Xamarin vs Flutter: which one to choose for your app?
A question to ask yourself is which framework you are most comfortable with. If you are a C# developer, then Xamarin is the way to go.
10 February, 2022
One of the biggest decisions is which programming language and framework will be used for the app. Xamarin and Flutter are two popular options, but what's the difference? In this blog post, we'll compare some key features offered by Xamarin and Flutter to help you make a decision about which framework will work best for your needs.
What should you know about Xamarin app development?
Xamarin is a cross-platform mobile development framework that enables developers to write native iOS, Android, and Windows apps in C#. It was created by Xamarin Inc., which Microsoft now owns, and they've been developing it since 2011. It is designed to provide the best user experience on each platform, so you can build your app once and deploy it across all devices.
Xamarin has two main products: Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android. Xamarin.iOS supports Objective-C and Swift, while Xamarin. Android supports Java and C# (via the Mono project).
Why should you use Xamarin?
Xamarin as a choice of mobile app development services has a lot of benefits for businesses that want to be able to deploy their app across multiple platforms. This means you can share code across platforms, saving time and money. You can also reuse code from other projects in your current project by importing the shared code into your working project.
Since Xamarin uses the same codebase across all three platforms, it can be used as a way to reduce maintenance costs by sharing code across different platforms. It is possible to reuse up to 96% of your code across platforms. This also means that updating one application will update all other applications, too, since they are built from the same source code.
Xamarin enables you to write native applications in C# and use the .NET framework while still having access to some of the more powerful features of each platform, such as camera access on iOS or accessing contacts on Android.
It provides an excellent set of tools to help you design your UI so that it looks great on each device without having to write the same code over again for each platform. If you're interested in mobile UI, read our blog post about dashboard design for mobile applications. You can write cross-platform UI components using XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) or native layouts.
With Xamarin, you can save time by not having to learn new languages for each platform, and it also allows you to use the same language for all your business logic. This also means developers can work with the same IDE (Visual Studio) across all three platforms.
Xamarin Cons
- The cons of this are that there might be slight differences in how things work on different platforms, which can require some extra work to get everything working correctly across all three platforms.
- It requires knowledge of C# as well as Java or Objective-C/Swift depending on the platform being developed for, so it can be difficult for beginners who don't have much experience with programming languages like C#.
- You will need to learn languages such as Java or Objective-C to develop for iOS or Android, respectively.
- It does not support all native functionality on each platform (e.g., map views on iOS).
What should you know about Flutter?
Flutter is a cross-platform mobile app SDK (Software Development Kit) created by Google that helps developers create high-quality native apps on both iOS and Android. It has the power of low-level access to all aspects of the OS to provide the best possible experience for users. Flutter's flexible design makes it easy to deliver quick updates with new features. The codebase is written in Dart, a language that's easy to learn if you already know Java, C#, or Objective-C. If not, there are plenty of resources online to help you get started.
Why should you use Flutter?
Some benefits associated with this framework are its speed, ease of use, and the fact that it provides a single codebase for two different operating systems. Flutter renders everything using widgets drawn to the screen instead of having multiple layers like in React-Native. This makes it easier to draw complex animations for iOS and Android devices.
Flutter's reactive framework lets you effortlessly update your UI in response to events without the boilerplate code that usually comes with handling these events. This makes Flutter perfect for building highly interactive apps, such as games or social media apps, where responsiveness is key.
With Flutter, you can develop your app for both Android and iOS simultaneously. This saves a lot of time and money by not having to design separate interfaces for each platform. Apps can be developed quickly because developers don't have to worry about writing two different codebases for Android and iOS.
The cons associated with this framework are not having access to native system features, such as the camera or fingerprint scanner access, and limited third-party library support.
Flutter Cons
- It does not have as many libraries as React Native or Ionic SDKs do, but this will change as time goes on.
- There are fewer community resources available for using Flutter with Xcode or Android Studio; however, this should change as more people use the tool.
- It takes more time to learn than other frameworks like React Native or Xamarin.
- Flutter does not currently support web projects, so you need to know how to code in Java or Kotlin for Android development.
So, Xamarin or Flutter?
Many developers are asking themselves this question, as these two frameworks have been around for a while now. And it's not difficult to see why - both frameworks offer different benefits that can make them attractive depending on the type of software you're building.
The answer to this question really depends on what type of app you want to create. Xamarin and Flutter are cross-platform development tools that enable developers to build native apps in C#, Swift, or Objective-C using a single codebase. The main difference between the two is how they compile their apps. Xamarin compiles its apps with IL2CPP, which offers better performance than the standard JIT compiler in Android Studio and iOS Simulator. This makes it a great tool for building games and other high-performance applications where responsiveness is key to user satisfaction.
Xamarin has some advantages over Flutter. One of these is that Xamarin has better performance than Flutter when running on low-end devices such as smartphones with 1GB of RAM or less. Another advantage is using Visual Studio Code (VS Code) instead of Android Studio (AS). VS Code provides much better support for debugging C# code than AS does for Java or Kotlin. When it comes to performance, there's no question that Xamarin takes the cake as it has access to native APIs (application programming interfaces) and can take full advantage of them.
The disadvantages of Xamarin are that it doesn't allow for as much customization as Flutter does. The question of whether or not to use Xamarin or Flutter comes down to what you're trying to accomplish with your app. For example, if you need an app with a large number of custom views and animations, it might be better for you to use Flutter since it was built specifically for this purpose.
Final thoughts on Xamarin vs Flutter
A question to ask yourself is which framework you are most comfortable with. If you are a C# developer, then Xamarin is the way to go. But if you have experience in Java or Kotlin, Flutter would be the best choice for your next app. Another factor to consider is whether you want an open-source project or not. As of now, there are more community-driven features in Flutter than in Xamarin.
