.NET MAUI vs Xamarin – Which Cross-platform Framework to Choose in 2025?
Mobile applications rule the market scenarios when it comes to reaching a large group of people and offering an exceptional user experience. Also, businesses are getting attracted towards cross-platform mobile applications. Undoubtedly, Microsoft’s frameworks have long stood out as powerful tools for developers worldwide.
Over the years, Xamarin was the cornerstone for creating high-performance native mobile apps for iOS and Android using .NET. However, the introduction and subsequent rise of .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) has led to a serious debate among businesses and developers with a crucial question: .NET MAUI vs Xamarin – which framework is better suited for development in 2025?
Basically, selecting the right framework is beneficial for developers & businesses to stay ahead within the digital competition and rapidly evolving development landscape. If you are also looking for the same, then here we are at your service.
In this article, we’ll explore key differences along with performance aspects, developer experience, and what these platforms hold as the future of mobile app development in the context of Xamarin vs MAUI.
Understanding Xamarin and .NET MAUI:
Let’s begin our journey with some basics regarding Xamarin vs .NET MAUI, i.e., its technical aspects.
In 2011, Xamarin emerged as a revolutionary cross-platform development tool. However, this platform attained popularity among developers after Microsoft’s acquisition in 2016. The primary reason behind its popularity is its ability to create native applications using C# and the .NET development ecosystem.
By having a shared codebase, Xamarin makes it possible for developers to reuse almost 90% of their code while building native apps for different platforms, like Android, iOS, and Windows.
Basically, developers can find two major components of Xamarin, as follows:
- Xamarin.Forms: A UI toolkit allowing developers to build user interfaces that can be shared across platforms.
- Xamarin Native: Allows creating fully native applications with platform-specific UIs.
Microsoft introduced .NET MAUI in May 2022 as an evolved version of Xamarin.Forms. Here, MAUI highlights ‘Multi-platform App UI’. This platform helps businesses and developers to build and create applications beyond mobile. This platform is beneficial for targeting Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and even Tizen by utilizing a single and unified codebase.
.NET MAUI builds upon Xamarin. Forms but significantly enhances developer experience by unifying code and resources. This platform benefits by reducing the complexity of project management and provides more robust support for modern UI and app performance.
Navigating a Comparative Overview of .NET MAUI vs Xamarin:
2025 has stuck our calendars, let’s understand with deep study how these two advanced frameworks by Microsoft, i.e., .NET MAUI vs Xamarin differs from in different aspects:
1. Development Experience and Productivity:
Xamarin offers solid tooling through Visual Studio that allows C# developers to define a code for multiple platforms. However, Xamarin projects historically involved separate platforms-specific projects (especially iOS, Android, and Windows). This eventually increased the project complexity during the development phase.
While .NET MAUI provides relief by simplifying this complex structure. It combines all platform-specific code into a single project that helps in streamlining the development. Additionally, hot reload features, improved debugging tools, and faster deployment cycles introduced with MAUI provide a substantial productivity boost compared to Xamarin.
Therefore, .NET MAUI significantly attains better response in terms of development experience and productivity due to its simplified project structure and enhanced tooling. Basically, .NET MAUI supports a more productive development experience than Xamarin.
2. Performance and Speed:
Xamarin provides near-native performance since apps are compiled down to native binaries. But Xamarin.Forms have faced criticism for UI-related performance issues, especially with complex interfaces. Most developers require extra optimization efforts with this platform.
While .NET MAUI has overcome these issues instantly. Moreover, utilizing the modern architecture improvements and optimized rendering engines by this platform, developers can enjoy an enhanced rendered performance. Additionally, the older rendered architecture by Xamarin has been replaced by MAUI’s handler-based architecture, which offers quicker and smoother UI experiences to different platforms.
Therefore, .NET MAUI clearly surpasses Xamarin when it comes to UI performance and app responsiveness, particularly critical for applications in competitive markets.
3. User Interface with Design Capabilities:
Undoubtedly, .NET MAUI offers opportunities to developers to design better UI and UX features. This platform is beneficial in providing better control customization, advanced animations, and comprehensive styling options. This is possible due to its built-in Fluent Design and Material Design capabilities. Moreover, the unification of resources also simplifies branding consistency across platforms.
While Xamarin supports native. The primary reason that justifies this is the limited capabilities of Xamarin.Forms. Therefore, the platform required custom renderers or third-party libraries to achieve advanced user interfaces.
Here too, .NET MAUI wins the battle as it offers richer and more flexible UI development with respect to Xamarin.Forms. Therefore, MAUI allows developers to enable modern and intuitive user interfaces.
4. Community Support & Ecosystem:
Over a decade, Xamarin has been a part of the mobile app development market. Therefore, this long presence as Microsoft framework highlights that its ecosystem is extensive, mature, and well-documented. Moreover, there is a wide range of plugins, third-party libraries, and existing knowledge bases available.
It is an evolved version of Xamarin. Forms, .NET MAUI inherits Xamarin’s ecosystem. However, what makes it different from the older version is its improved compatibility with newer .NET standards and libraries. This states that most Xamarin libraries will be transitioned or expanded to fully support MAUI by 2025. This will also result in an even more extensive community and documentation support.
This clearly highlights that .NET MAUI is currently benefiting from the established Xamarin community while with rapid expansion, it will expand its developer base. This updated 2025 version will provide the best development experience.
Related Blog: .Net Framework Architecture: All you need to know
5. Platform Reach and Scalability:
Basically, Xamarin primarily focuses on mobile platforms (especially iOS & Android). However, this framework provides limited support to Windows structure. This clearly states that this framework is excellent for mobile-centric applications but restrictive for businesses aiming to target other platforms.
On the other hand, .NET MAUI explicitly addresses this limitation by being truly cross-platform, extending beyond mobile devices. Developers can effortlessly build apps targeting iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Tizen, expanding the scope and scalability of applications significantly.
Hence, if scalability and cross-platform reach beyond mobile devices are priorities, .NET MAUI is a clear winner.
Exploring the Considerations When Migrating from Xamarin to MAUI:
For businesses or developers who have already invested heavily in Xamarin, the question arises: is migrating to MAUI worthwhile in 2025? To know this in depth, walk through the content below:
While Microsoft has extended support for Xamarin.Forms through 2024, by 2025, official support will be limited, making migration an essential consideration. Fortunately, MAUI simplifies migration:
- Code Reuse: Xamarin.Forms codebase can migrate seamlessly with minor modifications.
- Automated Tools: Microsoft and community tools assist developers in automated migrations, significantly reducing transition overhead.
- Improved Productivity: Despite migration costs, developers quickly recoup investment through enhanced productivity and performance gains with MAUI.
Therefore, migrating to MAUI is highly recommended for long-term maintainability and innovation potential.
What Framework to Choose in 2025?
Mostly, developers and businesses get confused while choosing a suitable framework for their mobile application. To know about this in depth, walk through the different situations highlighted below:
Choose Xamarin if:
- Your project requires only mobile-focused applications.
- You have existing Xamarin. Forms applications that won’t significantly evolve after 2025.
- Short-term stability and minimal changes matter more than leveraging future innovations.
Choose .NET MAUI if:
- Your application needs to support multiple platforms beyond mobile (Windows, macOS).
- Performance, modern UI/UX, and productivity enhancements are priorities.
- You prefer active support, innovation, and an expanding ecosystem from Microsoft.
Considering these factors, .NET MAUI emerges as the recommended choice for developers and businesses aiming to build modern, scalable, and future-ready cross-platform applications.
Conclusion:
In the debate between .NET MAUI vs Xamarin, the decision by 2025 is clear. Xamarin has served as a reliable and powerful platform for cross-platform app development, but .NET MAUI represents the next logical evolution, offering extensive improvements in performance, productivity, scalability, and developer experience.
Businesses seeking long-term success should confidently invest in migrating to or beginning their journey with .NET MAUI, ensuring their applications remain relevant, competitive, and innovative well beyond 2025.