Getting Started • Documentation • Example Apps • Issues

Flutter database for Dart-native objects and on-device vector management 💙

The ObjectBox Flutter database is a great choice for managing Dart objects in cross-platform and AI-driven applications. Its advanced vector search empowers on-device AI for a variety of applications, including RAG AI, generative AI, and similarity searches. Designed for high performance, the ObjectBox Flutter database is excellent for mobile and IoT devices, minimizing CPU, memory, and battery usage to enhance device efficiency and sustainability. As an offline-first solution, ObjectBox makes sure your app reliably works offline as well as online.

Build smarter apps with our easy-to-use native Dart API, and enjoy our seamless Data Sync, which provides data consistency across devices.

Features

🧠 Artificial Intelligence - superfast on-device vector search.
🏁 Super fast - 10X faster than SQLite - see the performance benchmarks.
🪂 ACID compliant - Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, Durable.
💻 Cross-platform - Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows.
🌱 Scalable - grows with your app, handling millions of objects with ease.

🎯 NoSQL database - no rows or columns, only pure Dart objects.
🔗 Relations - object links / relationships are built-in.
💐 Queries - filter data as needed, even across relations.
📃 Schema migration - simply change your model, we handle the rest.

Oh, and there is one more thing...

😮 Data Sync - sync only when and where needed.

On this page

• Sneak peek
• Getting Started
• Flutter Database Performance Benchmarks
• Do you 💙 ObjectBox?
• FAQ
• See also
• License

---

Sneak peek - persist Dart objects with ObjectBox

ObjectBox provides a store with boxes to put objects into:

// Annotate a Dart class to create a Box
@Entity()
class Person {
  @Id()
  int id;
  String firstName;
  String lastName;

  Person({this.id = 0, required this.firstName, required this.lastName});
}

final Store store = await openStore(directory: 'person-db');
final box = store.box<Person>();

var person = Person(firstName: 'Joe', lastName: 'Green');
final id = box.put(person); // Create

person = box.get(id)!;      // Read

person.lastName = 'Black';
box.put(person);            // Update

box.remove(person.id);      // Delete

final query = box           // Query
    .query(Person_.firstName.equals('Joe') & Person_.lastName.startsWith('B'))
    .build();
final List<Person> people = query.find();
query.close();

Getting Started

You can add the ObjectBox Dart SDK to

• Flutter projects
• Dart Native projects

Flutter projects

To add ObjectBox to your Flutter project:

1. Run these commands:

flutter pub add objectbox objectbox_flutter_libs:any
flutter pub add --dev build_runner objectbox_generator:any

Or to use ObjectBox Sync (requires access to the Sync feature) instead run:

flutter pub add objectbox objectbox_sync_flutter_libs:any
flutter pub add --dev build_runner objectbox_generator:any

2. This should add lines like this to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  objectbox: ^5.1.0
  objectbox_flutter_libs: any
  # If you run the command for ObjectBox Sync it should add instead:
  # objectbox_sync_flutter_libs: any

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner: ^2.4.11
  objectbox_generator: any

3. If you added the above lines manually, then install the packages with flutter pub get.

4. Your project can now use ObjectBox, continue by defining entity classes.

Dart Native projects

To add ObjectBox to your Dart Native project:

1. Run these commands:

dart pub add objectbox
dart pub add --dev build_runner objectbox_generator:any

2. This should add lines like this to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  objectbox: ^5.1.0

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner: ^2.4.11
  objectbox_generator: any

3. If you added the above lines manually, then install the packages with dart pub get

4. In your package directory, download the ObjectBox C library for your system (on Windows you can use "Git Bash"):

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/objectbox/objectbox-dart/main/install.sh)

Or to use ObjectBox Sync (requires access to the Sync feature) instead run:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/objectbox/objectbox-dart/main/install.sh) --sync

5. Your project can now use ObjectBox, continue by defining entity classes.

Deploying Dart Native projects

Natively compiled Dart applications that use ObjectBox Dart require a reference to the ObjectBox C library. Hence, the shared library file downloaded with install.sh needs to be shipped with the executable.

The install.sh script downloads the library by default to the lib subdirectory of the working directory. An executable using ObjectBox Dart looks for the library in this lib directory.

If it is not found there, it falls back to using system directories (using Dart's DynamicLibrary.open):

• Windows: working directory and %WINDIR%\system32.
• macOS: /usr/local/lib (and maybe others).
• Linux: /lib and /usr/lib (again, possibly others).

Flutter Database Performance Benchmarks

We tested across the four main database operations, CRUD (create, read, update, delete). Each test was run multiple times and executed manually outside of the measured time. Data preparation and evaluation were also done outside of the measured time.

Here are the benchmarks for ObjectBox vs sqflite vs Hive (last updated 2021-09-11) 👇

You can run these yourself using our objectbox-dart-performance Flutter benchmark app.

Do you 💙 ObjectBox?

We strive to bring joy to Flutter developers and appreciate any feedback --> Please fill in this 2-minute Anonymous Feedback Form.

We ❤️ you & are looking forward to your comments and ideas:

• Add GitHub issues
• Upvote issues you find important by hitting the 👍/+1 reaction button
• Fill in the feedback form to help us improve our products
• Drop us a line on Twitter via @ObjectBox_io
• ⭐ us on GitHub, if you like what you see or give us a 👍 on pub.dev

Thank you! 🙏

Keep in touch: For general news on ObjectBox, check our blog!

FAQ

See the FAQ and Troubleshooting pages.

See also

• Changelog
• Contribution guidelines

License

Copyright © 2019-2025 ObjectBox Ltd. <https://objectbox.io/>

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Note that this license applies to the code in this repository only. See our website on details about all licenses for ObjectBox components.