Hybrid app development frameworks are great options if you’re looking to build cross-platform apps at relatively low cost and effort, but there are many options available, each with its own pros and cons. In this article, we’ll discuss the main features of Xamarin and Flutter that we as a mobile app development company think about what makes these both platforms worthwhile so that you can decide which one is the best option for your needs. Let’s get started!
Overview of Xamarin
Xamarin is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for creating mobile apps using .NET. With Xamarin, developers can write code only once and then deploy it to any type of device or operating system. By combining C# with XAML (the UI language of .NET), Xamarin provides a programming model that’s as productive as Java, as portable as JavaScript, and as comfortable as .NET. Any developer who has done .NET development can easily work with Xamarin; there’s nothing new to learn here.
Xamarin Advantages
Xamarin is much easier to use than other cross-platform tools like React Native. Xamarin handles most of your UI work for you, which makes it easy to focus on business logic. The development process is streamlined with services like Live Player, which lets you test your UI as you build it. And since Xamarin works with Microsoft products, there are plenty of people already familiar with it, giving companies an easy way to integrate new technology into their workflow. It’s also worth noting that Xamarin comes from a well-known name in mobile app development—so if corporate clients are already using other Microsoft products, they may be familiar with Xamarin too. We’ve seen customers pair Xamarin with everything from SharePoint to SAP.
Xamarin Disadvantages
Though popular for cross-platform mobile app development, Xamarin has some downsides. The code written in C# cannot be used on Android, which makes it very difficult to port Xamarin apps to other platforms. Besides, Xamarin only supports Java at present, which means that support for other programming languages may take some time. Additionally, using native codes of each operating system can lead to device-specific bugs and performance issues. Still, given its popularity and lower cost compared to other cross-platform frameworks such as PhoneGap or Titanium Mobile, many companies still prefer Xamarin when it comes to mobile application development.
Top Reasons to Choose Xamarin
Native Performance
When it comes to cross-platform mobile app development, you can’t beat open-source software. The same piece of code can be used on all major platforms including iOS, Android, and Windows—and with support from thousands of other developers. As opposed to closed-source apps that are developed by individual companies or teams, open-source software is developed by a community of individuals who freely share their work. This not only benefits users because apps are often free but also provides more incentive for third parties to improve apps over time rather than leaving them alone.
Open Source
Xamarin is an open-source platform, which means it’s free. This cost-savings also means you have access to a huge community of developers who are creating apps with Xamarin, helping each other out on forums, and contributing back with tools and extensions for Visual Studio. Because of all these factors, you can build quality mobile apps at a fraction of what they would cost otherwise.
Developer Experience
If you’re building an app for multiple platforms, you want to be able to focus on creating awesome functionality instead of worrying about inconsistencies. With Xamarin, your app will look and feel native on each platform. The development tools are also extremely well-received by developers; Appcelerator recently conducted a survey of over 500 mobile developers who use C# and found that Ease of development is one of their top reasons for choosing .NET.
Overview of Flutter
Google’s new cross-platform mobile app development framework, Flutter, has received a lot of attention lately. This post will explore how it compares to other popular frameworks for developing mobile apps. We’ll be using Python to build out an example that uses Google’s Firebase platform to create a cross-platform application; we’ll be comparing Firebase with Xamarin and Flutter at each step along the way. This will show you how quickly you can go from zero to the full-fledged application without getting bogged down in low-level, underlying code (although you certainly could do that if desired). The final code is available on GitHub; clone or download it and follow along! We’ll cover all of these topics – plus more – throughout this series.
Flutter Advantages
Flexibility and Speed. Flutter provides a high-performance way to create truly native user experiences on each platform. Its expressive, declarative UI programming model, rich set of visual controls, integration with native mobile components, and access to underlying device capabilities make it an incredibly productive tool for developers who want to create mobile apps for Android, iOS, and UWP from a single codebase.
Create Once – Publish Everywhere. With one codebase you can create apps that run on multiple operating systems without rewriting your application logic or changing your architecture. Time-to-Market Benefits. Creating two versions of an app—one for iOS and one for Android—can take twice as long as creating one cross-platform version if you use native SDKs alone.
Flutter Disadvantages
While cross-platform apps are not new, there has never been an elegant or user-friendly way to do so—until now. Flutter does not offer access to underlying native components, however, so developing for devices with different hardware capabilities becomes more difficult. Further, Android developers may prefer Google’s own Android SDK. While it isn’t yet as capable as iOS or macOS, it’s widely considered easier to use than Xamarin and Flutter. Moreover, Android apps developed using Google’s SDK won’t work on iOS devices.
Top Reasons to Choose Flutter
Flutter is Open Source
Open source is a big deal. You can be confident that you’re not only getting a high-quality product, but also one with far fewer strings attached. Not only can you customize it, but community involvement and contributions make for more rapid updates and bug fixes. Plus, if you ever need help down the line, there’s an entire community of people ready to assist.
Flutter is Free
Flutter is an open-source toolkit for developing cross-platform mobile apps. It’s a great choice if you want to build your app with less hassle and for free! There are also numerous tools and libraries that help you develop better apps. For example, with a hot reload feature, your code changes update live on your device as soon as you save them. This allows fast iterations and fewer bugs during development since you see results faster. Plus, it lets multiple people work on one project at once without stepping on each other’s toes. With those kinds of benefits, who wouldn’t want to choose Flutter?
Flutter Has Great Learning Resources
What’s more, apps built with Flutter are highly cross-platform. If you build an app for Android and iOS—and even desktop if you want—you can do it all in one codebase. This saves time and money by reducing your workload, which is another reason why companies choose Flutter.
Conclusion
Xamarin and Flutter both provide you with tools that allow you to build cross-platform apps. Each of them has its pros and cons, and making a decision between these two will depend on your specific business needs. However, we still believe that Xamarin remains a more popular choice, especially for enterprise apps.
While supporting only three platforms compared to six in case of Google’s framework might appear as a disadvantage at first glance, it does help Xamarin developers to concentrate on what they do best – creating beautiful native mobile apps with amazing user experience. So what are you waiting for? Hire flutter app developers or xamarin developers for your next mobile app development project.