Item: Xamarin
Rating: 9
Author: Florence Birgen

Overall Satisfaction with Xamarin

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Xamarin is used by our product development team to create Android and iOS mobile applications. With Xamarin we can create cross platform mobile applications fast and easy without leaving the Visual Studio environment. It’s convenient because it allows us code applications using C# programming while taking advantage of Visual Studio debugging tools. We are pleased with Xamarin so far.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Allows development of cross-platform mobile applications in C# language without the need to learning new languages.
Access to Visual studio debugging tools
It's free and has a growing community
Allows use of Visual studio IDE

Cons

Occasional crashing of the application
Online community still growing. Less documentation online
Experienced problems with Code signing and deployment with IOS

Return on Investment

Saves development time and deliver fast.
Allows inhouse developers build both Android and iOS application without switching languages.
Allows use coding in C# in Visual studio IDE from which we can code in different languages. We don't need multiple IDEs installed

Alternatives Considered

React

We use both Xamarin and React Native to create cross-platform applications fast. React Native is relatively new at our company and few developers have embraced coding in it as compared to developers building in Xamarin. I have noticed developers have it easy jumping from coding in C# straight to Xamarin than JavaScript coders transition to react Native.

Other Software Used

React, PostgreSQL, Drupal

Likelihood to Recommend

Xamarin comes in handy when you want to write cross-platform (for Android and iOS) applications without the need to code twice. It shortens development time and that's an advantage. Xamarin also helps developers building on .NET transition to mobile development without the need to learn additional programming languages- saves money and training time. Most of the time Xamarin is all good a part from a few times when you want to keep up with new features and Xamarin takes time to implement them.

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Xamarin for cross-platform mobile applications