What Is .NET MAUI and How Does It Work?

.NET MAUI (short for Multi-Platform App UI) is a cross-platform framework for building native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML from a single code base. Your .NET MAUI apps can be written in Visual Studio for PC or Mac and compile into native app packages for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. These packages contain platform-specific code, configurations and resources.

Built on top of Xamarin, .NET MAUI now surpasses what was once possible with Xamarin by including support for macOS and offering better architecture and performance, among other benefits.

The .NET MAUI framework for cross-platform app development is also a suitable option when you 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.

You can pick from many resources to help you learn .NET MAUI development, including the Microsoft documentation and the Telerik Blogs .NET MAUI section. Whether you’re starting a new project, or embarking on a modernization journey, you can become productive with .NET MAUI much faster by using .NET MAUI controls instead of building everything from scratch.

Read this next if you want to know if .NET MAUI is production ready.