vlidholt

If you are an app developer using Flutter, then Serverpod is a great match. An app server is obviously a server specifically tailored to the needs of apps (e.g. as opposed to being made for the web).

Aqueduct was built before Flutter, it is more like a regular web server written in Dart. Serverpod is build specifically with Flutter developers in mind, making it very easy to build APIs. Serverpod will actually analyze your server code and automatically generate your client side APIs. You call a method on the server just like you would call a local method in your app.

I don't have any exact metrics. GitHub stars are one measure, though I'm not sure how well that is reflecting real-world use: https://star-history.com/#flutter/flutter&facebook/react-nat...

Anecdotally, I'm running a Flutter Meetup with over a thousand members in Stockholm, so I feel like I have the ear on the ground. From what I see, the use of Flutter has been picking up steadily. For instance, one of Sweden's major banks has recently moved its apps to Flutter (including its web app). To their customers, it still looks exactly the same, so moves like that aren't always visible. Also, it seems like a very large proportion of startups are using Flutter too.

Working for Google is awesome in many ways and the people at the Flutter team at the time I worked there were nothing less than outstanding.

For me personally, working at Google wasn't my first choice as I ended up there when the startup I worked at before was acquired. I just felt done with the whole Silicon Valley thing and ended up moving back to Sweden. If I'd pick one big company to work for, it would probably be Google.

Flutter is becoming very popular for building apps. It is likely to have surpassed React Native, and according to Google more than 20% of new apps are created with Flutter today.

Thank you! :)

Thank you! We are definitely exploring more avenues than just regular server hosting.

Learning a new language takes time, which translates to money for companies hiring developers. Also, even many more senior developers prefer working in a single language due to the context switch otherwise involved.

Mature is a matter of definition. There are several apps in production already that are using Serverpod and are very happy with it. But, of course, it is a new framework and there are many improvements to come. It's always important to do your research before choosing any type of framework so you know it will support the features that you will need.

Yes, it is using well-formed JSON and/or web sockets. Serialization is following the Dart standard, and you can use it together with popular Dart serialization packages, such as Freezed.

However, we are still working on making the documentation for APIs. That is on the roadmap as well as providing code generation for other languages.

I know him, we used to work together at Google. :)

It's revolutionary to Dart in the sense that you can use strict typing when communicating with the database. This is very helpful as you get much more help with autocomplete and other language tooling.

Granted there are still lots of gaps to fill, but we are surely getting there. The biggest new feature we are working on is database migrations.

We recently received funding, so we are looking at the applications now. Sorry for the delay!

The main plan is to provide hosting for Serverpod. It's still an open-source project, so you can always host it yourself or on the cloud platform of your choice.

It's not so much a web framework as it is an app backend. So it's not great (yet) at rendering web pages, but it is great for doing remote method calls and streaming data. That being said, Serverpod is not limited to Flutter, you can use it for any Dart app.

Yes, it is obviously the most useful if you are a Flutter developer. According to Google, over 20% of new apps on Google Play are now made with Flutter so it's a large segment in itself.

Thank you! The previous Dart backend attempts were predating Flutter, so the conditions are very different now. Serverpod is also a funded company, and not a side or hobby project like earlier Dart servers.

Hi! I'm Viktor, the lead developer of Serverpod. Feel free to ask me any questions, and I'll try to answer.

You can also watch the Serverpod 1.0 release keynote on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/QN6juNWW3js