In the fast-paced world of mobile app development, building a smooth and intuitive user experience is paramount. A critical part of that experience is navigation—how users move between screens and access different parts of the app. Flutter, Google's UI toolkit for building cross-platform applications, offers developers several ways to manage this navigation. One popular choice has been GoRouter, a package that simplifies complex navigation scenarios. However, recent changes have led to questions about its long-term suitability.
This article will explore GoRouter’s current state, compare it to alternative navigation solutions within the Flutter ecosystem, and ultimately help developers determine the best approach for their projects, ensuring they can build reliable and scalable applications that meet business needs.
However, recent news from the Flutter core team has thrown its future into question. The announcement that GoRouter is moving into maintenance mode, with no new features planned, has understandably raised concerns, particularly for developers starting new projects.
Should GoRouter be considered for new applications? It’s a question that has been further amplified by prominent Flutter developers like Andrea Bizzotto, who, in his January 2025 newsletter, suggested exploring alternatives like AutoRoute and Navigation Utils.
Here’s a critical look at GoRouter's current state, including suggested alternatives, and arguments for GoRouter remaining the best choice for navigation and routing in Flutter, even when considering the need for future-proofing new applications.
Is The Built-in Navigator Enough?
Navigation is a fundamental aspect of any Flutter application. It dictates how users move between different screens and interact with the app's content, which directly impacts the scalability of the app, allowing businesses to expand their application to meet all of their business needs. Nearly all applications of sufficient scale and complexity eventually require some sort of navigation solution. At its core, Flutter provides the Navigator class, a powerful tool for managing app navigation using the concept of “routes.”
Routes are essentially named screens or destinations within your app, and the Navigator allows you to push new routes onto a stack (navigating forward), or pop routes off the stack (navigating back). GoRouter is a package that builds upon this Navigator, designed to simplify complex navigation.
Although the built-in Navigator is sufficient for simple apps, it can become cumbersome and difficult to manage as complexity grows. Handling parameters, nested navigation, deep linking (allowing users to access specific screens within the app directly from a URL), and complex transitions can quickly lead to boilerplate code and maintainability issues.
This not only slows down development but also increases the risk of bugs and makes it harder to update and scale the app over time—all of which impact the bottom line. This need for more structured and scalable navigation solutions is so apparent that even the core Flutter team recognized it.
It's why they adopted and actively developed GoRouter, a declarative routing solution designed to address the limitations of the basic Navigator, and provide a more robust and organized approach to navigation in larger Flutter applications, helping developers create apps that are both user-friendly and maintainable for the long term.
Overview of GoRouter
GoRouter has undeniably become the dominant force in Flutter navigation, boasting a remarkable 1.28 million downloads at the time of publication. Its widespread adoption speaks volumes about its effectiveness and the value it brings to Flutter developers. GoRouter distinguishes itself through a declarative approach to route definition. Instead of imperatively pushing and popping routes, you define your app's navigation structure in a clear, hierarchical manner, making your navigation logic easier to understand and maintain.
At the heart of GoRouter are its route definitions. You define routes using a structured syntax, associating URL patterns with specific widgets or screens in your application. This URL-based approach is one of GoRouter's key strengths, enabling features like deep linking and easy sharing of specific app locations. Handling parameters within these URLs is straightforward, allowing you to pass data between screens seamlessly.
GoRouter also excels at managing redirects, allowing you to automatically navigate users to different screens based on certain conditions (e.g., authentication status). Nested navigation, a common requirement for complex apps, is elegantly handled through the hierarchical structure of route definitions, making it easy to manage complex navigation flows within specific sections of your app.
Beyond its core functionality, GoRouter provides excellent support for deep linking. This means users can access specific screens within your app directly from a URL, whether it's from a web browser or another app. This is crucial for user engagement and app discoverability. Now, let's address the elephant in the room: GoRouter recently moved to maintenance mode. Although some might see this as cause for concern, it’s a testament to its maturity.
Maintenance mode signifies that the core Flutter team will primarily focus on bug fixes and ensuring stability, rather than introducing new features. However, this doesn't mean development has completely stopped. A quick glance at the GoRouter repository reveals a number of recent commits from community contributors. This active community engagement indicates that while the core team's focus has shifted, the package is far from abandoned.
The existing feature set is already robust and comprehensive, addressing the vast majority of navigation needs in Flutter applications. In essence, GoRouter has reached a level of maturity where further feature additions aren’t as critical as ensuring its continued stability and reliability. For many developers, this is a positive sign, indicating a solid and dependable foundation for their projects.
The Alternatives
Prompted by Andrea Bizzotto's calling into question GoRouter's viability as a long term navigation solution in his January 2025 newsletter, lets now explore alternative navigation packages in Flutter. We'll delve into options like AutoRoute and Navigation Utils, and consider the strengths and weaknesses of each in light of GoRouter's shift to maintenance mode.
AutoRoute
AutoRoute offers a different approach to Flutter navigation, focusing on code generation to simplify route definitions. Instead of manually defining routes in a declarative structure like GoRouter, AutoRoute uses annotations to mark your widgets as destinations and then generates the necessary routing code. This approach can significantly reduce boilerplate and make navigation code more concise, especially in larger projects.
AutoRoute handles parameters, redirects, and nested navigation through this code generation process, using annotations to define how parameters are passed, how redirects occur, and how parent-child route relationships are established. One of AutoRoute's key selling points is its strong typing and compile-time safety. Because the routing code is generated, the compiler can catch navigation-related errors at compile time, reducing the risk of runtime crashes. This can be a significant advantage in larger teams where catching errors early is crucial.
However, AutoRoute's approach differs significantly from GoRouter's declarative style. Although GoRouter emphasizes explicit route definitions, AutoRoute relies on code generation. This means the actual navigation logic is hidden and generated behind the scenes, potentially making it harder to understand the navigation flow during debugging. While code generation can reduce boilerplate, it can also add complexity when customizing generated code, or troubleshooting issues.
Furthermore, AutoRoute's popularity pales in comparison to GoRouter, with only 208k downloads, one-sixth of GoRouter’s. More concerning is the state of its maintenance. A look at the AutoRoute GitHub repository paints a concerning picture. Although there have been a few 'chore' commits last month by the repository owner, the last actual update to the package itself was over half a year ago. This stagnation is despite a large number of open pull requests and issues from community members eager to contribute.
The lack of activity suggests that the project is not being actively maintained, raising serious questions about its long-term viability and suitability for production applications. This lack of maintenance is a significant factor to consider when evaluating AutoRoute as a navigation solution. AutoRoute offers an interesting code-generation approach to Flutter navigation, which can be appealing for reducing boilerplate.
However, its significantly lower download count compared to GoRouter (208k vs 1.28 million), coupled with its extended period without a major update, raises concerns. Developers must carefully weigh the advantages of code generation against the risks of relying on a package with uncertain long-term maintenance. Given GoRouter's current maintenance mode, choosing AutoRoute might feel like trading one risk for another, we believe, however, that GoRouter being in maintenance mode is a sign of its maturity, not a statement on it not having enough support, and therefore we conclude that GoRouter is still preferred over AutoRoute.
Navigation Utils
Navigation Utils is a package designed to enhance, not replace, Flutter's built-in Navigator. Its purpose is to simplify common navigation tasks, such as pushing routes, passing data between screens, and managing navigation stacks. It achieves this by providing helper functions and utilities that wrap the Navigator's functionality, making it concise and easy to use.
For example, Navigation Utils might offer simplified methods for pushing named routes with arguments, reducing the boilerplate often associated with the standard Navigator. Although Navigation Utils can make basic navigation tasks more convenient, it's essential to understand its role in the broader Flutter navigation landscape.
It's not intended to be a full-fledged routing solution like GoRouter or AutoRoute. Instead, it builds upon the existing Navigator, leveraging its core functionality. This means it inherits the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying Navigator. While it can simplify common tasks, it doesn't address the more complex navigation challenges that GoRouter and AutoRoute are designed to handle, such as deep linking, URL-based navigation, or complex nested navigation structures.
It is not designed to work directly with GoRouter or AutoRoute; it's an alternative for simpler apps.
Navigation Utils' strength lies in its simplicity and its direct compatibility with Flutter's core navigation system. For very basic applications where the built-in Navigator is sufficient but could benefit from a bit of syntactic sugar, Navigation Utils might be a helpful addition. However, its limited scope and small user base (just 1.06k downloads, a tiny fraction of GoRouter's popularity) make it less suitable for larger, more complex projects.
Its primary advantage seems to be the responsiveness of its author on GitHub, which can be valuable for developers seeking support. However, the limited documentation and small community raise concerns about long-term maintenance and support. For most applications, especially those requiring advanced navigation features, a more robust and widely adopted solution like GoRouter is generally preferred.
Other Routing Options: A Quick Look
Beyond the framework champion, GoRouter, and the recommended alternatives by Andrea Bizzotto; AutoRoute, and Navigation Utils, a handful of other routing packages exist within the Flutter ecosystem. While some show promise, they often exhibit similar challenges to those already discussed, particularly concerning maintenance and community support.
Beamer: With 52.6k downloads, Beamer presents itself as a potentially strong contender. Its documentation, while lengthy for a single page, resides in a single readme file. While it boasts many community contributors and had regular updates until 4 months ago, activity has significantly slowed since then, despite multiple open pull requests and issues. They do invite developers to join their discord server for any support needs, which does not make up for more extensive documentation, but at least relieves the challenge of finding resources online.
Fluro: A slightly more popular option, Fluro has 19.2k downloads, but unfortunately suffers from severely lacking documentation, relying primarily on a single example. With no updates in two years despite open community pull requests, it's clearly fallen out of active development.
Katana Router: With only 2.79k downloads, Katana Router's documentation resembles Beamer's — a single, long readme file. While the repository sees semi-regular commits, they are almost exclusively from the package owner, with minimal community interaction.
Qlevar Router: Qlevar Router has 1.68k downloads and offers documentation similar to Beamer, albeit with a table of contents for better navigation. It has seen updates as recently as 4 months ago, and these updates include contributions from the community.
Duck Router: A rarely used option with only 564 downloads, Duck Router has limited documentation with easier navigation. It offers a novel “Intent-Based” approach that distinguishes it from its competitors. It benefits from having updates as recent as two weeks ago, and having a small team of two developers actively seeking contributors.
Routefly: With only 430 downloads, Routefly has the smallest user base of all of these options. Routefly's documentation is quite short. While it has seen updates within the last few weeks, the updates are semi-regular with sometimes months in between. It's maintained by the Flutterando community, which includes at least four contributors according to the github repository, and offers a folder-based routing solution inspired by NextJS.
These packages offer varying approaches to Flutter routing and most share similar challenges. Limited community engagement, sparse documentation and means for finding support, and inconsistent maintenance are recurring themes. Beamer is perhaps the most promising of this group, but developers should carefully weigh these factors before committing to a less established solution.
Conclusion
Despite the recent news of GoRouter entering maintenance mode, it remains the best choice for Flutter navigation right now. It has a number of compelling strengths, and addresses the core needs of most Flutter projects. GoRouter's declarative approach simplifies route definitions and makes navigation logic easier to understand and maintain. Its URL-based navigation, coupled with robust support for deep linking and parameters, provides a flexible and powerful way to manage complex navigation flows.
The mature feature set handles nested navigation, redirects, and transitions with ease. These features — combined with its widespread adoption — make it a powerful and versatile tool. The maintenance mode announcement might raise eyebrows, but it’s a sign of GoRouter's maturity, not a reason to abandon it. The existing feature set is comprehensive and well-tested, covering the vast majority of use cases. Further feature development, while potentially beneficial, is not essential for most projects.
The focus on bug fixes and stability ensures that GoRouter will remain a reliable foundation for your applications. GoRouter's immense popularity is also a significant advantage in itself. Active community engagement, evidenced by the community contributions to the repository, suggests that even without the core Flutter team's active development of new features, the project is far from dead. The possibility of a community fork and continued development remains.
This translates to readily available resources, tutorials, and support online. Finding solutions to common problems, or getting help when you're stuck is significantly easier with a widely adopted package like GoRouter. For its robust features, proven stability, large community, and declarative approach, GoRouter remains the most practical and reliable choice for Flutter navigation at this time.
All numbers in this article are as of its writing in February 2025.*
