As you navigate the world of cross-platform app development, you may be wondering why so much attention is being given to .NET MAUI. The truth is that Microsoft has ceased support for Xamarin.Forms, leaving your application frozen on an older platform. With every new release of iOS or Android, your app is at risk of breaking or being rejected by app stores.
The Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Many CTOs would argue that the app is working well and doesn't require modifications, but the facts are otherwise. Each new release of iOS and Android forces Apple and Google to introduce new requirements in the form of mandatory API additions. Xamarin targets Android API 34 and XCode 15, making it incompatible with newer APIs like Android 15 or iOS 18. Store rejection is an inevitability.
Security is another issue. If a vulnerability is found in Xamarin code tomorrow, it will never be fixed, leaving you vulnerable in production environments or scrambling to migrate at great expense. Performance also suffers, with modern frameworks applying aggressive optimizations to native platforms, whereas Xamarin doesn't. Users complain of slow startup, slow scrolling, and high battery depletion.
Play Store reviews drop, App Store ratings decline, and support tickets flood. None of this can be patched without resolving the underlying problem.
What Actually Changed Between Xamarin and MAUI
MAUI reinvents cross-platform development by migrating Xamarin to MAUI into a single project, eliminating the need for three independent projects (iOS, Android, and shared pre-Xamarin.Forms). While there is still platform-specific code, it resides in properly structured folders instead of being scattered around solution files.
One important performance improvement is the replacement of custom renderers with handlers. The renderer system of Xamarin was untidy, requiring customization of UI elements to inherit platform code and override lifecycle events. MAUI handlers are executed when cross-platform properties are modified, bringing about cleaner code, faster execution, and reduced memory usage.
Visual Studio 2022 Hot Reload supports MAUI, allowing you to write UI code and see the difference right away on all platforms without rebuilding. Debugging is done through a single interface for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. A single deployment pipeline is used across all platforms, eliminating the gymnastics needed with Xamarin.
In the long run, MAUI works better, being compliant with modern .NET lifecycle policies, receiving frequent updates, security patches, and new features, and staying up-to-date with Apple and Google APIs. You invest in proactively developed code instead of frozen legacy code.
What You Need to Figure Out First
Begin with a technical audit to check the compatibility of all NuGet packages with MAUI. Don't assume third-party libraries are updated – when a library is at Xamarin and doesn't have a MAUI version, you'll need either an alternative solution or create your own.
Watch out for renderers. Migration complexity depends on the number of renderers. Five renderers mean a few days of labor; fifty might mean weeks of special labor.
Before planning, see which version of Xamarin.Forms you're using. If you're on an older version than 5.0, upgrade to Forms 5 to eliminate differences in APIs and compound problems that consume time.
Take a real-life assessment of your team's capabilities. Xamarin specialists require training in MAUI. Theories align, but details of implementation diverge enough to be the bane of assumptions. Consider your team's ability to deliver on necessitating timelines or whether it's more economically viable to outsource skills.
Develop a business continuity plan. Migration interferes with normal development. Incremental builds are selected to keep velocity in some teams; focused sprints to complete conversion are selected in others. Each approach has its pros and cons, so choose according to your limitations.
Two Ways to Actually Do This
There are two basic approaches to Xamarin vs .NET MAUI: page-by-page migration or full-lift conversion. The selection is based on the complexity of the app and team ability, as well as the reality of the business.
With 5-10 pages, incremental migration is initiated with basic platform code and regular controls. Transfer those, test builds, test UI, expand. This approach is effective for large applications where a full migration would paralyze development over months.
MAUI is learned over time, and business functions are run in a hybrid architecture. The negative aspect is that it requires momentary maintenance of two codebases and increased complexity of the architecture.
Full-lift conversion converts everything in one go. Form a new MAUI solution, migrate all components collectively, perform thorough testing, and deploy. This approach is suitable when the app or team size is small enough to get distracted by