What is the difference between Xamarin.Forms and Xamarin Native? [closed]

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Xamarin.Forms

Pros

  • Create one UI for all platforms
  • Use basic components that are available on all platforms (like Buttons, Textfields, Spinners etc.)
  • No need to learn all the native UI frameworks
  • Fast cross platform development process
  • Custom native renderers give you the ability to adjust the appearance and feeling of controls

Cons

  • It’s still a new framework and still contains bugs
  • Especially Windows RT is not yet stable
  • It’s sometimes slower than accessing the native controls directly
  • Custom native renderers have boundaries and are poorly documented

Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Windows Phone, Windows RT

Pros

  • Create one UI per platform
  • Easy ability to adjust the platform specific UI features and components
  • Get the maximum out of your UI

Cons

  • Cross platform development process is much slower
  • You need to learn all native UI frameworks
  • You may result in having duplicate code (as you describe almost the same UI in three different platform specific ways)

In addition to that Xamarin says on https://xamarin.com/forms:

Which Xamarin approach is best for your app?

Xamarin.Forms is best for:

  • Data entry apps
  • Prototypes and proofs-of-concept
  • Apps that require little platform-specific functionality
  • Apps where code sharing is more important than custom UI

Xamarin.iOS & Xamarin.Android are best for:

  • Apps that require specialized interactions
  • Apps with highly polished design
  • Apps that use many platform-specific APIs
  • Apps where custom UI is more important than code sharing

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