How is InheritedWidget different from Provider ?

InheritedWidget and Provider are both used for state management in Flutter, but they have some key differences:

InheritedWidget is a built-in widget in Flutter that allows you to share data across widgets in the widget tree. It works by providing a way to access a value from the nearest ancestor widget that holds the value. The main advantage of InheritedWidget is its simplicity and ease of use[1][4].

Provider is a wrapper around InheritedWidget that makes it easier to use and more reusable. By using Provider instead of manually writing InheritedWidget, you get[3]:

• Simplified allocation/disposal of resources
• Lazy-loading
• Reduced boilerplate over making a new class every time
• Devtool friendly - the state of your application will be visible in the Flutter devtool
• A common way to consume these InheritedWidgets (See Provider.of/...