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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. PWA vs Xamarin

PWA vs Xamarin

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Xamarin
Xamarin
Stacks1.3K
Followers1.5K
Votes785
PWA
PWA
Stacks86
Followers132
Votes0

PWA vs Xamarin: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between PWA (Progressive Web App) and Xamarin. Both PWA and Xamarin are popular frameworks used for mobile app development, but they have distinct characteristics and features.

  1. Architecture: PWA is built using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which are then rendered in a web browser. Xamarin, on the other hand, is a cross-platform development tool that allows developers to write shared code in C#, then compile it into native apps for different platforms.

  2. Platform Support: PWA is designed to work across all platforms and can be accessed through a web browser, making it platform-independent. Xamarin supports multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows, and allows developers to share code across these platforms.

  3. User Experience: PWA can provide a user experience similar to native apps, offering features such as push notifications, offline functionality, and the ability to add the app to the home screen. Xamarin enables developers to build native-like apps, giving users a more familiar and optimized experience compared to web-based apps.

  4. Development Time and Cost: PWA development can be faster and more cost-effective than developing separate apps for each platform since it uses web technologies. Xamarin, although allowing code sharing, requires platform-specific UI adjustments, which may increase development time and cost.

  5. Performance: PWA performance can be affected by various factors like network speed and browser limitations since it runs within a web browser. Xamarin apps, being native or near-native, can provide better performance as they directly interact with the device's hardware and utilize platform-specific APIs.

  6. App Store Distribution: PWA apps do not require app store submission and approval process, as they can be accessed through a web browser. Xamarin apps need to go through the respective app store's submission and approval process, which may involve additional time and effort.

In summary, PWA is a web-based approach providing platform-independent apps with good user experience, while Xamarin offers a cross-platform solution allowing developers to write shared code for native or near-native apps, offering better performance and platform-specific features.

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Detailed Comparison

Xamarin
Xamarin
PWA
PWA

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.

Building a high-quality Progressive Web App has incredible benefits, making it easy to delight your users, grow engagement and increase conversions.It is intended to work on any platform that uses a standards-compliant browser.

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.;Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio- Create, build, debug, and deploy apps in Visual Studio. Or use Xamarin Studio, a fully-featured IDE that is built for mobile app development.;Native UI, Native Performance- Xamarin delivers high performance compiled code with full access to all the native APIs so you can create native apps with device-specific experiences.; Point and Click UI Design- Xamarin provides a world class Android UI designer. Use Apple Xcode UI designer to create interfaces and Storyboards that automatically sync with your Xamarin.iOS project.
offline, performance, speed, app
Statistics
Stacks
1.3K
Stacks
86
Followers
1.5K
Followers
132
Votes
785
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 121
    Power of c# on mobile devices
  • 81
    Native performance
  • 79
    Native apps with native ui controls
  • 73
    No javascript - truely compiled code
  • 67
    Sharing more than 90% of code over all platforms
Cons
  • 9
    Build times
  • 5
    Visual Studio
  • 4
    Price
  • 3
    Complexity
  • 3
    Scalability
Pros
  • 1
    It's javascript, html, and css
  • 1
    Free
  • 1
    Allows for rapid prototyping
  • 1
    Doesn't need a native building tools/sdk
Cons
  • 1
    Adoption across mobile OSes varies

What are some alternatives to Xamarin, PWA?

Ionic

Ionic

Free and open source, Ionic offers a library of mobile and desktop-optimized HTML, CSS and JS components for building highly interactive apps. Use with Angular, React, Vue, or plain JavaScript.

Flutter

Flutter

Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.

React Native

React Native

React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.

NativeScript

NativeScript

NativeScript enables developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Universal while sharing the application code across the platforms. When building the application UI, developers use our libraries, which abstract the differences between the native platforms.

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova is a set of device APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access native device function such as the camera or accelerometer from JavaScript. Combined with a UI framework such as jQuery Mobile or Dojo Mobile or Sencha Touch, this allows a smartphone app to be developed with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Framework7

Framework7

It 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.

Qt

Qt

Qt, a leading cross-platform application and UI framework. With Qt, you can develop applications once and deploy to leading desktop, embedded & mobile targets.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a web platform that exposes native mobile device apis and data to JavaScript. PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.

Expo

Expo

It is a framework and a platform for universal React applications. It is a set of tools and services built around React Native and native platforms that help you develop, build, deploy, and quickly iterate on iOS, Android, and web apps.

Vue Native

Vue Native

Vue Native is a mobile framework to build truly native mobile app using Vue.js. Its is designed to connect React Native and Vue.js. Vue Native is a wrapper around React Native APIs, which allows you to use Vue.js and compose rich mobile User Interface.

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