.NET MAUI vs. Cross-Platform Mobile Development Frameworks: A Comparative Analysis and State of the Art
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61961/injei.v3i1.86Keywords:
.NET MAUI, Cross-platform development, React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Mobile frameworks, Performance, Developer experience, Enterprise softwareAbstract
Cross-platform mobile application development has become a critical challenge in software engineering, given the fragmentation of mobile operating systems and the high cost of maintaining separate native codebases. .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) is Microsoft’s latest framework that enables developers to build native applications for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows from a single shared codebase using C# and XAML. This article presents a comparative analysis of .NET MAUI against React Native, Flutter, Xamarin.Forms, and Ionic, examining architecture, design patterns, programming languages, resource consumption, AI/ML integration, and enterprise readiness. A state-of-the-art review structured under the SALSA framework covers empirical studies and benchmarks published between January 2020 and April 2026. Results show that .NET MAUI offers significant advantages for Microsoft ecosystem teams, while Flutter leads in rendering performance and React Native maintains the largest developer community. The findings provide actionable guidance for organizations selecting a cross-platform framework aligned with their technical constraints and business objectives.
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