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Mobile Development · head to head

Adapty vs Flutter

Adapty logo

Adapty

Mobile Development

In-app subscription and paywall platform, free below 5,000 USD of monthly revenue then 1 percent, with add-ons charged separately

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Flutter logo

Flutter

Mobile Development

Google’s open-source framework for building apps from one codebase

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Adapty the 1 percent headline is only the base rate; Refund Saver at 0.2 percent of revenue, Ads Manager at 3.5 percent of ad spend, Attribution at 0.03 USD per install and Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share stack on top and are individually easy to switch on.; Flutter dart is used almost nowhere else, so the language itself is a hiring and learning cost
  • They diverge on capability: Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, Flutter covers Single codebase, many targets.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Adapty and Flutter actually diverge.

Attributes where Adapty and Flutter differ
AttributeAdaptyFlutter
Pricing modelPer month by tracked revenueOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsiOS, Android, Web, React Native, FlutteriOS, Android, Web, Windows, macOS, Linux

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Mobile Development).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Adapty

  • Visual paywall builder
  • A/B testing on paywalls
  • Cross-platform entitlements
  • Subscription analytics
  • Refund Saver add-on
  • Attribution and Ads Manager add-ons

Only in Flutter

  • Single codebase, many targets
  • Own rendering engine
  • Hot reload
  • Widget library
  • Ahead-of-time compilation
  • DevTools

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Adapty

  • A growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app releasenot Flutter
  • A small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 USD threshold offered by the main competitornot Flutter
  • Consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing SDKnot Flutter
  • Automating Apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requestsnot Flutter

Flutter

  • Shipping one app to iOS and Android with a small teamnot Adapty
  • Interfaces with heavy custom design that need to look identical on both platformsnot Adapty
  • Adding web or desktop builds to an existing mobile codebasenot Adapty
  • Prototyping quickly where hot reload shortens the design loopnot Adapty

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Adapty

  • The 1 percent headline is only the base rate; Refund Saver at 0.2 percent of revenue, Ads Manager at 3.5 percent of ad spend, Attribution at 0.03 USD per install and Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share stack on top and are individually easy to switch on.
  • Revenue is calculated before platform fees, so the fee applies to money Apple and Google have already taken a 15 to 30 percent cut of, making the effective rate on received cash noticeably higher than the quoted figure.
  • Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share is a large ongoing cost for a channel most teams would otherwise run through an email platform they already pay a flat fee for.
  • The integration ecosystem, third-party tutorials and hiring pool are smaller than the category leader, so engineers are less likely to have used it before and edge cases have fewer public answers.
  • Paywall configuration and entitlement state live with the vendor, so a migration later means rebuilding both the billing integration and every paywall the marketing team has created.

Flutter

  • Dart is used almost nowhere else, so the language itself is a hiring and learning cost
  • Because Flutter draws its own widgets, apps can feel subtly unlike the platform unless deliberately styled per-platform
  • Binary sizes are larger than equivalent native apps because the engine ships with the app
  • Access to a brand-new platform API waits on a plugin, or on writing platform channel code yourself

Pricing, plan by plan

Adapty

Free
  • Pro under thresholdFree
    • Free until monthly revenue reaches 5,000 USD
    • All core features, no tiers and no fixed costs
    • Paywall builder and A/B testing included
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • 1 percent of monthly revenue above the 5,000 USD threshold
    • Refund Saver adds 0.2 percent of monthly revenue
    • Ads Manager adds 3.5 percent of monthly ad spend
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Quoted
    • White-glove onboarding
    • 24/7 dedicated Slack support and a success manager

Flutter

Free
  • FlutterFree
    • Full framework
    • All platform targets
    • Dart toolchain

Which should you pick?

Choose Adapty if

  • You need visual paywall builder.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter.
  • You also want a/b testing on paywalls.
Adapty review

Choose Flutter if

  • You need single codebase, many targets.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
  • You also want own rendering engine.
Flutter review

Questions people ask

Is Adapty or Flutter better?
Neither clearly leads. Adapty starts at Free and Flutter at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Adapty or Flutter?
Adapty starts at Free and Flutter at Free.
Does Adapty or Flutter run on more platforms?
Adapty runs on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter. Flutter runs on iOS, Android, Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
Can I use Adapty for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Adapty best used for?
Adapty is most often used for a growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app release, a small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 usd threshold offered by the main competitor, consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing sdk, automating apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requests. Of those, a growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app release and a small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 usd threshold offered by the main competitor are not what Flutter is typically brought in for.
What can Adapty do that Flutter cannot?
Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, A/B testing on paywalls, Cross-platform entitlements, Subscription analytics. Flutter covers Single codebase, many targets, Own rendering engine, Hot reload, Widget library.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Adapty: How much does it cost above the free threshold?

1 percent of monthly revenue, measured in USD before platform fees, with billing starting once you exceed 5,000 USD in a 30 day period.

Flutter: Is Flutter free?

Yes. Flutter is open source with no licence fee. The framework is under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence and its code samples under the 3-Clause BSD licence.

Adapty: Is the free tier really more generous than RevenueCat?

On the base product yes, 5,000 USD against 2,500 USD of monthly revenue, but add-ons are priced separately where the competitor bundles more into its single rate.

Flutter: What language does Flutter use?

Dart, a language Google designed for fast startup and ahead-of-time compilation to native code.

Adapty: Can marketing change paywalls without a release?

Yes, that is the main reason teams choose it; paywalls are configured server side and published without going through app review.

Flutter: Can Flutter build for more than mobile?

Yes. The same codebase targets iOS, Android, web, Windows, macOS, Linux and embedded devices, though mobile remains the most mature target.

Adapty: What does Refund Saver actually do?

It responds to Apple refund requests with transaction evidence to contest them, and it costs an additional 0.2 percent of monthly revenue.

Flutter: How is Flutter different from React Native?

Flutter draws its own widgets with its own engine, so the result is pixel-identical across platforms. React Native renders to the real native components of each platform. Flutter uses Dart; React Native uses JavaScript and React.

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