Flutter Local Storage Guide — SharedPreferences vs Hive vs SQLite

Choosing the right local storage solution in Flutter directly impacts performance and code simplicity. Here's a practical breakdown of the three main options.

SharedPreferences — Key-Value Settings

Best for small primitives: user settings, theme, login state.

dependencies : shared_preferences : ^2.3.0

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class SettingsService { static const _themeKey = 'theme_mode' ;

Future < void > saveTheme ( String theme ) async { final prefs = await SharedPreferences . getInstance (); await prefs . setString ( _themeKey , theme ); }

Future < String > getTheme () async { final prefs = await SharedPreferences . getInstance (); return prefs . getString ( _themeKey ) ?? 'system' ; } }

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Hive — Fast NoSQL Storage

Perfect for structured data, offline caching, and large datasets.…