Xamarin vs Xamarin Forms

Overview

Xamarin

Stacks1.3K

Followers1.5K

Votes785

Xamarin Forms

Stacks356

Followers278

Votes5

Xamarin vs Xamarin Forms: What are the differences?

Introduction

In the world of cross-platform development, Xamarin and Xamarin Forms are popular frameworks that allow developers to create native applications for Android, iOS, and Windows using C# and .NET.

Code Sharing: Xamarin allows for code sharing between different platforms while still maintaining native performance by using C#, .NET, and native libraries. On the other hand, Xamarin.Forms enables more code sharing by providing a way to create a single user interface that can be rendered on multiple platforms. This is achieved through the use of XAML for defining the UI and a set of common controls that are mapped to native controls on each platform.
User Interface: Xamarin allows for platform-specific UI development, meaning developers can create unique user interfaces tailored for each platform using native APIs. In contrast, Xamarin.Forms provides UI abstraction and allows for the creation of a single UI that can be rendered on multiple platforms, sacrificing some platform-specific design capabilities for the sake of code reusability.
Customization and Control: Xamarin provides more customization and control over platform-specific features and optimizations, allowing developers to fine-tune their applications for each platform. Xamarin.Forms, while offering rapid UI development, may limit the ability to customize certain features or UI elements specific to each platform due to its abstracted nature.
Development Speed: Xamarin.Forms typically offers faster development speed due to its ability to create a single codebase for multiple platforms. This can be beneficial for projects with tight deadlines or limited resources. Xamarin, on the other hand, may require more time for platform-specific optimizations and customizations, but can result in more tailored and performant applications.
Learning Curve: Xamarin.Forms has a lower learning curve compared to Xamarin, as it abstracts away many platform-specific details and provides a more unified development experience. Developers familiar with XAML and MVVM patterns will find it easier to adapt to Xamarin.Forms. In contrast, Xamarin requires a deeper understanding of platform-specific APIs and development practices, which may pose a steeper learning curve for beginners.
Use Cases: Xamarin is ideal for projects that require a high degree of platform-specific customization, performance optimizations, and access to native APIs. It is well-suited for applications that demand a native look and feel on each platform. On the other hand, Xamarin.Forms is a better choice for projects focused on code sharing, rapid prototyping, and applications with simpler user interfaces that do not heavily rely on platform-specific design elements.

In Summary, the key differences between Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms lie in their approach to code sharing, user interface development, customization, development speed, learning curve, and use cases.

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Detailed Comparison

Xamarin	Xamarin Forms
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.	A mobile application framework for building user interfaces.It easily create native user interface layouts that can be shared across Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.
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.	-
Statistics
Stacks 1.3K	Stacks 356
Followers 1.5K	Followers 278
Votes 785	Votes 5
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 5 Native Development SDK with shared C# code-base

What are some alternatives to Xamarin, Xamarin Forms?

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

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 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 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

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, 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 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

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 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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Xamarin vs Xamarin Forms: What are the differences?

Introduction

In the world of cross-platform development, Xamarin and Xamarin Forms are popular frameworks that allow developers to create native applications for Android, iOS, and Windows using C# and .NET.

Code Sharing: Xamarin allows for code sharing between different platforms while still maintaining native performance by using C#, .NET, and native libraries. On the other hand, Xamarin.Forms enables more code sharing by providing a way to create a single user interface that can be rendered on multiple platforms. This is achieved through the use of XAML for defining the UI and a set of common controls that are mapped to native controls on each platform.
User Interface: Xamarin allows for platform-specific UI development, meaning developers can create unique user interfaces tailored for each platform using native APIs. In contrast, Xamarin.Forms provides UI abstraction and allows for the creation of a single UI that can be rendered on multiple platforms, sacrificing some platform-specific design capabilities for the sake of code reusability.
Customization and Control: Xamarin provides more customization and control over platform-specific features and optimizations, allowing developers to fine-tune their applications for each platform. Xamarin.Forms, while offering rapid UI development, may limit the ability to customize certain features or UI elements specific to each platform due to its abstracted nature.
Development Speed: Xamarin.Forms typically offers faster development speed due to its ability to create a single codebase for multiple platforms. This can be beneficial for projects with tight deadlines or limited resources. Xamarin, on the other hand, may require more time for platform-specific optimizations and customizations, but can result in more tailored and performant applications.
Learning Curve: Xamarin.Forms has a lower learning curve compared to Xamarin, as it abstracts away many platform-specific details and provides a more unified development experience. Developers familiar with XAML and MVVM patterns will find it easier to adapt to Xamarin.Forms. In contrast, Xamarin requires a deeper understanding of platform-specific APIs and development practices, which may pose a steeper learning curve for beginners.
Use Cases: Xamarin is ideal for projects that require a high degree of platform-specific customization, performance optimizations, and access to native APIs. It is well-suited for applications that demand a native look and feel on each platform. On the other hand, Xamarin.Forms is a better choice for projects focused on code sharing, rapid prototyping, and applications with simpler user interfaces that do not heavily rely on platform-specific design elements.

In Summary, the key differences between Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms lie in their approach to code sharing, user interface development, customization, development speed, learning curve, and use cases.