Working with Xamarin and client target platform evokes mixed reactions. Both of them have their own pros and cons. The former is compiled into the native code and uses the common interface. Mobile App Development Company uses either of them; however, as mentioned above, there are some trade-offs that we’ll analyze here in detail.
Advantages over the native platform:
Sharing of code:
Using Xamarin, you can share the code between the iOS and Android platforms. Various attributes such as networking logic, parsing and navigation logic can be easily reused across the different apps on the platform. They help the developers to streamline the coding process and to identify the bugs easily. In fact, the consistency of the code makes the platform more efficient for the developers. All they have to do is to make corrections at a single place and to let the changes propagate through the app.
Usage of C#:
One of the most important advantages of the Xamarin platform is that it allows coding in C# language in all the applications. It is quite capable when compared to objective-C because of the type safety attribute. Some other capabilities include implicit typing, extension methods and other closure that make C# an amazing tool for development. Due to inbuilt error handling mechanism, the codes are clean clear and reliable. They are scalable as well as fully capable of handling large amount of data.
Net and C# libraries:
Using C# language provides complete freedom to the developers as they can use window libraries right from the old ones to relicensed versions. Xamarin Cross-Platform Development plays an important role in enhancing the capabilities of the applications. In fact, PCLS support is also available in C# language.
Disadvantages of Xamarin:
Compatibility issues:
Xamarin supports new APIs; however, in recent versions, it is incompatible with TV OS2 and “watch OS” in stable channels and cannot bind to Swift only libraries. In short, it is not possible to use the advanced features using the Xamarin platform.
Third party support:
iOS and Android provide third party applications that can be seamlessly used; however, they are not able to work with Xamarin interface. The workaround is way too complex as developers have to write the binding code from the scratch.
Platform specific .net libraries:
If you are using Xamarin, it is not possible to utilize PCL core library. In addition, the .NET library doesn’t offer a required interface to the developers. As a result, the capabilities of the applications on the platform get hampered. Even highly popular Google APIs face lots of issues when used with Xamarin; therefore, it is better to use the native platform in such cases.
Conclusion:
You should use Xamarin only when the app is equipped with lots of complex front end logic. Since coding is minimal, you do not have to spend a huge amount of money to create the application. If your team is highly experienced in C#, usage of latest offerings of Xamarin Development Company would go a long way in making the app efficient and robust. Even it can be used to support multiple windows devices without any technical glitches.