.NET MAUI vs. Xamarin—Key Differences

.NET MAUI (short for Multi-Platform App UI) is a cross-platform app development framework for building native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML from a single code base. A key feature of the platform is that .NET MAUI packages compile into native app packages for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows that contain platform-specific code, configurations, and resources. It was released in May 2022.

Similarly, Xamarin is a cross-platform app development framework for building native mobile and desktop apps with C# from a single code base. The platforms you can build for are Android, iOS and Windows; however, it has mostly been used for cross-platform mobile development. It was released in Dec 2012 and discontinued in May 2024.

While it was built on top of Xamarin, .NET MAUI today surpasses what was once possible with Xamarin. Noteworthy .NET MAUI features not available in Xamarin range from the

general—better architecture and performance, to the specific—first-class support for macOS.

In terms of architecture, a key difference between the two frameworks is that .NET MAUI is built on .NET 6—a platform that aims to merge and evolve the best features of .NET Core, .NET Framework and Mono. On the other hand, Xamarin is built on the Mono runtime, an influential but early cross-platform, open-source implementation of the .NET Framework. Additionally, Xamarin is tightly coupled with native controls, adding complexity for the developer, while .NET MAUI, in comparison, is loosely coupled, relying on handlers as a layer of abstraction. The purpose of handlers in .NET MAUI is to reduce the amount of platform-specific code developers need to write, making UI customizations easier. You can also reuse Xamarin. Forms renderers in .NET MAUI apps, whereas Xamarin does not work with handlers.

As for performance, on average .NET MAUI apps have faster startup time, use memory more efficiently and offer better UI performance than Xamarin apps. If you decide to use pre-built .NET MAUI controls, make sure you select a UI library, which takes advantage of all the benefits of .NET MAUI. For example, the Telerik UI for .NET MAUI library supports both mobile and desktop development and meets all cross-platform app requirements for data handling, performance, UX and design.

The .NET MAUI framework for cross-platform app development is often considered when businesses need to modernize legacy applications. Xamarin to MAUI migration is especially popular as Microsoft ended Xamarin support on May 1, 2024 for all Xamarin SDKs including Xamarin.Forms and .NET MAUI is the migration path they recommend.