Xamarin vs React Native: How To Choose Best Framework For Cross-Platform App Development

Xamarin vs React Native

The very first stage of product development in 2022 is to choose the right technology for mobile app development. Choosing the right technology will help you to speed up and deliver the product and services to the customer on demand. Many business organizations are now looking for cross-platform development, using technology like react native and Xamarin for mobile app development that will reach many brands across the largest number of devices. 

What made cross-platform development so popular? React Native and Xamarin, help to deliver the user experience that mimics native apps. React native had 38% markers last year for cross-platform app development, but both of them are equally popular. So a question arises about how to choose the best framework for cross-platform app development.

This article consists of a business overview of the different benefits of both React Native and Xamarin for app development and how to choose the right cross-platform app development platform

 

What is React Native?

React native is used by facebook in 2015, making huge change for developer and setting a high bar cross-platform app that are more similar to native apps. React native is launched for a better mobile experience. It is powerful and easy to use.

 

The pros and cons of React Native:

PROS

CONS

Multiple Platform

May lack certain custom modules

Render to Native UI

Advanced features may require native development

Hot Reloading

Performance still not as fast as native app performance

Easy to Learn and Use

JavaScript runtime

Fast Performance

Log when new iOS/ Android features released

Stable

Less efficient design

Update are not required, app store approval

 

 

What is Xamarin?

Xamarin was founded in 2011, It is based on Mono( a .NET framework) and microsoft purchased it in 2016. It is an open source framework used to create cross-platform apps in C# and .NET. Benefit of Xamarin is the ability to conver platform specify elements at runtime.

 

The pros and cons of Xamarin include:

PROS

CONS

Native UI, API and performance

Creates large application

Visula studio tools are easy to use and centrally integrated

Visual Studio only option

Xamarin Form(shared UI) and Xamarin (native UI) can be mixed

Limited functionalities

Leverages common enterprise knowledge of C# and .NET

Designed to work in a windows environment

Complete UI customization

Requires app store approval for updates

Can be used for native app building as well as cross-platform apps

Not loved by developers

 

React Native  vs Xamarin:

Finding the right platform out of both React Native and Xamarin or any other cross platform app development framework, you must be aware about the short and long term implications. There are following key parameters who can consider while choosing the right app development platform.

1.   Popularity: React Native has 38% market shares in 2021, compared to the 11% market share for Xamarin. These figures remained relatively stable in recent years.

2.   Performance: Both React Native and Xamarin are excellent in performance. Xamarin is slight better because it it offer platform specific hardware acceleration. REact does not support multi processing which can result in performance hit.

3.   Cost of Development: Both react native and Xamarin are free and open source. The only difference is Xamarin is restricted to Visula studio and React Native offer lot of flexibility to select IDE or text editor. 

4.   Maintainability: It is measured by how quickly each framework is updated. React Native does not need any approval from app store  to make any update, While Xamarin take 1-3 days to be approved and integrated into the app store.

5.   Choice of Programming Language: if you are using C# as a programming language then Xamarin is the solution for your. If you are preferring javascript as a programming language then React Native is the best fit for you.

6.   UI and UX: React Native and Xamarin both are suited for simple UI. React Native may not support some of UI elements as Xamarin support use of native APIs.

7.   Time To Market: For replacing native applications cross platform application framework are ideally more suitable to accelerate time to market. It depends on the availability of IT skills in the language you have choosed and libraries available for the applicatio development.

8.   Consumption of App Memory: Optimizing usage and preventing leaks of memory are important consideration for any mobile application. React Native is clearly not suitable from memory stand point whereas Xamarin is suitable on an average basis.

9.   Scalabiltiy:  Every cross-platform app is created by keeping scalability in mind, React Native give advantage in term of availability and speed of updates to available libraries.

 

Conclusion

Cross-platform app development has now growing as a common for application development.Is React Native better than Xamarin? Many features to measure the right technology is mentioned above. It depend on the requirements and needs of your business logic. 

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