Flutter is an open-source UI software development kit created by Google that allows developers to build mobile, web, and desktop applications from a single codebase. It uses widgets to build applications and provides tools for compiling code to native code. Flutter includes a rich set of widgets, support for plugins, and capabilities for hot reloading and running applications during development. Apps built with Flutter are high performance, can run on multiple platforms, and Flutter provides free and open tools for getting started with development.