, and avoid a lot of duplicated QA effort.

The result is not just “faster dev”. It saves time and money across the whole development lifecycle, from initial build to ongoing delivery and maintenance.

Why founders choose Flutter

Faster to launch, faster to learn

Most startups do not need perfection. They need a real product in users’ hands so they can learn what matters.

Flutter reduces duplicated work. That usually means you get to “something usable” earlier, then iterate based on feedback instead of opinions.

Lower cost without cutting corners

Two native apps usually means two front-end builds. That can be two teams, or one team doing double the work, which is just a slower way of spending the same money.

Flutter is often the difference between:

• shipping a serious MVP and still having runway for iteration, or
• spending the runway building version one, then realising you built the wrong thing very beautifully.

A more consistent product experience

Founders care about brand and trust. Users care about whether the app feels coherent.

With Flutter, it is easier to keep the iPhone and Android versions aligned. Same flows, same content, same behaviour. Fewer platform-specific surprises.

Simpler team structure

Early-stage hiring is hard. Hiring two separate specialists for iOS and Android can be overkill.

Flutter can allow a smaller product engineering team to cover more ground, without creating a coordination problem that grows faster than your revenue.

The honest bits people forget to mention

Flutter is not magic.

• You still test on iPhones and Android devices.
• App store releases still exist, including Apple’s dreaded review process.
• Some features lean heavily on the phone’s operating system (payments, Bluetooth, health data). Those can require native integration work. We plan for that up front.

The difference is that these “native bits” stay contained, instead of becoming your entire project.

When Flutter is a particularly good fit

Flutter tends to shine for:

• consumer apps, marketplaces, and subscription products
• operational apps for field teams and services businesses
• products where UI will change frequently as you learn
• startups that want to keep cost and pace under control

If your app is basically “a lot of screens, a lot of workflows, a lot of iteration”, Flutter is usually a strong choice.

How More Than Monkeys uses Flutter to help founders

Most agencies sell you a build. We prefer to help you build a product that survives contact with users, and keeps improving.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

1) Product and technical discovery that is actually useful

We start by getting clear on:

• what you are trying to prove
• what your riskiest assumptions are
• what “success” looks like for the first release
• what could blow up the budget later if we ignore it now

You get a plan you can understand, not a 40-page document designed to be filed and forgotten.

2) A vertical slice instead of a big-bang build

Rather than spending months “building the foundations”, we ship an end-to-end slice early. One meaningful journey, working properly, running on real devices.

That flushes out the awkward stuff early (auth, payments, performance, edge cases) while it is still cheap to fix.

3) Weekly delivery, predictable progress

Startups need momentum. We work in a way that keeps you seeing progress regularly:

• build, test, release
• measure, learn, adjust
• repeat, without drama

4) Founders get clarity, not just code

Non-technical founders do not need to be shielded from everything. You need clarity on trade-offs.

We’ll tell you:

• what is worth doing now
• what is safe to postpone
• what will cost more later if we ignore it
• where the real risks are

In other words, we help you make decisions, not just pick colours.

What you get at the end of a More Than Monkeys Flutter engagement

Depending on the stage you are at, you typically end up with:

• a working iOS and Android app, ready for real users
• a coherent design system so the product stays consistent
• analytics wired in, so you can make decisions with data
• a release process that does not depend on one hero staying up late
• a backlog that reflects what users actually do, not what everyone guessed

And if you need it, we can support the next stage: scaling the team, improving delivery, hardening security, and getting the product ready for bigger traffic and bigger expectations.

A simple checklist for founders

Flutter is usually a good fit if:

• you need iOS and Android
• you want to ship quickly and iterate
• you want cost control without “cheap and nasty”
• you do not want to manage two separate app builds

Flutter is probably not the right first choice if:

• your product depends on deep, niche phone features from day one
• you need an extremely specialised native SDK that does not play well cross-platform
• you already have strong native teams and pace is not your problem

If you are unsure, that is normal. Most founders are. The best next step is a short conversation that saves you weeks of guessing.

If you want help building this properly

If you are a founder who wants a real mobile product in the market, built sensibly, with a clear plan and no theatre, we can help.

Message me on LinkedIn, or head to More Than Monkeys and we’ll talk through what you are building, what matters most, and whether Flutter is the right route for you.

You will get a straight answer. No incense, no jargon fog, and no ceremonial reading of the Sacred Agile Scrolls.

Gary Worthington is a software engineer, delivery consultant, and fractional CTO who helps teams move fast, learn faster, and scale when it matters. He writes about modern engineering, product thinking, and helping teams ship things that matter.

Through his consultancy, More Than Monkeys, Gary helps startups and scaleups improve how they build software — from tech strategy and agile delivery to product validation and team development.

Visit morethanmonkeys.co.uk to learn how we can help you build better, faster.

Follow Gary on LinkedIn for practical insights into engineering leadership, agile delivery, and team performance