Flutter vs Xamarin - What’s better to create a mobile app

Globally, businesses more than realize the importance of mobile apps. They know that having a sound and prolific mobile application that resonates with the users is necessary in 2024. That’s where comparisons like Flutter vs Xamarin are handy to choose the mobile development framework.

Today, the emphasis is on usability, UI/UX, and the capability to allow users to perform functions without any hassle. Mobile developers build robust apps that are a fun way of extending your business to the smartphone user base. Accordingly, some programming languages or frameworks come to the spotlight as favorites for creating prevailing mobile app experiences.

Two names that are always coming up in such discussions are Flutter and Xamarin. It is no surprise that businesses and developers contemplate such resourceful frameworks to figure out which is better. Let’s dive into this comparison and figure out this question once and for all.

Flutter vs Xamarin - What's better to create a mobile app — Flutter vs Xamarin – What’s better to create a mobile app

What is Flutter?

Built by Google in 2017, Flutter is a UI toolkit with an open-source framework for developing cross-platform applications. Flutter enables you to build highly performant apps for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. You can use Flutter to write the mobile application in Dart language by Google.

Flutter has a powerful yet easy, efficient, and simple SDK. Another plus point of Flutter is that it has built-in widgets and even UI toolkits. So, developers have everything they need to create powerful apps.

Programmers also have the hot reload feature to view changes without restarting the app. It is extremely fast and includes engine rendering at every change. Qualities like these are keeping Flutter among the standout frameworks as per Stack Overflow.

What is Xamarin?

Within the .NET ecosystem, Xamarin is a multi-platform app development platform that uses C# language. Xamarin is also the name of the software company that provides fabulous tools for the development of applications with C#. Microsoft did acquire Xamarin company in February 2016.

This way users enjoy apps for Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. However, the features upgrade is not immediately available for Android and iOS. It makes the overall look and feel similar to native but not entirely.

As a result, developers use platform-specific code to achieve native UI on Xamarin. Microsoft has brought the .NET MAUI as the successor to Xamarin. The big gun is endorsing the new framework with great promise for stability as well as sustainability.

Top features that make Flutter awesome

Here are the advantages of Flutter to help you understand why it’s so popular through 2024.

Let’s get down to stating the features of Flutter one by one.

Easy installation

Flutter is very easy to install with an IDE — which is all you need to start building your new project. With no hidden configurations or dependencies, developers are easily onboard to quickly start working on their projects. There are no other formalities to take care of, this gives a great starting point for developing in Flutter.

The installation of Flutter is very practical and simple. It only requires the installation of the development IDE to start and build a new project. All these factors allow developers to work faster.

Hitting the bullseye with Dart

Pretty much like C# or Java languages, Dart is easy to learn. This makes it a fun programming language with a higher adoption rate by developers. Moreover, you can also easily master the Flutter development platform by learning Dart.

The multi-platform capabilities of Flutter empower businesses to save budgets on app development. Additionally, developers don’t have to spend considerable time learning different tools and languages for building apps. This makes Flutter a convenient choice for developers to grasp Dart and start their app development journey in no time.

Faster turnaround of solutions

Agile has become such a buzz word and it is used so commonly that its meaning is often misconstrued. Sure, we have the agile software development model in action worldwide. But the word itself signifies that the development turnaround time is faster without any impediments.

That’s what Flutter promises by allowing easy and simplified development through its widgets and tools. The primary intent of the widgets is to allow faster and more interactive software. So that the end experience is exclusive irrespective of the operating system.

Companies save time in developing code by following agile practices. This makes it possible to quickly release features in increments. Developers no longer need to worry about developing and maintaining apps for different applications and systems.

Quicker app execution speed

Flutter allows faster execution speed for your app through its components and tools. The load and execution time of apps are considerably short. This makes the most native quality the top highlight for the published apps.

Great community support

Google fully endorses Flutter as its brainchild. Furthermore, it also has the backing of a huge community of developers. The newbie developers find great documentation from Google and learning resources from the programming community.

They are an ideal starting point for getting familiar with Flutter. The patronage continues which enables Google to continue enhancing Flutter and adding new features as time goes along. As a result, Flutter is in good hands on both fronts and keeps thriving.

Salient reasons that iterate Xamarin is spectacular

Xamarin framework is complete in providing users with some amazing features.

Now, we list down the plus points of Xamarin.

Cross-platform support

Xamarin is a great junction point for allowing cross-platform support for iOS, Android, and Windows. This enables businesses to create apps that work on all 3 popular platforms. It is a great way for companies to use Xamarin for developing cross-platform applications.

The mobile library in Xamarin has a unified API to access common resources on all three platforms. Companies enjoy shorter development costs as well as development time. They can utilize the same time and money in quick market launch and app marketing.

Salient reasons that iterate Xamarin is spectacular

Powerful C# language

Xamarin uses C# for app development, which is an easy-to-learn programming language. Its syntax is pretty similar to Java, and C/C++ languages. This allows wider adoption for developers to start writing effective code in the framework.

C# has a great margin for developing high-performance apps with a native look and feel. With the integration of Xamarin into the .NET platform, Microsoft made entry into the mobile ecosystem. Xamarin and its evolution .NET MAUI extend the capabilities of .NET to the mobile OS.

A stellar IDE

A primary feature of languages and frameworks under the Microsoft domain is the integrated development environment (IDE). Xamarin uses Visual Studio on Windows and Xamarin Studio on Mac OS X for IDE with different types of features. For example, sophisticated Project and Solution management systems, integrated source control, code auto-completion, and a comprehensive project template library.

Binding for the SDKs

Xamarin enables binding SDKs for Android and iOS which are strongly typed and easy to navigate as well as use. This allows successful type-checking during the compile time. Consequently, the built solution is of high quality with very few runtime errors.

Invoking Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries

Developers can directly invoke the Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries in Xamarin. This is an awesome feature that permits developers to even use third-party code and reuse existing code. Moreover, existing iOS and Android libraries can be written in Objective-C, Java, or C/C++.

Modern language constructs

Remember that Xamarin applications are written in C#. This means that you can further enhance applications through Objective-C and Java, with changes for different functional construct types. For instance, parallel programming features, LINQ, Lambdas, sophisticated generics, and dynamic language features.

Interfacing with BCL

Applications in Xamarin can use a huge collection of classes in the base class library (BCL) of the .NET platform. This allows developers access to efficient and comprehensive features. Such as Serialization, IO, XML, Database, Networking support, and String.

Which mobile applications Flutter power?

Flutter is widely popular and drives a few notable mobile apps like these.

Google Pay
Xianyu by Alibaba
eBay Motors
ByteDance
Mazibook
Nubank
Tencent
PUBG Mobile
Toyota
Kijiji

Which mobile applications Flutter power?

Which mobile apps are driven by Xamarin?

Here are some mobile applications that are power-driven by Xamarin.

The World Bank
Seeing AI by Microsoft
Alaska Airlines
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
UPS
Azure App by Microsoft
The Postage
Storyo
Insightly CRM American Cancer Society

Which mobile apps are driven by Xamarin?

What are the differences between Flutter and Xamarin?

Next, we round up the main differences between Flutter and Xamarin.

Flutter can work with any IDE, while Xamarin only supports Visual Studio as the IDE.
You use Dart language for development in Flutter, whereas you utilize C# language for programming in Xamarin.
Flutter may require third-party services at times, while Xamarin has no such need.
You can easily install both Flutter and Xamarin without any hassle.
Developers are in for a treat as both Flutter and Xamarin have well-written and quickly understandable documentation.
Both frameworks Flutter and Xamarin get the vote for higher code reusability.
Flutter has better capacity and margin for built apps than Xamarin in project complexity while focusing on testing and development.
Xamarin has better development tools than Flutter which are easy to use.
This enables greater development speed for the Xamarin framework in comparison to Flutter.
For a large commercial-scale app, Flutter is a better choice, against the Visual Studio IDE license cost for Xamarin.
Flutter has a wider and stronger developer community in comparison to Xamarin.
Therefore, it is easier for you to find a Flutter developer as per your requirements than a Xamarin developer.

Conclusion

We uphold the prominence of Flutter and Xamarin frameworks as they are powering so many applications across the globe. Both of them have given such stellar features and various advantages. So, pick one against the other after going through the project requirements and what can serve you better.

Xamarin had the advantage of being in the market longer and remaining stable. Its next incarnation .NET MAUI is also a great fit for a long-run project. The backing of Microsoft and an abundance of apps built using Xamarin is a springboard for .NET MAUI.

Flutter has a great promise with a strong patronage of Google. It is a great fit for startups and companies that are not looking for scalability in a couple of years. Flutter is also a better option if you have a tight budget and you want to test-run the market.

Are you looking for great cross-platform mobile application development? Techliance has highly capable Flutter and Xamarin resources at extremely cost affordable rates. We’re just a click away from helping you with your app development needs, so contact us today.

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Flutter vs Xamarin – What’s better to create a mobile app

Table of contents

What is Flutter?

What is Xamarin?