Xamarin Native vs. Xamarin.Forms

Which Cross-Platform Suits You The Best?

In today’s tech-savvy world, it is very common to own a mobile phone. India’s smartphone base is estimated to reach 820 million in the next two years according to a new study said. Cross-platform app frameworks have become increasingly popular as iOS and Android mobile markets continue to boom. Every business can’t launch native mobile applications for Google Play Store and Apple App Store as it is an expensive and time taking process. But it is crucial for companies to develop customized solutions as per people’s requirements. When it comes to deciding upon cross-platform development tools, Xamarin is one of the best frameworks for cross-platform mobile app development. Xamarin enables building apps with native API access, native UI, and native performance on a shared C# codebase. Cost-effectiveness, rich features, and agility make it a perfect choice for building cross-platform apps. Now once you have decided to develop your apps in C# and Xamarin, you are required to make one more choice: Should you prefer Xamarin.Forms, or build directly in Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS? In this content piece, we will be having a glance at the features of Xamarin Native and Xamarin.Forms. Let us begin with:-

• Outline

Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android is often called Xamarin.Native or Xamarin Traditional. It is a cross-platform application for developers to develop mobile applications using the .NET framework and C#. For Xamarin Native applications, platform-independent code is stored either in a shared project or a Portable Class Library (PCL).Tools like Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.Mac, help in native user experience and employing platform-specific functionalities. An advanced version of Xamarin Native that allows a single XAML to be written for aiming multiple platforms at once is Xamarin.Forms. All the features and functionalities of the Xamarin platform are inherited in applications developed using Xamarin.Forms. Developers with the help of Xamarin. Forms can write business logic in C#, and UI can either be defined in XAML format or in code so that it can be shared among all the platforms.

• User Experience and App Functionalities

With the Xamarin framework, you can access a wide-ranging group of controls; APIs for iOS and Android, and plugins that allow you to reap the benefits of platform-specific functionality. Developers can create flawless UI and UX solutions with Xamarin as it is furnished with a UI design environment for Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio. So if you are looking for a complicated and intensive graphical user interface, then Xamarin Native is the perfect framework for you. Xamarin Native allows its developers to create a platform-precise user experience for its application. While Xamarin.Forms permit users to share UI code across several platforms. For apps delivering customized user experience and high levels of functionality, Xamarin Native is recommended as it allows creating complex and intense graphic UI for each platform.

• Development Costs

One of the most vital factors considered by business enterprises is the cost of mobile app development. If you need a mobile app for minimum cost, then Xamarin.Forms are probably the choices. With Xamarin.Forms, the development effort, and the learning curve are minimal, as the UI code and app logic is shared among platforms.

• Development Time-frame

There is a significant cut down in the development time when you work with Xamarin. The reason being it permits working with a single, shared C# codebase. Xamarin platform allows developers to create and share app logic for input validation, web service calls, backend integrations, database interactions, and other such functionalities. The UI code is written using MVVM frameworks for each platform individually. The level of code sharing is only up to 75% with Xamarin Native. The level of code sharing increases to 95% with Xamarin.Forms. The development cycle is faster with Xamarin.Forms as compared to Xamarin Native. This is because of Xamarin.Forms allow developers to develop and share a single UI code for all platforms.

• Maintenance and Updates

App maintenance is always tricky particularly when you launch the same on multiple platforms. When you select Xamarin app development, one of the important benefits is being a shared codebase it helps in debugging, updating, and maintaining the app logic faster. Maintenance and updates of Xamarin apps are quite easy as developers just need to update a single source file. Also as Xamarin apps share code across many platforms, it decreases the number of lines of code in an application, thereby cutting down on the chance for mistakes or bugs to be hosted into the application. Developers need to work on the base code and then the platform-specific UI code with Xamarin Native. While Xamarin.Forms offer a combined approach in this respect, as all updates can be achieved on a single codebase. Xamarin.Forms can be your best choice if you are building a mobile application that needs frequent updates. Concluding Lines… Deciding upon a cross-platform mobile app development framework is solely based on your budget limits and app requirements. And after going through the above content it becomes well established that both Xamarin Native and Xamarin.Forms have their advantages and disadvantages. If you are planning to develop a cross-platform app with platform-specific APIs, and intricate designs, specialized user interactions then it is better to use Xamarin Native. While on the other hand, you can go with Xamarin Forms if you are building a mobile application that requires little platform-specific functionality, and where code sharing is more important than custom UI. Happy Developing!! Share your comments and feedback here (if any) on the content.