🚀 Build Mobile Apps Like Figma & Ship Instantly — Meet Digia Studio
TL;DR:
Tired of app updates stuck in App Store purgatory? Meet Digia Studio — design mobile UIs like Figma, push updates instantly, and leave slow release cycles behind. A Flutter SDUI framework that delivers native performance with visual builder speed.
🧠 Why We Built Digia Studio
We've been engineers and PMs at fast-scaling apps. Every release cycle had pain:
- Shipping even basic UI changes meant dev time + QA + App Store wait.
- A/B testing? Only if you could afford another 2-week release.
- Cross-functional collaboration? Still blocked on the dev queue.
We asked ourselves:
"What if building native mobile apps was as fast and visual as designing in Figma — and updates could go live instantly?"
That's why we built Digia Studio.
🔧 What is Digia Studio?
Digia Studio is the first Server-Driven UI Studio built for modern mobile teams.
It’s more than just a visual builder — it’s a full-fledged platform to design, orchestrate, and release mobile app experiences with the speed of low-code and the power of native code.
Perfect for complex production apps, multi-role teams, and fast iteration cycles.
🖼️ Above: Watch how a drag-and-drop edit in Digia Studio instantly updates the native mobile preview.
🌐 Understanding CDUI vs SDUI
Traditional mobile development relies on Client-Driven UI (CDUI), where UI components are hardcoded into the app. This means every UI change requires a new app build, testing, and App Store approval process.
Server-Driven UI (SDUI) revolutionizes this by moving UI configuration to the server. Your app fetches UI definitions dynamically and renders them natively in real-time. This enables instant updates without app store dependencies.
Learn more about the evolution from CDUI to SDUI in our detailed guides:
✅ Core Features
- Visual App Builder: Drag and drop UI like Figma — but for real mobile apps.
- Server Driven UI (SDUI): Your app fetches UI config from the backend and renders it natively.
- Instant Updates: Ship changes instantly — no App Store / Play Store approvals.
- Release Management: Preview, rollback, and version your mobile app like Git.
- Native Performance: Built entirely on top of Flutter, with native APIs and logic support.
- Complex Logic & State Management: Build and bind logic, manage state visually or via code — no trade-offs.
- RBAC (Role-Based Access Control): Built for large teams — define granular access across product, design, and dev roles.
- GitHub Integration: Connect workflows with your GitHub repo for version control and sync.
- Experimentation Support: Run A/B tests on onboarding, upsells, or feature toggles without waiting for a new build.
🔄 How It All Connects
Here's how your ecosystem integrates inside Digia Studio:
- 🔗 Connect APIs like Postman and REST endpoints
- 🎨 Sync design tools like Figma and your design system
- 🧩 Integrate GitHub for seamless source control
- 🧠 Orchestrate UI & logic centrally in Digia Studio
- 📱 Deliver updates instantly to Android, iOS, and Web
- 📊 Sync analytics (Firebase, Clevertap, Mixpanel) — no extra engineering effort
👨💻 Who is it for?
- Product Teams: Launch experiments faster. Control UX without app releases.
- Developers: Skip boilerplate UI work. Focus on APIs, business logic, and performance.
- Designers: Go from mockup to live screen — without waiting for engineering.
- Engineering Managers: Manage roles, version releases, and component consistency across squads.
🆚 Digia Studio vs Expo vs Bubble.io vs FlutterFlow
| Feature / Tool | Digia Studio 🟢 | Expo | Bubble.io | FlutterFlow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Tech | Flutter + Server-Driven UI | React Native | Web (no-code, WebView wrapper) | Flutter (visual + code export) |
| Visual Builder | ✅ Yes | ❌ (Code-based) | ✅ Yes (web-focused) | ✅ Yes |
| Server-Driven UI (SDUI) | ✅ Built-in, instant updates | ⚠️ Partial (via OTA updates) | ❌ Static build | ❌ Static build |
| Native Mobile Output | ✅ 100% Flutter native | ✅ 100% React Native | ⚠️ Web wrapped in native shell | ✅ 100% Flutter native |
| App Store Independence | ✅ No need to resubmit | ⚠️ Limited via OTA | ✅ Yes, via web updates | ❌ Requires rebuild + resubmission |
| Complex Logic & State Mgmt | ✅ Visual + code support | ✅ Yes (full JS control) | ❌ Very limited | ⚠️ Basic support |
| Release Management | ✅ Preview, rollback, version | ❌ Manual via Git / CI | ❌ Limited | ⚠️ Manual, export-oriented |
| Role-Based Access (RBAC) | ✅ Yes | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Limited |
| Built for Large Teams | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Not opinionated | ❌ Solo / small teams | ⚠️ Mostly solo/early-stage |
| GitHub Integration | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ | ✅ Yes |
| Best Use Case | Complex apps, fast iteration | Custom apps with RN team | Internal tools, MVPs | MVPs, early mobile projects |
| Limitations | Flutter-only (for now) | No visual builder, RN only | No native performance, web UI | Static export, limited SDUI |
⚙️ Install Digia UI SDK
Digia Studio works with your existing Flutter app using the open-source digia_ui package.
🧩 Install via CLI
$ flutter pub add digia_ui
This will add the following to your pubspec.yaml:
dependencies:
digia_ui: ^0.4.3
🚀 Initialize Digia UI
In your main.dart, set up the SDK:
await DigiaUIClient.init(
accessKey: "youraccesskey",
// For release builds:
// flavorInfo: Release(PrioritizeNetwork(500), 'assets/appConfig.json', 'assets/function.js'),
flavorInfo: Debug('main'),
environment: DigiaEnv.Environment.development.name,
baseUrl: "https://app.digia.tech/api/v1",
networkConfiguration: NetworkConfiguration(
defaultHeaders: {},
timeout: 30,
),
duiAnalytics: BbluntAppAnalytics(), // optional
);
DUIFactory().initialize();
💡 Replace "youraccesskey" with your actual Digia Studio project key.
🧪 Real-World Use Cases
🧠 Datamuni
Challenge: Deliver a fast, searchable GPT-like interface for complex public data
Solution: Used Digia Studio's SDUI + logic engine to build explore + news modules
Result: Went live in weeks instead of months, with instant mobile UI updates for ongoing improvements.
🧴 BBlunt
Challenge: Slow CMS workflows were blocking e-commerce experimentation
Solution: Replaced static flows with Digia's visual builder for native mobile apps + Shopify APIs
Result: Unlocked fast, customizable shopping journeys with native logic integration.
🏦 Dezerv
Challenge: Financial SIP flows needed frequent updates but were stuck in release cycles
Solution: Powered entire investment flow using Digia Studio's server-driven architecture
Result: Updates now ship in hours, not weeks — enabling rapid product iteration.
💡 Impact Across Customers
- 800K$+ revenue unlocked via SDUI e-commerce and fintech journeys
- Weeks of dev time saved with visual builder + live preview
- Product teams now shipping in hours, not weeks
🎯 Try Digia Studio Today
Start building with drag-and-drop.
Preview on your phone with our mobile apps: Android | iOS
Push updates instantly.
All with the power of a studio built for modern mobile teams.
🧬 Coming Soon
We're pushing the boundaries of SDUI along with :
- ✨ Figma to Digia AI: Turn your Figma designs into live mobile UIs.
- 🤖 AI Agents: Chat-based agents that generate complete SDUI app flows.
- 🧠 Prompt to App: Describe your idea, get a working SDUI native mobile UI instantly.
🤝 Book a 1:1 Deep Dive
Want to understand how Digia Studio can fit your stack?
💬 Let's Talk
Have feedback, questions, or want to see your use case live?
Comment below, or reach out at anupamsingh@digia.tech
Or follow us on Twitter/X @digiastudio | LinkedIn
Top comments (4)
The concept looks cool. But how is it better then using shorebird where i can just ship the flutter code OTA?
In case you want a deeper comparison, I’ve penned down the details here:
👉 digia.tech/post/digia-vs-shorebird...
well @stopdrake
Shorebird is great for OTA patching, but comes with a forked Flutter SDK and is best suited for updating logic or fixing bugs in already-compiled apps.
Digia is a full server-driven Flutter studio — lets you build new flows visually, manage state + logic remotely, and push instantly to users without any rebuild or patching.
It’s also fully interoperable with native Flutter code, so you can integrate it without size overhead.
Game changer for mobile development. Few questions: