GridView vs ListView in Dart UI: Full Comparison

When developing user interfaces in Flutter using Dart, choosing between GridView and ListView can significantly affect the usability, performance, and design of your app. Both widgets serve the purpose of displaying scrollable content, but they do so in different ways. In this article, we’ll compare GridView and ListView in Dart UI to help you decide which is the better option for your next Flutter project.

What is ListView?

ListView is the default widget for displaying items in a linear fashion, either vertically or horizontally. It’s best suited for a single-column layout such as news feeds, settings, chat interfaces, or contact lists.

Key Features of ListView:

• Linear scrolling (vertical/horizontal)
• Supports infinite scrolling using ListView.builder
• Efficient for large data sets
• Easy to implement

Sample Code for ListView:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(title: Text("ListView Example")),
        body: ListView.builder(
          itemCount: 10,
          itemBuilder: (context, index) {
            return ListTile(
              leading: Icon(Icons.person),
              title: Text('Item $index'),
            );
          },
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

What is GridView?

GridView is used to display items in a 2D grid format. It is ideal for image galleries, dashboards, and product listings where multiple items should appear side-by-side.

Key Features of GridView:

• Multi-column layout
• Responsive and customizable grid size
• Supports lazy loading with GridView.builder
• Useful for visual-rich layouts

Sample Code for GridView:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(title: Text("GridView Example")),
        body: GridView.builder(
          gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithFixedCrossAxisCount(
            crossAxisCount: 2,
          ),
          itemCount: 8,
          itemBuilder: (context, index) {
            return Card(
              child: Center(
                child: Text('Item $index'),
              ),
            );
          },
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Which One Should You Use?

If your UI requires a clean, scrollable list, go for ListView. But if you need a visually engaging layout with multiple items per row, GridView is the right choice.

For a deeper dive into Flutter UI best practices, you can visit Flutter’s official layout documentation.