Let’s imagine you’ve decided to develop an app for your existing business to leverage the potential of the digital sector. However, developing a top-notch mobile application is no easy feat as it involves logical, financial, audience, and duration considerations.
If you are eager to get started with a vague idea, you must stay abreast of the app development process and other factors involved in it.
Why does that matter?
You need an app that’s reliable, flexible, and adapts to your business needs. Moreover, there will be a point in your business when you are primed to start getting more profits rather than staying in the red zone.
But, how can you stay at that point?
You can hire an app agency as you will need an entire ecosystem of developers, designers, quality assurance specialists, and a marketing team. Visitors will expect to find a product quickly and make a hassle-free purchase.
How can you achieve that?
You must build an app that provides consistent performance across different platforms without altering the native look. Xamarin.Forms can be the ideal solution for this as it is a widely recognized solution for developing native applications.
Since eCommerce app development involves hundreds of prospects to consider, I won’t be getting into those details. Instead, I will walk you through the reasons and benefits of integrating Xamarin.Forms into your business.
Let’s get started from rock bottom.
What is Xamarin.Forms?
Xamarin.Forms is an open-source UI framework that lets developers build applications that share a singular codebase. So if you are looking to develop a cross-platform app, you can seamlessly apply your business logic across platforms.
Xamarin.Forms consists of a shared .NET Standard library and individual platform objects.
You can find XAML, C# views, and other crucial business logic such as models, services, etc., in the shared library. On the flip side, the platform projects will have logic or packages that are platform-specific which the application will require.
Challenges in building cross-platform apps with Xamarin.Forms:
Although it can be used to develop a cross-platform app effectively, Xamarin.Forms cannot be a perfect fit for every project. Just like every development platform, it has its own set of challenges, such as:
It takes up more storage comparatively:
Applications developed with Xamarin.Forms can be twice as big when compared to native files. Furthermore, it also requires extra adjustments as they use countless core libraries and functionalities.
Although a couple of megabytes shouldn’t be a critical problem for most businesses, it might be important for certain projects.
It’s tough to build apps with complicated graphics:
It is not an easy task to build apps loaded with complicated graphics as graphic-based libraries are platform-specific and Xamarin-Forms is a cross-platform app development kit.
Worry not, I got a solution for it.
You can simply use a third-party UI components provider to get it done and it is easy to import their built-in library.
Updates will be delayed:
Each time Android and iOS rolls out an update, they optimize the UI, ramp up the security protocols, and add new features. The downside is that Xamarin.Forms developers cannot use them immediately and will have to wait for a couple of days.
Although it might not seem like a huge deal, it may ruin a company’s reputation.
It has a smaller developer community compared to other similar platforms
Most hybrid app development products are limited to a community of users and so they can lag behind other platforms in terms of accumulated communal knowledge, and experience.
Specialization is the key to success in development and a platform will become popular if it gets improved in terms of ecosystem and API robustness. You might have to make some compromises as of now.
What are the benefits of Xamarin.Forms for your business?
Apart from the fact that Xamarin.Forms is a free, open-source, and cross-platform, it has tons of benefits. Here’s how it can help grow your business and meet your goals effectively.
It is based on a single technological stack
One of the main advantages of Xamarin.Forms is that developers can create all kinds of applications with C#. They don’t require any other application and can switch between multiple environments in Visual Studio.
But what does it mean for your business?
Well, it can be convenient and time-saving for the development team. So, the next time you decide to hire an app agency, ensure that they provide Xamarin development services.
It provides a native user experience
Developing apps in Xamarin.Forms can native experience to users as it has full access to native APIs and toolkits used on various platforms.
Xamarin.Forms has a UI-based toolkit exclusively for every mobile platform. Xamarin.Essentials library provides seamless access to native API that can effectively increase the user-friendliness of your application.
The developed code can be easily shared
Apps developed in Xamarin can be deployed faster in the market compared to apps developed in other platforms.
It is popularly referred to as the platform that can be used to “write one, and use everywhere” platform in our circle.
You can save tons of money by choosing the right service provider
Your app development team can use 60–95% of the code as Xamarin has the potential to provide native performance despite a single codebase being used for apps on multiple platforms. Although it might demand a few minor tweaks, it won’t be a major hassle. You can deploy the app within a quick turnaround time and save exorbitant costs.
App maintenance will be simplified like never before
Maintaining apps developed with Xamarin.Forms is hassle-free as they are built with a single code base. Once again, this is a great way to save time, cost, and work. The concept is very simple — Your development team can make the required changes directly in the source code and it will be automatically applied to the apps on every platform.
What are the alternatives to Xamarin.Forms?
If you are looking forward to developing the best-in-class application, it requires an open-source framework and a highly reliable bug-free tool. While Xamarin.Forms checks every crucial box and is considered as the pioneer in the market, you can also look into the alternatives.
I have tried to point out some of the best alternatives.
React Native
React Native is also an open-source JavaScript framework that can be effectively used to develop Android and iOS applications. Similar to Xamarin.Forms, the codes can be easily shared between the platforms. It is being used by top players in the industry; however, the irony is that it is still in the beta stage.
Flutter
Flutter is an open-source mobile UI framework and comes from the house of Google. It also comes with customizable widgets and supports a modern reactive framework.
Although it is free and the quality assurance is better, it is still in beta stage.
Conclusion:
As a developer I see Xamarin.Forms as a potential game-changer. It can dramatically cut down your eCommerce app development and maintenance cost without compromising on quality.
Most developers agree that there is nothing better than Xamarin.Forms when it comes to cross-platform app development in the current market
What do you think of this statement? Tell me in the comments below.
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