What Is Xamarin.Forms? Understand Xamarin.Forms Before You Regret.
Mobile applications are the central part of the lifestyle. Every day people consume many hours with this application to get the best possible solutions for their query. There are over 204 billion downloads for mobile applications on the play store. Therefore, businesses understand this profitable need and are willing to get Cross-platform App solutions for them. Nowadays, there are many app development tools available and Xamarin.Forms are one of these. Xamarin is a time-efficient and cost-effective solution for the cross-platform app development process. Today, this post will help you to understand Xamarin.Forms with their strengths and weaknesses.
What Is Xamarin.Forms?
When it comes to widely used native app development tools, then Xamarin.Forms can not be missed as they share around 10% share in the list of most commonly used cross-platform app development tools. Xamarin is an open-source and free tool from Microsoft’s house, and it uses dot Net and C# to run the app development cycle. The dot Network is the base platform to create a user-friendly mobile application that perfectly works on various devices. More than 1.4 million developers and programmers are using Xamarin for their development projects.
What Are The Benefits Of Xamarin.Forms?
Many companies use Xamarin for their businesses, including Trello, GitHub, and Slack. So, let’s learn some of the crucial advantages of Xamarin app development.
#1. One Stack To Code Apps For All Platforms
Xamarin.Forms use C# and .Net framework to develop all kinds of mobile apps. Therefore, the developer can share 80%-95% of codes across the platform. And this can speed up the development cycle and save much time for the businesses. It also does not require to shift from one development environment to another. The developer can create Xamarin applications using Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code.
#2. Low-Cost Mobile App Development
Xamarin development is time-efficient and cost-effective because it uses a single stack codebase. The developer can use most of the codes that require slight adjustments. The complete process uses the C# programming language under the dot net framework; therefore, it does not require multiple teams for the particular project. So, the companies can have a low-cost mobile app development solution to target mobile app users.
#3. Provides Performance To Near Native Or Native
The cross-app development tool Xamarin uses C# coding to give the native or near-native look and feel. It has complete access to Native toolkits and APIs to use in windows, iOS, and Android app development cycles. The developer uses platform-specific elements, C#, and VS Code technologies or VS to make the application native or near-native. Therefore, Xamarin can be great for those willing to Earn Money by Developing App or, basically, the native App on a less budget.
What Are The Disadvantages Of Xamarin.Forms?
However, there are some cons or disadvantages of Xamarin as well, that you also need to look further.
#1. Issue Of Large App Size
If you use Xamarin, you can face problems with the app sizes. The simple application containing “Hello, World!” can take 16MB for Android. It is typically a bigger file size than the other native applications. It happens because of the libraries, mono runtime BCL, and other elements that are associated here. Generally, this problem can be solved if you take help from an expert or remove unused codes from the libraries.
#2. The Community Is A Bit Small.
Somehow, Xamarin is a new native app development tool in the market from Microsoft’s house. But still, it has over 1.4 million developers who are less than the react native and other similar tools. However, the number of Xamarin developers is increasing, and it seems very promising in the future.
What Are The Top Alternatives Of Xamarin.Forms?
As Xamarin is not the only tool for native or near-native app development, many other top alternatives exist. So, let’s know about some of them to understand their functions and suitability.
#1. Apache Flex
Apache Flex is one of the most influential open-source and stable frameworks for native app development. By using Apache, Flex developers can create Android, iOS, Blackberry applications. The best thing about this tool is developing applications for the desktop using the same codebase, program model, and tools. It can also design stylish UI designs with data grids, forms, lists, and many other elements.
#2. Native Script
Native Script is another alternative to Xamarin, and it is also open-source software. It is used javaScript for the development cycle, and it supports Vue and Angular frameworks of JavaScript. The advantage of NativeScript is that a developer can easily use 3rd party libraries (i.e., Maven, np.js, and CocoaPods). With the latest version of Native Script, developers need to use Angular for cross-app development.
#3. Flutter
Flutter is a UI framework for mobile app development, and it is open source as well. This tool is the best for developing mobile applications in the most expressive and fastest ways. It is also a single codebase tool like Xamarin. It also supports a reactive framework and comes with many customizable widgets. It is one of the best tools for developing customizable designs for android and iOS apps.
Conclusion
There are many alternatives to Xamarin available, but still, Xamarin is an ideal choice because it is time-efficient and cost-effective. If the companies have a tight budget, then they can go for Xamarin to get the native or near-native look and feel in the App they want.
