Flutter is a powerful cross-platform framework, but sometimes you need to display existing web pages inside your app — maybe a dashboard, documentation, payment gateway, or a full website.
That’s where WebView comes in.
In this blog, we’ll explore:
What WebView is
When to use it
How to add WebView to your Flutter app
A WebView is a widget that allows you to embed web content within a Flutter app.
It uses platform-native components under the hood:
Android:
WebViewiOS:
WKWebView
Flutter provides WebView through the package:
webview_flutterIt supports:
✔ Loading URLs
✔ Loading HTML content
✔ JavaScript execution
✔ Navigation control
✔ Communication between Flutter & WebView
📦 Step 1: Install WebView Package
Add this to your pubspec.yaml
dependencies:
webview_flutter: ^4.7.0Then run:
flutter pub get⚙ Step 2: Add Platform Permissions
For Android
For iOS
Add this to ios/Runner/Info.plist
<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key> <dict> <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key> <true/> </dict>
🧩 Step 3: Basic WebView Example
Here’s the simplest way to load a website
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:webview_flutter/webview_flutter.dart';
class MyWebViewPage extends StatefulWidget {
const MyWebViewPage({super.key});
@override
State createState() => _MyWebViewPageState();
}
class _MyWebViewPageState extends State {
late final WebViewController _controller;
@override
void initState() {
super.initState();
_controller = WebViewController()
..setJavaScriptMode(JavaScriptMode.unrestricted)
..loadRequest(Uri.parse("https://flutter.dev"));
}
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(title: const Text("Flutter WebView")),
body: WebViewWidget(controller: _controller),
);
}
} 🧠 Best Practices
Avoid loading heavy desktop websites
Prefer responsive mobile websites
Avoid enabling unrestricted JavaScript unless needed
Use navigation delegates to prevent unwanted redirects
For complex web apps, consider using in-app browser packages
🎉 Conclusion
Using WebView in Flutter is easy and powerful. Whether you want to embed a full website, payment gateway, or small HTML snippet — WebView gives you native performance and full control.
If your app heavily relies on the web, WebView can even serve as a hybrid bridge between Flutter and your existing site.
