Xamarin vs React Native

Xamarin and React Native both are the popular frameworks to develop the mobile application. Both frameworks are popular. In the digital world, the mobile application market is on the boom. Every day thousands of new applications are launched in Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Therefore, the demand for mobile application is also rising with high speed. In the past, we developed many Android applications in Java and the iOS applications written in Objective C & Swift.

However, there are many tools available now which can be used. ReactNative and Xamarin are the perfect examples of such popular tools.

Need of Comparison between the Xamarin and React Native

We often found that many businesses need to develop the same application for both platforms like Android and iOS. Developers develop a completely separate application. This process is time-consuming because it requires writing the same piece of code twice to achieve the goal.

But the React Native and Xamarin solve this problem. Because both the tools are powerful to reach the goal, i.e., with the help of these tools, we can develop one application for both the platform, i.e., Android and iOS.

It provides the following benefits to the mobile app developers:

Now, it becomes difficult for business owners to choose the best tool for mobile application development.

Xamarin vs React Native

The following are the differences between Xamarin and React Native:

Definition

React Native: ReactNative is a mobile app development framework. Facebook develops React Native. It is an open-source tool. We can build both iOS and Android apps with it. For building the React Native apps, we need to write the code in JavaScript and React. So, the excellent knowledge of JavaScript and React is required. This framework was released in March 2015.

Official Site is: facebook.github.io/react-native

Xamarin: Xamarin is also a mobile app development framework. Microsoft developed Xamarin. Xamarin is an Open-Source tool. We can build an Android, Windows, and iOS app with it.

To build the Xamarin app, we need to write the code in C#. So the knowledge of C# is a must. Xamarin was released on May 16, 2011.

Official Site is: visualstudio.microsoft.com/xamarin

Performance

Performance of React Native: The performance of React Native application is close to the Native performance. This tool helps us to build super-fast apps. We should keep in mind always, and we can achieve the actual native performance only with Native languages such as Java, Objective-C, and Swift. In spite of the all these, official website claims that React Native gives the native performance.

This framework allows us to use the Native code in our app. That's why we can build soft part of our app using the Native, and the remaining portion is using the React Native. Facebook app is also built in this way. With the use of Native Code, we can improve the performance of the app.

Performance of Xamarin: Xamarin also allows us to build high-performance apps. It uses the platform-specific hardware acceleration to provide the speed of the app. So like as the React Native, Xamarin also gives the near-native performance.

Development Environment

React Native: React Native gives us a lot of flexibility. It allows the developer to choose an IDE as their comfort zone. Here, we can choose our development environment. We can select any IDE/text editor for our mobile app development framework. React Native has lots of good IDEs and text editor. These are available on the internet, such as Atom, Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code, Deco IDE, Vim Editor, GNU Emac editor and so on, we can freely choose the one that we like the most. Hot loading is the great Inbuilt feature of React Native, in which there is no need to reload the full application after the modification in the code.

Xamarin: Xamarin is more powerful because here we can write the code for iPhone app on Windows and compile it for Mac. To build the Xamarin app, we have to work in Visual Studio. Visual Studio is the only option available in Xamarin. Though other environments also available there, but working with them is not an easy task. So the development environment suitable for building the mobile app is Xamarin with Visual Studio. Visual Studio provides a fantastic Integrated Development Environment.

Visual Studio gives us many tools, controls, and layout that make our mobile development work simple and smooth.

Development Speed

Speed of React Native: A new feature arises in React Native is Hot Reloading feature, which increases the speed of the development. With the help of this feature, we can save a lot of time because it instantly reloads our apps. So after the modification in the code, we do not any need to recompile the code. Here we simply reload the app.

In React Native, there are many pre-built components available through which we can achieve the speed of the faster app development.

Xamarin: Tools available in Visual Studio speed up the process of development. The controls and layout in Visual Studio save a lot of time while building the app. Here, we do not have any need to code the controls. Instead, we can use the available controls. Xamarin and NuGet plugins make our work more comfortable and save a lot of time.

Market Share

React Native: Many great companies and start-ups use React Native. The popular mobile apps which use this framework are Facebook, Facebook ads manager, Instagram, Skype, Pinterest, Bloomberg, Uber, Walmart, F8, Tesla, Artsy, Chop, Discord, Vogue and so on.

Xamarin: Xamarin also used by many companies and start-ups, such as Honeywell, stack, BOSCH, Cognizant, jetBlue, and so on.

Community Support

React Native: It is a younger tool, developer's support is always there. And often the depth of the knowledge is small. Most of the developer's community support the React Native. We can find the learning material of the React Native on the internet. We can gain knowledge using the online courses, tutorials, and videos which is available on the web. On the internet, there is a considerable number of a blog post, and articles are available. We can search on google; we can find lots of article and blog post. There are several resources available for this framework, and these are growing continuously.

Xamarin: Xamarin also has the great support of developers. We can find lots of learning material, such as Online courses, Tutorials, Videos, etc. Just like as the React Native, Xamarin also has a huge number of articles and blog post. The testing capabilities of tools are also good.

Winner: Xamarin

Visual Studio Code has amazing debugging capabilities for React Native. Here, we can write the unit test in Jest. We can debug in XCode Simulator with Xamarin in the iOS application.

Market Share

React Native: The trend for React Native is increasing continuously. Thousands of websites use this tool, and the 500 new start-ups as well. The companies who are using the React Native for their websites are Guardian (British Daily News Paper), Lazada (German e-commerce company), ScienceDirect (Science journals and articles) and the Frontline recruitment group.

Xamarin: Microsoft acquires Xamarin. Xamarin came in 6 years back, and this is the choice of 15000+ companies in today's time. Apart from developing the Cross-Platform apps, this will help the developers to reuse the code. Xamarin also supports to test the ecosystem and debugging of the products. Some famous apps made on this platform are Novarum (Medical App), CA mobile (Mobile banking), Story (Movie Maker) and Foundbite (audio sharing).

Winner: Both have their deserving phrase.

Availability

React Native: It is a free tool, and we can build the app for both the platform Android and iOS platform.

Xamarin: For Xamarin, there is a free version available, but for the enterprise application, we need to spend like purchasing the tools, etc.

Winner: React Native

Compilation

React Native: Just In Time Compilation (JIT) is not possible when we are developing the iOS application. That's why React Native is used to interpret the JavaScript code. And on the internal level, it uses the JavaScriptCore which is provided by iOS. JavaScriptCore is also used on Android, but there is nothing which can prevent the JIT from being used on Android.

Xamarin: In C# language, JIT (Just In Time) compilation and AOT (Ahead Of Time) both the compilation is possible. However, with the iOS, Just In Time compilation is not possible, Xamarin AOT- compiles the application. In spite of the limitations, the code which is compiled with AOT will run faster. On Android, the default compiler is JIT, but it can be configured to use AOT.

Winner: Xamarin

Framework

React Native: In React Native, we use the more modern one-way data flow, which is in the React. It could be more productive but only in a marginal way. If we are happy with the recent changes in the JS web Development, then we would love this also.

Xamarin: If we are an ASP.NET, MVC, Web Forms or other MV* developer, then we would prefer Xamarin. It works on the MVVM framework style.

Winner: Tie

Wrap UP

It is difficult to choose which framework is best because the quality of both tools is very high. And both the frameworks were developed by big companies such as Facebook and Microsoft.

Instead of finding out which framework is best, we should focus on which framework would fit for our work. Here we have compared both the tools by comparison factors like performance, development time, and market share. Here we have to decide which framework will suit for our work.

If someone is experienced in JavaScript and React, in this case, to choose the React Native is a great idea because the developer will be able to quickly grasp the concept of React Native and also enjoy the work.

On the other hand, if someone loves C#, in this case, to choose the Xamarin is the best option because they can quickly learn the Xamarin and would like to build the apps if they are passionate about the C#.