Should Flutter apps rely on built‑in state management or adopt external patterns?

24 Tem 17:45

Flutter provides several built‑in options for handling UI state, like setState, InheritedWidget, and the newer Riverpod/Provider families. At the same time, many developers bring in architectures such as BLoC, Redux, or MobX to enforce separation of concerns and testability. Both approaches have trade‑offs in terms of boilerplate, learning curve, and runtime performance. I'm curious how the community balances these choices: do you prefer sticking to the core Flutter mechanisms for most screens and only introduce external patterns when the app scales, or do you start with a robust architecture from day one? What factors drive your decision, and how do you mitigate the downsides of each approach?