Xamarin Platform Reviews

Our company uses the Native solution to build mobile apps in DevOps that we push to app stores. 

One of our clients is an insurance company and we are building a forms app that needs to be nice but not super smooth because the app is more about data input and output. 

The solution allows us to share libraries from the mobile app to our client's web project. 

The solution's most valuable asset is its shared code base in C# that is better for large apps. 

Code is transferred to the .NET framework and the standard libraries for shared code are great. 

The solution is reliable with a very manageable hierarchy that allows multiple roles and permissions.

The solution's pull request system is quite good and unit testing is useful. 

The solution does not include Hot Reload which is painful because it causes us to wait quite some time for huge builds. 

The solution does not allow for use of the latest or premium version of Visual Studio so we have to use the 2019 version. 

The layout interface and designer for Android Studio is more advanced than the iOS Builder. Most of our layouts have to be built in Xcode but broken connections and file updates are continuing issues. 

Standard libraries have not been updated in four years because the focus has been on newer products like Xamarin.Forms and .NET MAUI. 

To continue to use the solution, we have to bind SDKs after new Android or iOS platform releases. 

No support is offered that would make our lives easier so we rely instead on Rider as an ID for development because it includes ReSharper. 

The auto update system is not trusted because it has broken our builds on occasion. 

I have been using the solution for ten years. 

The solution is reliable and stable with no bugs. 

We disabled auto updates because on occasion they were breaking our builds. 

The solution is scalable because of C# which allows large builds across teams. 

I don't need assistance often and am satisfied with past technical support. 

One issue regarding Test Cloud was resolved.

Another issue involving the iOS platform was not resolved by support so I ended up fixing it with a workaround. 

In general, forums contain topics that include workarounds for very early in an issue's lifecycle. Our team has been successful in fixing issues internally. 

I used CodeGear for another project. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

Setup issues are not with the solution but are caused by native items such as Android and iOS provisioning profiles and upload rights. 

Our company includes 30 developers who deploy the solution through a week-long process that includes multiple steps such as regression testing, Test Cloud, and internal processes. 

Once all steps are complete, we automatically upload to stores and promote the version to be used. 

We maintain apps we build for our clients. 

Android Studio is growing faster than Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio because they focus only on Android apps. 

The native development of Android Studio is not comparable to Visual Studio. 

MAUI is amazing because it offers multi-platform distribution.

The solution is good but doesn't fit every app or use case so you should consider all options. 

The solution's strength is in form apps but it is not the best option for small, pixel-perfect apps full of animation and transitions. 

The solution does not include native bindings so you have to create one which is a hideous process. Our company opted to work with a third-party for binding six iOS libraries. It was too tedious to have to go through a whole update cycle after changing one item. If an app relies on third-party bindings or libraries, I don't recommend using the solution. 

I am using the Xamarin Platform because I am using Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio.

The most valuable feature of the Xamarin Platform is that both the UI are the same in Android and iOS, in one project and Android and iOS, are applications for developing PCL projects. Additionally, the dashboard is good.

The Xamarin.Forms could improve.

I have been using the Xamarin Platform for approximately two years.

Xamarin Platform is stable.

The scalability of the Xamarin Platform is good.

We have four developers using this solution in my organization.

I have not contacted the support from Xamarin Platform.

The initial setup of the Xamarin Platform is easy and takes one day.

Xamarin Platform is a free open-source solution.

This is a good platform.

I rate Xamarin Platform an eight out of ten.

I'm a developer and we are customers of Xamarin. 

We are a 5-member team and Xamarin provides us with a tool kit that crossbreeds from hybrid applications. We write a single line of code that works both with android and iOS. It's a main feature of Xamarin and makes the product very user-friendly. 

The application platform could be improved. We've had some compatibility issues on the android side with the different versions although they work fine with iOS. The product lacks some controls and enhancements that would provide additional features that we need.

The solution is stable. 

The customer support is quite good, they've helped me several times. 

Positive

The initial setup is very straightforward. Implementation takes about an hour. 

This is an open-source solution and there are no costs on the Xamarin side. If you're using it with iOS then you need to purchase a membership which is about USD$100 per year. 

I recommend Xamarin Platform, it's a good solution and I rate it eight out of 10. 

We are using Xamarin for a messaging app and customer-facing end-user experiences. It's been great so far, and thankfully all the upgrades that happened throughout the year have led us to develop good UI.

I think the best part about Xamarin is that you can create apps for both platforms using one source code. That's the most powerful feature. When you develop something for Android, it also builds for iVerse as well. The cross-platform aspect of Xamarin is unique. The ability to develop both apps with a single code base is something very unique.

It would be better if they offered more certifications. They offer a number of certifications for Azure but none for Xamarin. This is something that could be provided for developers to show off their competency. Technical support could be better.

I have been working with Xamarin since 2016. I'm very fortunate to have started working with Xamarin before Microsoft acquired it. I have been using Xamarin ever since.

Xamarin is a well-supported stable solution.

Xamarin is very scalable. You can develop apps for hundreds or thousands of customers with the same code base. That is something very unique. I have a company that has a team of six Xamarin developers. They are all very experienced.

Technical support could be better. We often get support from the community and only sometimes from the Xamarin team. They are not the best, but they are okay.

The initial setup is straightforward. It wasn't earlier, but now it's pretty easy. You can deploy this solution with just a few clicks. Like any other app, if it's an automated deployment, it will probably take an hour or two. 

Xamarin is free. There is no license unless you go for some high-end enterprise features. Other than that, everything's free.

I would tell potential users to look at the new updates coming in over the next three or four months, as those are critical. The best place for you to start with Xamarin is by following the contributors on YouTube. I know there are many paid courses, but they aren't good or worth the money. It's best to take a course directly provided by the content creator or contributor.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Xamarin an eight.

We have worked on Android and iOS applications using the Xamarin Platform. In addition, we have used it to build Android and iOS applications.

When we create applications, we usually need applications for both platforms. For example, we have a vendor that provides services on both Android and iOS applications. So usually, if we want to create an application for Android and iOS, we have to create two applications, one in Android, like Java or Kotlin, and one in iOS, like Swift or Objective C. But, using the Xamarin Platform, we don't have to create two applications. Instead, we create one Xamarin form application. We write code in that solution and build it according to our specifications.

Xamarin Platform is a platform that uses C Sharp and allows you to create hybrid applications. The best part of this solution is that you can create one solution in C Sharp. It works for both Android and iOS.

They can improve their marketing to have more popularity as other solutions in the market. I haven't seen that many limitations in the Xamarin Platform. It's pretty UI-heavy, and some may say that Xamarin applications are a bit slow, but that is probably only if the developer hasn't followed the instructions.

Creating an application works like a native application, but the file size is a bit big, so you have to make certain layers. That is one drawback, but it is understandable because we use an external platform. When we build the project, the C Sharp code and the Xamarin Platform get converted into the native code in Android and iOS, so we have to have a middle layer bundled inside our application.

In the past, when we wanted to select a file from our mobile storage, we could not, and that feature was missing, so we had to implement it in native code and then use it in our code. But now they have created Xamarin Essential, which has all those features.

We have been using this solution for six years and use version 4.7. Xamarin Platform is used for hybrid mobile applications and building app solutions for Android, iOS, and Windows.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. Mostly the developers at our organization use this solution. Microsoft acquired Xamarin, so it is part of their Visual Studio and maintenance is done by Microsoft.

Before using the Xamarin Platform, we used a hybrid technology solution, like Paladin, but it was difficult to use. If a company is using C Sharp or .NET to build their products, they'll want their current team to work on it so C Sharp developers can easily move into the Xamarin Platform to create the hybrid application. It depends on your client and requirements if you're going with Xamarin Platform or React Native.

Our deployment process is simple. It happens in-house, and we don't use a third party. We create an application on Google Play Store, the same as deploying regular Android applications with one additional step of archiving it. So, from Visual Studio, you archive it, sign the application, and then upload the .AAB file on the Google Play store or iOS. You create an archive from here and can upload it using the file uploader Mac provides.

I do all the deployments myself and need 30 minutes to create a full application and deploy it for Android. For iOS, it takes about five minutes.

It is a free platform.

I rate this solution a nine out of ten. Most people choose React Native over the Xamarin Platform because it is more prevalent in the market. Xamarin Platform requires learning because it is an old language. It uses C Sharp, so not everyone can work with it. It is a bit difficult at first, but once you start working on it and get the hang of it, you can do everything in the Xamarin Platform.

I use Xamarin Platform to design application UIs, integrate APIs, and create special features.

Xamarin Platform's best features are its single codebase, the support from Microsoft, and the free libraries.

Xamarin Platform's performance base could be improved. In the next release, Xamarin Platform should include gradients and a looping feature in its path

I've been working with Xamarin Platform for over two years.

Xamarin Platform is stable.

Xamarin Platform is scalable.

Microsoft's support is one of Xamarin Platform's best features.

The initial setup was straightforward.

Xamarin Platform is open-source, but there are fees for deployment, the API Store and Play Store, and using third-party libraries.

I would rate Xamarin Platform eight out of ten.

I used this solution for three years.

I am not using this solution anymore, but I had Visual Studio and Xamarin installed — we were using components of Xamarin.

We were trying to integrate some PSPDFKit functionality. We wanted to open up a PDF document to the last page that the person opened it. If it was a five-page document and they opened it on page two and then when they closed it, they wanted it to open back up to the page where they left off. They were trying to get the PDF to be sticky.

The product owners that were looking at it liked the functionality. There was a competing product library called PSPDFKit. They wanted to get rid of that because it costs a lot of money; however, they wanted the functionality that the PSPDFKit had, inside Xamarin. There were some issues with it that they were trying to resolve.

When they put their ticket in, Microsoft pointed to Xamarin and Xamarin pointed at Microsoft, to say who's going to fix it. That's where it got left off. Xamarin was never able to utilize that module for the PDF. They had to keep the PSPDFKit software, that's the current state. 

The software itself was pretty good. The problem that I faced was that the communication, the roles, and the responsibilities, weren't defined between Microsoft and Xamarin, that's really where the problem was in my opinion. Nobody was taking ownership of that. 

Let's say you have two platforms on-prem. If you're an iPad user, you want the look and feel of the iPad; if you are a Surface Pro user, you want the look and feel of the Surface Pro. What I feel is of the utmost importance in regards to Xamarin, is to make sure that when you do something, whatever the object is, you get the object that the iPad user expects. Conversely, if you're a Surface Pro user, you get the object that the Surface Pro user expects.

I was in favor of it, it had the capabilities. I was impressed by the way they were thinking of moving it forward, scalability-wise.

The developer activity was complex, but it was understandable. From my perspective, I wanted to minimize the number of software vendors we were working with, and consolidate where features were overlapping. The reason I was trying to do that was to try and save the government some money. I was thinking I was still paying X dollars for one contract for three years, and Y dollars for another contract, and the features were all the same — what's the use of paying for both?

I believe the initial implementation took two years. They developed a working product that was in production. Xamarin was included in that initial design.

They had good documentation regarding implementation, but I understand it was evolving and integrating into Visual Studio.

When someone's building something, they want the capability to do so across the platform; initially, there was a goal to build something for iOS, something for Windows, and something for Android. The first thing they dropped was the Android approach. They ended up keeping the iPad and Windows. You write the code once and it generates in both, or in multiple outputs. 

In our situation, we were supporting it on the iPad — 95% of the people used one. A very select few people used Microsoft Surface. It's a tremendous effort to keep both going, although that's the whole purpose of having Xamarin.

It's a great concept. I think it worked well. The concept of doing it is still not perfect. When we generated some code on the iPad, we would get fewer bugs, and with Surface Pro, we would get more bugs.

The same code was pushing a bug on Surface Pro, but not on the iPad. That's basically a fact of maturity over their capabilities. From a business point of view, it didn't make sense for the use case that we had — it was a huge cost for a few users. In many situations, Xamarin has a purpose. There are good reasons to build it once and have it work on both platforms.

Not from a technical point of view, but from the business side, if I was consulting to a large government organization and looking at the cost-effectiveness, I would suggest they have iPads or Surface Pros and give them to their public users — make them decide upfront instead of going down both paths, doubling the paths.

On the market, compared to everyone else, they're the top solution. They're the best solution out there that I could see. On a scale from one to ten, I would give Xamarin Platform a rating of nine. If they become bug-free, I would give them a rating of ten.

I use Xamarin.Forms to develop mobile applications, which basically have the same functionality and cross-platform.

It usually saves time for application development. We write once and the code works everywhere.

In Xamarin.Forms, it is valuable that one and the same code (including UI) work on all platforms. It is very convenient.

They need to take a step towards independence from the UI platform. It takes a lot of time to adapt the native controls.

Everything is fine. There have been difficulties with memory leaks, but usually they are not difficult to fix.

No issues. Everything is fine.

The support is not very good. Bugs remain very long openable.

Earlier, I tried to write code on native technologies, but still liked C# more. 

We switched because it makes cross-platform applications more expedient, faster, and cheaper.

Everything was simple. Besides, on GitHub there are always good examples. Although, you need to understand the native SDK a bit.

Good knowledge

Xamarin is free, or comes with Visual Studio. Therefore, it is very profitable.

I looked at Ionic and other HTML/JS platforms, but I considered this a bad decision. They were too slow and you had more problems with their frameworks than the benefits of their work.

Be sure to look at the lessons from Xamarin University, as well as test projects on GitHub.