Flutter continues to be a top choice for cross-platform development in 2025. Be it a student’s college project, a small startup, a unicorn, or big tech giants, all are using Flutter. The file structure is the organization of the data of an application. The file structure is something that plays a very important role in the effective and easy management of the project, be it of any size. As the size of a project grows, it becomes more and more important to have a proper structure and format for the code; otherwise, it can lead to many undesired problems such as:
- Unable to find the specific file in a repository, making it a time-consuming task.
- Unfit for teamwork.
- Difficult to maintain.
- Or, in the worst-case scenario, it can result in a low-performing app.
Note: There is a package called very_good_cli available for minimizing this task without spending much time on creating or organizing files in flutter. If you wanted to create your own you can follow the below steps.
To take charge of all these problems, we need to have a good file structure in our Flutter app, and that is what we are going to discuss in this article. Although Flutter does not give any recommendations for the structuring of the app, we should still do it in the best possible manner. To achieve the best possible file structure of a general flutter application, we will divide it into seven parts. But before that, one important thing that we always need to keep in mind is that the naming of the file and directories must always be in the proper format. For instance, if someone is creating a social media app and wants to make a file to store data of its users, then this is how it should be named.
Naming for files and directories
//this is the right method
user_data.dart (lower case for both words separated by underscore)
//these methods should be avoided
userData.dart (camel case)
UserData.dart (upper case for both words)
Loginview.dart (upper case for first word)
Login_View.dart (upper case for both words separated by underscore)
Whenever we create a new project in flutter these are the files and directories that we are provided with. But these are just the bare basics we will add some other folders and files in the project that are listed below.
1. Assets: Static assets for the app.
This directory is on the root level and will contain all the static assets that are used in the application, for example, fonts, icons, logos, background images, demo videos, etc. It is very much recommended that we should have different directories for different types of data. For example, images, videos & logos should have a different folder of their own so that it becomes easier to maintain and access them.
2. Cloud Functions: Cloud functions used in the app.
Cloud functions are the back-end code stored on some servers such as Google Cloud, these functions run when some specific event happens. An example of the cloud function in social media would be a function that, at the click of a button, opens a URL that receives the text, audio, or video data and stores it on the server for future use. It becomes very convenient when all the cloud functions are on the root level of the application.
3. Screens: Screen /UI of the app.
This directory will contain the actual layout of the UI for the entire application. It can further be distributed into two to three folders. One stores the flash screen and onboarding pages, such as the login/sign-up screen; the second folder stores the home screen and other generally used screens, and the third folder contains screens that are not that important.
4. Providers: Interactions outside the app.
This directory is supposed to hold all the interactions that transact the data from outside the app. This is different from the cloud functions in terms of their role. This folder holds providers or services responsible for state management and data fetching from APIs. If we take into consideration a weather app, a good example would be the weather and the location data that is received from the API in the form of JSON that needs to be translated for use.
5. Utilities: Function or logic used in the app.
This directory will hold all the app logic or business logic of our entire application. Again a good example in the weather app would be when a user selects a different location the weather data should also change accordingly. Or in the case of the social media app when logins the app data should also change accordingly.
6. Widgets: Widgets / Layouts used in the app.
It becomes clear all by the name itself that this folder will hold all the static widgets or the widgets that are used multiple times in the application. For example, if it is a social media app like Instagram, the list view of all the suggested friends is always the same; the only thing that changes is the data. Or if it is a weather app, the tile that shows a particular location is the same for all the locations; the only thing that changes is the name of the place.
7. Models: Collection of data.
Models are the collection of data that are usually sourced from the servers, users, or external APIs, these are used in combination with widgets to complete the user interface of the app. Again, taking an example of the weather app, a model or a set of data could be the name of the location and the temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. If we take into consideration a social media app that is showing a user’s profile page, then it may contain the username, age, a profile pic, a description, etc.
To a beginner, it might seem absurd or useless to bifurcate a flutter application into so many portions, but if maintaining a good file structure becomes a habit, it could have many benefits. For big organizations working on production applications, maintaining a good file structure is not an option; it’s a necessity.
Similar Reads
Flutter Tutorial
This Flutter Tutorial is specifically designed for beginners and experienced professionals. It covers both the basics and advanced concepts of the Flutter framework. Flutter is Google’s mobile SDK that builds native Android and iOS apps from a single codebase. It was developed in December 2017. When
7 min read
BLoC Pattern Flutter
In Flutter applications, the Flutter BLoC (Business Logic Component) is used to manage the state. It helps separate business logic from UI. It ensures that the user interface is not strongly liaison with the business logic, making the app more versatile. It is powerful since it allows the creation o
10 min read
Flutter Story App
A mobile application called Flutter Story App enables users to read and share poetry, short tales, and other types of writing. The popular open-source mobile app development framework, Flutter, developed by Google, is used to build the app. Users may browse and find new content with ease because of
8 min read
Flutter vs Flutter 2
Overview :In this article, we will study the difference between Flutter 1 and Flutter 2. Flutter 1 was launched by Google in 2017. The reason behind launching this was so that the developer could use only a single code to develop applications for multiple platforms like Android, iOS, Linux, macOS. H
4 min read
Flutter - Flexible Widget
Flexible is a built-in widget in flutter which controls how a child of base flex widgets that are Row, Column, and Flex will fill the space available to it. The Expanded widget in flutter is shorthand of Flexible with the default fit of FlexFit.tight. Flexible widget plays a very important part in m
8 min read
Listview.builder in Flutter
ListView is a very important widget in a flutter. It is used to create the list of children But when we want to create a list recursively without writing code again and again then ListView.builder is used instead of ListView. ListView.builder creates a scrollable, linear array of widgets. ListView.b
3 min read
Flutter Bloc - Basic Search
In this article, we are going to develop a Basic Search App using Flutter Bloc and Clean Architecture. In Flutter applications, the Flutter BLoC (Business Logic Component) is used to manage the state. It helps separate business logic from UI. It ensures that the user interface is not strongly liaiso
15+ min read
Flutter - Selectable Box
A selectable box is a box that can be selected with on click. If you are creating a list of boxes, And want these boxes can selectable. Then you can use the Selectable box widget. A sample video is given below to get an idea about what we are going to do in this article. [video loading="lazy" mp4="h
3 min read
Flutter - Pick and Open Files From Storage
Sometimes in an app, we need to pick and open a file from the phone's storage, in this article, we will achieve the same using file_picker and open_file flutter packages. 1. Create an App: Create a new flutter app by running the below command on your terminal: flutter create your_app_name Now open y
5 min read
Flutter - Stateful Widget
A Stateful Widget has states in it. To understand a Stateful Widget, you need to have a clear understanding of widgets and state management. A state can be defined as "an imperative changing of the user interface," and a widget is "an immutable description of the part of the user interface". To lear
4 min read