Zero-jank image caching for Flutter

cached_network_image_ce is the actively maintained fork of cached_network_image, rebuilt around a caching engine that doesn't block your UI thread. Same widget and provider API you already use.

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Table of contents

• Why this fork exists
• How we stack up
• Architecture
• Benchmarks
• Used by
• Features
• Quick start
• Full docs and advanced usage
• FAQ
• Contributing
• License

Why this fork exists

cached_network_image by Baseflow is one of the most widely used packages in the Flutter ecosystem. It has also been effectively unmaintained since August 2024, sitting on 300+ open issues, including memory leaks and scroll-performance bugs that never got fixed.

Under the hood it leans on sqflite for cache metadata: a full SQL engine routed through a platform channel just to answer "have I already downloaded this image?" On image-heavy lists, that overhead shows up as jank you can feel.

We didn't fork this just to merge dependabot PRs. We rebuilt the caching layer.

We swapped sqflite for hive_ce, a pure-Dart, non-blocking key-value store. It skips the platform channel round trip and the SQL parser entirely, so there's no jank left to fix.

How we stack up

vs. the original cached_network_image:

	Original (cached_network_image)	This fork (cached_network_image_ce)
Cache backend	sqflite (platform channel)	✅ hive_ce (pure Dart)
Maintenance	❌ stale since Aug 2024	✅ active, regular releases
Web caching	⚠️ browser cache only	✅ full persistent IndexedDB cache
HTTP / cache interceptors	❌	✅ full chains (auth, logging, custom responses)
Cache eviction	❌ fixed	✅ pluggable — TTL or LRU
Cache read (10 KB)	16 ms	✅ 2 ms — 8x faster
Unsupported formats (SVG/AVIF/HEIC)	❌ opaque decode error	✅ unsupportedImageBuilder hook

vs. other popular alternatives, checked live against pub.dev, so this is current rather than a guess:

Package	Cache backend	Web support	Interceptors	Cleanup strategy	Maintenance
cached_network_image_ce (this)	hive_ce	✅ full IndexedDB	✅ HTTP + cache	✅ TTL / LRU	✅ active
cached_network_image	sqflite	⚠️ browser only	❌	❌ fixed	❌ stale
flutter_cache_manager	sqflite / plain JSON	✅	❌	❌ fixed	✅ active
extended_image	undisclosed	✅	⚠️ headers/retry only	⚠️ manual clear	✅ active
fast_cached_network_image	hive (plain)	✅ (claimed)	❌	⚠️ TTL only	⚠️ stale (17mo)

Worth saying plainly: flutter_cache_manager and extended_image are both actively maintained by reputable teams. They're solving different problems than we are: a generic file cache, and a broad image/gesture toolkit, respectively. The "actively maintained fork" pitch applies specifically against the original cached_network_image, which this package is a drop-in replacement for.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    W[CachedNetworkImage widget] --> P[CachedNetworkImageProvider]
    P --> M[DefaultCacheManager]
    M --> H[("Hive CE<br/>metadata: URL, path,<br/>validTill, eTag")]
    M --> FS[("Native filesystem<br/>raw image bytes")]
    H -.cache hit.-> P
    FS -.cache hit.-> P

    subgraph Original[Original package, for comparison]
        direction LR
        W2[CachedNetworkImage] --> M2[CacheManager]
        M2 --> PC[Platform Channel]
        PC --> SQL[(SQLite via sqflite)]
    end

Loading

• Old way: Dart → platform channel → native SQLite → disk. Slow, blocking.
• New way: Dart → Hive CE (pure Dart, non-blocking) → disk. Instant.

That difference is what gets you zero-jank scrolling, even in image-dense lists.

🚀 Benchmarks

Measured cache metadata operations (check, write, delete) on an iPhone Simulator:

Operation	Payload	Original (sqflite)	CE (hive_ce)	Improvement
Read (Hit Check)	10 KB	16 ms	2 ms	8.00x faster
Write (New Image)	10 KB	116 ms	29 ms	4.00x faster
Delete (Cleanup)	10 KB	55 ms	19 ms	2.89x faster
Read (Large)	1 MB	8 ms	1 ms	8.00x faster

"Read" matters most for scroll performance, since every list item checks the cache before rendering.

Used by

Real apps shipping with cached_network_image_ce, found via a live GitHub code search for pubspec.yaml files that depend on it, sorted by stars:

Project	Stars	What it is
Kazumi		Rule-based anime scraper and streaming app with danmaku and real-time super-resolution.
PiliPlus		Third-party Bilibili client built with Flutter.
plezy		Cross-platform Plex and Jellyfin client.
conduit		Native iOS/Android client for Open WebUI, OpenAI-compatible APIs, Ollama, and OpenRouter.
haka_comic		Third-party, ad-free client for the PicACG (Bika/Pica) comics platform.
MusicPod		Music, radio, TV, and podcast player for Ubuntu and macOS.
Fluxer		Official mobile client for Fluxer.
jd_mall_flutter		Flutter clone of a major Chinese e-commerce marketplace app.
BoxBox		Unofficial Formula 1 and Formula E companion app.

Shipping something with it? Open a PR and add yours, or check the full, current list yourself.

Features

• Drop-in replacement — 99% API compatible with the original package.
• hive_ce powered — instant, non-blocking cache lookups.
• Real web support — persistent IndexedDB caching, not just browser HTTP cache.
• HTTP & cache interceptors — inject auth headers, logging, or synthetic responses without forking anything.
• Pluggable eviction — TTL (default) or LRU cleanup strategies.
• Graceful unsupported-format handling — SVG/AVIF/HEIC decode failures route to unsupportedImageBuilder instead of a bare exception.
• Actively maintained — regular releases, community-driven roadmap.

Quick start

flutter pub add cached_network_image_ce

import 'package:cached_network_image_ce/cached_network_image.dart';

CachedNetworkImage(
  imageUrl: 'https://example.com/image.jpg',
  placeholder: (context, url) => const CircularProgressIndicator(),
  errorWidget: (context, url, error) => const Icon(Icons.error),
)

Full docs and advanced usage

The quick start above covers the basics. For interceptors, cleanup strategies, connection timeouts, custom cache and metadata directories, web render modes, and unsupported-format handling, see the full reference:

cached_network_image/README.md

FAQ

Q: Will I lose my users' existing cache if I migrate? A: Yes. Because we switched the storage engine from SQLite to Hive, the old cache files will be ignored. Users will re-download images once as they browse. This is a one-time migration cost for a permanent performance gain.

Q: My app crashes/pauses on errors? A: In Debug mode, Flutter may pause on exceptions even if they are caught. This is expected behavior for network errors (404s). In Release mode, these are handled silently by the errorWidget.

Q: Why is web caching slower, or why does it use Hive for image bytes? A: On Mobile & Desktop (IO), this package stores image bytes directly on the native file system and uses Hive only for metadata. Web lacks a native file system, so hive_ce stores both metadata and image bytes in IndexedDB there. Serializing large byte arrays in and out of IndexedDB carries overhead that doesn't exist on IO. Alternative: if persistent caching across sessions isn't critical for your web users, consider conditionally using Image.network on web, which relies on the browser's built-in caching.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! If you want to help maintain this package, check CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT. See LICENSE for details.