Appsee Mobile App Analytics vs. Flutter by Google

I used Appsee’s conversion funnel analysis to find out why users drop off in a particular funnel that we’ve built. Not only that I’ve been able to see session recordings of those users who dropped off, but I was also able to see the ones who did come through and compare what they like vs what they didn’t. This is just a small example of the power Appsee has. The options are endless.

Flutter is well known for native app development, if you have android studio installed on your system, you can quickly start using it. This might not be the best choice for you if you do not wish to learn a new language, i.e. Dart and you do not know it already.

Incentivized

• User session recordings of individual users
• Touch heatmaps and unresponsive gestures

• It is powered by Google, so a great technical community is backing it.
• The development of native apps is an easy process using Flutter.
• As it is an open-source tool, we can use it without paying anything.
• It provides nice UI options.

Incentivized

• The user screen recording was quickly shut down on Apple devices after about a week of us using Appsee. Now it's just basic boxes which aren't nearly as helpful or insightful in bettering our user experience. If we would have known this would happen, or that Appsee didn't have that feature, we wouldn't have gone with them.
• No integration with Branch (the world's best and probably biggest attribution platform).

Incentivized

• Occasionally updates to the Flutter SDK result in wide-sweeping changes that seem to not be thoroughly tested and considered. Flutter sometimes evolves too fast for its own good.
• While the 3rd-party Flutter package ecosystem is vast and rich, 1st-party support for basic things (audio/video playback, battery information, Bluetooth services, etc.) are lacking. You are occasionally forced to rely on an open-source package for use-cases that other platforms have native support for.
• Documentation, particularly around testing, is lacking. While there are some great docs, like the Dart Style Guide, many Flutter-focused support documents are lacking in quality and real-world usability.
• Flutter allows you to architect an app however you want. While this is a great feature, it also adds complexity and leads to the current state of Flutter's state management, where there are 50+ options on how to organize your app, with very little official guidance or recommendations from the Flutter team. For a beginner, this can create decision paralysis.

Incentivized

Appsee set itself apart from competitors with the user screen recording, but since that is no longer a good feature on iOS, it makes Appsee's competitive advantage obsolete. Its data analytics, funnels, and crash reporting are relatively basic or haven't lead to any breakthroughs. I would stay away from Appsee, save your money, and go for a platform like Mixpanel if possible, which has analytics, attribution, and engagement for the same if not cheaper price.

Incentivized

I have experience with react and React Native. I would say that the idea behind all those frameworks are quite similar. However, I found the javascript-based frameworks a bit more accessible as you could utilise your javascript knowledge. Here, Flutter works with its own language. This has advantages and disadvantages sometimes. I found the community around javascript frameworks bigger and therefore sometimes more helpful. However, Flutter does a good job here as well. I think the main argument for Flutter is its usability for less experienced developers. If you do not have knowledge in javascript or other programming languages then I think it is much easier to start with Flutter than with another framework like react. I think the package that you get form scratch is better than in the other frameworks were you have to set up and learn a lot more before you can start.

Incentivized

• It now costs much more than the competitors, and has fewer features/functionality than when it started, so I would say it's a negative impact as we're paying about $300-400 month for this.

Incentivized

• The rapid development capabilities of Flutter allow us to build apps we could not have previously considered commercially viable, opening new revenue streams.
• Free and open licensing made adoption very easy (ie. free/low cost!).
• In comparison to Qt, our time spent arguing with build tools and perfecting development environments has decreased substantially.

Incentivized