BLoC vs Provider: Choosing the Right Flutter State Management

Introduction

Before reading this blog, you guys should know what is flutter state management. And mainly what is BLoC pattern and what is meant by Provider, and how it is used.
If not let‘s read my article on ‘BLoC Pattern’ and we can discuss the Provider here in some time.

The first question in everyone’s minds is, If we already have a flutter inbuilt state to manage then why use this third-party library?

The answer is, when we start to discuss the state there are many use cases and scenarios where we need to handle the critical conditions which has not up to the mark accuracy with inbuilt Flutter State Management.

Suppose we have a child class within a sub-class class, sometimes if we want to handle the state of only the parent then it will be critical to handle it without affecting its child.

Let’s get in touch with this third-party library which has overcome many more Flutter State Management issues like the above mentioned.

So, let me return to our topic ‘BLoC vs Provider’.

Let me explain to you about the BLoC first.

BLoC

BLoC helps you define each state or condition of an application more easily in some cases.

Let’s discuss creating an app like Tokopedia (inspect elements and check the phone size preview). As you can see, there are some loading animations between widget sections tokopedia_ss. When the data load is complete, the loading animation changes to a viewable widget (as the user). It will make stateLoading(), stateComplete(data), and stateFailed(data). In the controller or screen, you can explain what happens when state loading is achieved.

Setstate makes the code messy and makes your code difficult to read. Also, setState makes the phone render all the Build() codes. Unlike BloC builder, you can define each widget separately.

With BloC, you can render each state separately, whereas, with standard setState, it renders all 10 sections in one go as each state is changed.

In BLoCs (Business Logic Components), the business logic is separated from the User Interface. This pattern uses streams for data communication between the User Interface and the BLoCs, enabling easy management of an app’s state.

In the BLoC pattern, business logic is handled solely by the BLoC. State streams are updated by BLoCs using events from users. The UI updates are based on the state stream.

Related read: State Management Using Flutter BloC

Provider Can be Used to Create a Simple Counter App, Such as This One:

class CheckCount {
final _counterController = StreamController<int>();
Stream<int> get counter => _counterController.stream;
void getIncrement() {
_counterController.sink.add(_counterController.value + 1);
}
void dispose() {
_counterController.close();
}
}

Provider

Providers in Flutter are used to manage an application’s state. Through its use of InheritedWidget, the app makes it easy to access and update the state across widget trees.

It has a ChangeNotifier that holds the app state and a ChangeNotifierProvider that holds the ChangeNotifier. The ChangeNotifierProvider provides an instance of ChangeNotifier to the widgets underneath.

Provider Can be Used to Create a Simple Counter App, such as This One:

class CounterModel withChangeNotifier {
int _count = 0;

int get count => _count;

void increment() {
_count++;
notifyListeners();
}
}

A counter is represented by an int value in the CounterModel class, which has an increment method that updates the counter and calls notifyListeners() to notify the User Interface of changes.

Comparison

✅ Architecture

In BLoC, the application logic is separated from the User Interface of the application. When used with the Provider package, it communicates data between the UI and the BLoC using streams. Alternatively, the provider is a simpler and lighter pattern that propagates widget state using InheritedWidget.

✅ Code Organization

Business logic and UI logic are separated in BLoC to manage the state more modularly and effectively. The code becomes more maintainable, testable, and readable as a result. In the long run, this may result in more complex and difficult-to-understand code because of the lack of a specific structure provided by the Provider.

✅ Ease of Use

For smaller and simpler apps, Providers are generally easier to set up and use. As opposed to BLoC, which may be more complicated to set up and use, it may require more time and effort.

✅ Scalability

As a result of its modular and organized Flutter State Management, BLOC is better suited to larger and more complex apps, making it easier for them to grow as they grow. On the other hand, Provider is better suited to smaller or simpler applications, as it is less capable of handling the complexity of large apps.

✅ Debugging and Testing

Debugging and testing are easier with BLoC architecture because the architecture provides isolated areas within the application that can be tested and reverted without impacting other parts of the application. Provider does not provide the same level of isolation and modularity as BLoC, so it is not as well suited for debugging and testing as BLoC.

Related read: Exploring Django Debugger for Efficient Debugging and Troubleshooting