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Shared UI vs. Native UI

Question

Differences between Xamarin.Forms and Xamarin Native and when to use which?

Short interview answer

Xamarin.Forms shared a UI layer across platforms; Xamarin.Native used platform-specific Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS UI APIs. Choose shared UI for common screens and native UI when platform-specific behavior, design, or controls dominate. For new cross-platform work, evaluate .NET MAUI rather than Xamarin.Forms.

Detailed answer

The distinction is primarily where UI code lives. A shared UI framework lets one page definition render native controls on each platform, which can reduce duplicated work for conventional screens. Native UI projects expose Android and iOS controls directly, giving more control over lifecycle, navigation, performance tuning, and platform conventions. A real application can share domain and network code while keeping selected platform-specific screens. Xamarin.Forms is historical; Microsoft describes .NET MAUI as its evolution, so a new project should base its decision on MAUI and the current native toolchains.

Glossary

  • UI: User interface.

Sources