xamarin vs native

Xamarin vs. Native: What Should You Choose?

With mobile applications, creating waves in the technology industry, we keep coming around new apps almost each day. However, the release of a new mobile application is not an easy task, as it’s always the result of long and laborious work.
Further, the issues arise owing to the creators and manufacturers of mobile devices. At the moment, there are three major operating systems for mobile devices (Android, iOS, and Windows), gaining the most prominence. Now each of them is based on its own logic, uses particular languages and SDKs. This limits the number of potential buyers of the new application to the platform’s audience.
Meanwhile, you can develop an application using the cross-platform frameworks that hugely facilitate the adaptation of the complete software to different operating systems. But, it ultimately comes to the fact whether it is worth it or it’s better to avoid such apps.
In the case of native apps, they also deliver superb performance on reactivity, as well as the number of issues with the finished native product, is largely lower as compared to the Xamarin cross-platform.
Hence, before making this crucial decision, it’s always better to carefully compare features of both development approaches in particular, like Xamarin vs. Native.

Firstly, let’s understand Xamarin and Native
Xamarin Platform:

This is a great solution that works wonders in building awesome apps. Like, Xamarin can be used for the development of native apps for multiple platforms via the same IDE, API’s and Language. If you are interested in the Xamarin platform, then you are required to write a code in C#.

Native Platform:

If you are keen on building an app for a single platform, then you can consider the Native platform. Native mobile apps are built on Android (Java), iOS (Objective-C or Swift) and Windows (C#, Visual Basic, and XAML).

What’s the difference?

Xamarin is cross-platform software used to create native apps with platform-specific UI’s. It uses C# to write codes unlike swift, java or objective C. Being an open-source platform, it enables developers to change it as per their own needs. This is something not possible with other native app development tools. At the same time you develop with Xamarin, you need to write the code only once, as it works on the shared code concept. While when you opt for native apps, then you are required to write codes again and again.

Let’s go into depth and compare Xamarin vs. Native Apps

 

Multi-platform

With Xamarin, you get multi-platform mobile apps, and it targets all major platforms such as iOS, Windows, and Android. Here you won’t come across any difference in functionality between platforms. Further, it uses few of the most prominent frameworks to create cross-platform mobile apps, such as PhoneGap, Ionic, Titanium, etc. However, Native applications don’t support all platforms.
Result: Xamarin is crowned as the winner in this aspect as it targets all major platforms.

App’s Performance

Native apps rules for sure, as it comes to the performance. The common challenges faced by Xamarin/Hybrid apps are: screen transitions are not smooth, buttons don’t respond well when compared to native buttons and reaction time is higher.
Result: In the case of the performance of applications, Native apps steal the show and come around as the clear winner.

Related Blog: Android Wear 2.0: Know All About the New Features

Mobile Apps Development Time

So, which of the two, among Xamarin and Native, takes less time while developing mobile apps, entirely depends on how much technologies are needed at the time of development. With the use of Xamarin, entrepreneurs save the extra development time for each platform. It also works brilliantly to test and save development costs.
Result: Xamarin apps prove to be a winner here as well, as when compared to Native apps, they are accessible to wider audiences at a lower cost.

Specific Framework/Tool

Often, operating systems need a specific framework to access existing framework such as TouchID, push notification, motion data, Bluetooth connections, GPS data. So, in case Xamarin developers find the need for anyone of the above frameworks while creating an application, they have to build a bridge between app and framework – now this result in additional cost. Thus, in that case, you are required to develop the Native application.
Result: Native platform is surely the winner here owing to its simplicity.

Conclusion:

Now there are certainly some shortcomings with Xamarin, for which we can’t blame Xamarin developers, yet this framework comes around as a very qualitative and effective instrument for the development of cross-platform apps. The activity of Xamarin developers keeps on encouraging their users as they continually modify and improve their products. In addition to that, the team is always willing to meet customers’ expectation by changing pricing policies. This says a lot about the developers of the framework, as well as its prospects.
Despite its high cost, today Xamarin is hugely popular among application developers. This must be because its price is consistent with the quality and breadth of capabilities it offers. Meanwhile, Xamarin is not as appealing for small software companies as free tools that come with other cross-platform frameworks, still established companies employing the framework is a positive sign.
In fact, the very comparison between Xamarin and other cross-platform frameworks is not valid in itself, as unlike them, Xamarin generates code that is close to the native. And when the span of opportunities offered by Xamarin is compared, the free tools, mainly fall behind the prominent framework.
Regardless of the same, native applications still tend to be the most trouble-free and efficient mobile apps at the moment, even though software developed using few of the Hybrid and cross-platform framework come closer to native in terms of performance every year. Native programs also have access to the entire hardware and software capabilities of respective platforms and don’t require the internet connection to function.
Therefore, Native apps can’t be ignored, and thus instead of recommending Xamarin or Native apps, we suggest that enterprise must choose anyone according to their business requirements.

Arun Goyal

Managing Director @ Octal Info Solution, Arun Goyal is a tech-enthusiast and visionary entrepreneur. He loves to talk about technology, and expresses his views about the trends in tech-world through this blog.