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Framework7 vs Xamarin: What are the differences?
What is Framework7? Full Featured HTML Framework For Building iOS Apps. Framework7 - is a free and open source mobile HTML framework to develop hybrid mobile apps or web apps with iOS native look and feel. All you need to make it work is a simple HTML layout and attached framework's CSS and JS files! Framework7 doesn't force you to write some custom tags that will be converted by JavaScript to something else.
What is Xamarin? Create iOS, Android and Mac apps in C#. Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Framework7 and Xamarin can be primarily classified as "Cross-Platform Mobile Development" tools.
Some of the features offered by Framework7 are:
- iOS Specific
- UI Components
- Swipe Actions
On the other hand, Xamarin provides the following key features:
- Cross-platform development- Thinking about supporting iOS, Android, Mac and Windows? Xamarin allows you to write it all in C#.
- Reuse existing code- Use your favorite .NET libraries in Xamarin apps. Easily use third-party native libraries and frameworks.
- Discover as you type- Explore APIs as you type with code autocompletion.
"Well designed" is the top reason why over 11 developers like Framework7, while over 111 developers mention "Power of c# on mobile devices" as the leading cause for choosing Xamarin.
Framework7 is an open source tool with 14.4K GitHub stars and 3.03K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Framework7's open source repository on GitHub.
I want to learn cross-platform application frameworks like React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, or Ionic, and I'm a web developer. I can learn other programming languages as well. But I'm confused about what to learn, which framework is best, and which framework will last long as the application grows further into complexity.
Flutter is the best one. If you are a new comer in mobile app development, choose Flutter.
But if you have strong experience in JavaScript and you have a lot of JS websites that you want to develop into mobile apps, choose React Native.
Ionic also has its strong points such as a lot of prebuilt components for different platforms and minimal dev environment requirement (you only need a browser).
React Native has a very rich ecosystem and if you're already a web developer, the skills that you already possess will transfer over very well. React is the second most popular web framework according to Stack Overlow's 2022 Developer Survey. No one framework is the 'best' as they all serve different purposes and have different use cases. If you're looking to pick up something popular, I would recommend React Native.
The easiest and fastest for you right now is React Native. I dont know about the Xamarin but I dont like microsoft.
We are developing an AWS IoT app for large boats. The IoT devices have sensors all over the boat for engine oil pressure, position, water depth, fuel level, crew location, etc. When the boat has internet, we interact with AWS cloud using lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. When the boat is offshore, the captain and crew still need normal and emergency alerts and real-time sensor information. The crew might have an Android or IoS phone or a Windows or macOS PC to receive alerts and interact with sensors. We may use the AWS GreenGrasss edge computing solution and either MQTT or HTML for that function.
Question: We want to develop a cross-platform client to run on Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, and possibly Linux. We are primarily Python programmers, so PyQt or Kivy are options for us, but we have heard good things about React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and others. We think an AWS Greengrass core on an RPI4 could communicate to the client with MQTT or a local webserver with a client web interface.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
I don't know much about Xamarin but I know about PyQt and React Native.
However, I don't recommend PyQt because the apps made using PyQt are not that suitable for mobile apps. If you take a look at the PyQt interface, you will be able to see that the features are more of a desktop apps kind.
React Native uses JavaScript. React Native is immensely flexible in upgrading your apps because it allows you to formulate your app code into independent blocks.
In Xamarin, you have to write the code in .NET . The best thing about Xamarin is, that it extends the.NET developer platform with tools and libraries specifically for building apps for Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and Windows
While the best choice for you depends on various factors but React Native app development is a promising overall choice. In today’s scenario, React Native has steady growth, flawless code structure, and brilliant and large community support. We suggest you go for React Native for your next project owing to its outstanding support from developers, easy availability, and cost-effectiveness.
It seems like your app is not really using any native functionality on the phone. I have experience with cross platform iOS & Android development. They are all really good tools! Xamarin (all the project on the website portfolio I attached) is awesome for accessing native functionality (NFC, Sensors, Bluetooth, etc), and I have built apps that have millions of downloads, some that hit Top 5 on Utilities, another that hit Top 50 in Finances. You just have to look at what your application intent is, it seems like it's just to read and post data. For that they are all pretty good, but you should also look into Ionic which may serve the same purpose
I've yet to see a non-native application that I felt performed as well and/or provided the same user experience with Cordova/PhoneGap/Xamarin. Frankly, at best they all seemed like underpowered web applications deployed to a sandbox that ran on a phone. They didn't feel "slick" or "mobile-first" and in some cases the performance was unacceptable. At previous companies, we built a few of these apps at the client's insistence, and in every case, they re-engaged us about 18 months later to re-write the app(s) natively.
We are doing some research on React Native and Flutter, but I am not yet convinced that they can provide the same level of experience and performance as native, though I am trying to keep an open mind.
Pros of Framework7
- Free and open source21
- Well designed20
- Material design17
- Lots of ready-to-use ui elements, easy to customize15
- Best performance12
- Amazing documentation11
- Nice look and best performance9
- Rtl support9
- Performance and great features.9
- Easy To Learn7
- Free7
- Basic Web App Development Technique6
- Nice sample provided6
- It's feels light to use5
- Quick inital time5
- Easy to use , transit from vanilla JS5
- Doesn't require learning a JS framework5
- Easy to integrate2
Pros of Xamarin
- Power of c# on mobile devices121
- Native performance81
- Native apps with native ui controls79
- No javascript - truely compiled code73
- Sharing more than 90% of code over all platforms67
- Ability to leverage visual studio45
- Mvvm pattern44
- Many great c# libraries44
- Amazing support36
- Powerful platform for .net developers34
- GUI Native look and Feel19
- Nuget package manager16
- Free12
- Backed by Microsoft9
- Enables code reuse on server9
- Faster Development8
- Use of third-party .NET libraries7
- It's free since Apr 20167
- Best performance than other cross-platform7
- Easy Debug and Trace7
- Open Source7
- Mac IDE (Xamarin Studio)6
- Xamarin.forms is the best, it's amazing6
- That just work for every scenario5
- C# mult paradigm language5
- Power of C#, no javascript, visual studio5
- Great docs4
- Compatible to develop Hybrid apps4
- Microsoft stack4
- Microsoft backed4
- Well Designed3
- Small learning curve for Mobile developers3
- Ionic2
- Ability to leverage legacy C and C++2
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Cons of Framework7
- Not suitable for high performance in PWA. desktop apps1
Cons of Xamarin
- Build times9
- Visual Studio5
- Price4
- Complexity3
- Scalability3
- Nuget2
- Maturity2
- Build Tools2
- Support2
- Maturidade0
- Performance0
