React Native vs Xamarin (2026): Xamarin Is Retired, So Compare React Native and .NET MAUI

Last updated: October 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson. This comparison is based on each framework’s official documentation and release notes, the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey and developer discussions, all read in October 2026. See our review methodology.

React Native and Xamarin were the two big ways to build iPhone and Android apps from one codebase: React Native with JavaScript, Xamarin with C#. One of them is no longer a real option. Microsoft retired Xamarin in May 2024 and replaced it with .NET MAUI, so the comparison most readers need in 2026 is React Native vs .NET MAUI. This guide covers both: what changed, how the two compare today, and which to learn or build with.

Version numbers, support dates and platform-stability levels come from the official sources linked in this article, read on 13 October 2026. Frameworks ship new releases every few months, so check the linked release notes before you plan around a specific version.

React Native

React Native is an open-source framework from Meta for building native apps with React. You write components in JavaScript or TypeScript, and React Native renders them as the platform’s own UI widgets, so a list or a button is a real iOS or Android control rather than a web element styled to look like one.

The framework has changed a lot since the early comparisons were written. Since version 0.76 (October 2024), the New Architecture is on by default. It replaced the old asynchronous “bridge” that older articles blame for slow performance: JavaScript now calls native code directly through JSI, and the Hermes engine is the default. The current release is 0.87, and the official docs recommend starting new apps with Expo, a free, open-source framework that handles builds, routing and most device APIs.

React Native is not React for the web. The two share React’s component model, but React Native has no HTML or DOM. Our React Native vs React guide explains the difference.

Xamarin

Xamarin let developers build iOS, Android and Windows apps in C# on .NET. The company was founded in 2011, Microsoft bought it in 2016, and it came in two forms. Xamarin Native (Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android) gave C# access to each platform’s full SDK, with a separate UI per platform. Xamarin.Forms added a shared UI layer written in XAML, so most of the app could be written once. Our Xamarin Native vs Xamarin.Forms guide covers that split.

Both are now end-of-life. Microsoft’s Xamarin support policy says support ended on 1 May 2024 for all Xamarin SDKs, that Xamarin.Forms “has evolved into” .NET MAUI, and that Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS now live inside .NET as .NET for Android and .NET for iOS.

.NET MAUI: what replaced Xamarin

.NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) is Microsoft’s cross-platform framework for native mobile and desktop apps in C# and XAML. Microsoft describes it as “the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, extended from mobile to desktop scenarios, with UI controls rebuilt from the ground up for performance and extensibility.” Instead of separate platform projects, a MAUI app is one project that builds for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows.

Two support details matter when you plan. First, MAUI is versioned with .NET but supported on its own clock: each MAUI major version is supported for at least six months after the next one ships, so MAUI 10 support ends on 11 May 2027 even though .NET 10 itself is an LTS release supported to November 2028. In practice a MAUI team upgrades once a year. Second, MAUI 10 focused on quality rather than new features, and deprecated older controls such as ListView and TableView in favor of CollectionView, which matters if you are migrating Xamarin.Forms code.

React Native vs Xamarin: Performance

Both React Native and Xamarin render real native controls, so neither has the WebView overhead of hybrid tools like Ionic. The old performance arguments no longer hold. Comparisons from 2018-2022 said React Native “doesn’t support 64-bit mode on Android”; React Native has shipped 64-bit Android builds for years, and Google Play has required 64-bit support since 2019. The bridge bottleneck those articles describe was removed by the New Architecture.

Today the meaningful comparison is React Native vs .NET MAUI. On iOS, MAUI apps are fully ahead-of-time compiled to native ARM code; on Android they ship intermediate language that is JIT-compiled at launch. React Native runs JavaScript on the Hermes engine, which precompiles it to bytecode at build time. Both draw native views. For typical business and consumer screens, users will not notice a difference between well-built apps in either. The things that do show up, such as long lists, startup time and complex animation, depend more on how the app is built (list virtualization, image handling, animation libraries such as Reanimated in React Native) than on the framework label.

Where truly native performance matters most, such as games, AR, or heavy graphics, both teams usually drop down to platform code: Swift or Kotlin modules in React Native, or platform-specific code in MAUI. If the whole app is like that, compare native options in our React Native vs Swift and React Native vs Kotlin guides.

React Native vs Xamarin: Technology Used

This is still the deciding factor for most teams, because it decides who can work on the app.

• React Native uses JavaScript or TypeScript and React. JavaScript is the most-used language in the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey (66% of respondents), and TypeScript is used by 43.6%, so the hiring pool is large and most web developers can contribute quickly.
• .NET MAUI (like Xamarin before it) uses C# and .NET. C# is used by 27.8% of respondents in the same survey. Its strength is reuse: a MAUI app can share models, validation and service code with an ASP.NET Core backend, and C# developers already know the tooling.

Older versions of this page said Xamarin lacked hot reload. That is no longer true of its successor: .NET MAUI supports both .NET Hot Reload for C# and XAML Hot Reload for UI changes. React Native’s Fast Refresh remains one of its best features, updating the running app within a second or two of saving a file.

React Native vs Xamarin: Development Environment

React Native does not tie you to one editor. Most developers use VS Code, and the docs recommend starting with Expo, which can build iOS apps in the cloud so you can develop on Windows or Linux and still ship to the App Store. Without Expo’s build service you need Xcode on a Mac for iOS and Android Studio for Android.

.NET MAUI development centers on Visual Studio on Windows, with VS Code plus the .NET MAUI extension as the cross-platform option. Building and signing iOS apps still needs a Mac with Xcode, either locally or paired over the network. If you are on a Mac only, VS Code with the C# Dev Kit is the supported route.

Store requirements apply to both. Apple requires uploads built with Xcode 26 or later, and Google Play requires a current target API level, so whichever framework you choose must keep up with those yearly changes. React Native and MAUI do; Xamarin no longer can.

React Native vs Xamarin: Development Speed

Getting started is fast in both today. With Expo, a new React Native app runs on your own phone through the Expo Go app within minutes. A MAUI project comes from a Visual Studio template that includes sample pages and the free Community Toolkit, and runs in the Android emulator or Windows straight away.

Speed over the life of a project depends on the ecosystem. React Native has a very large npm library ecosystem and many ready-made UI kits. MAUI has a smaller open-source ecosystem, but commercial vendors such as Syncfusion, Telerik and DevExpress sell complete control suites, which business apps often rely on. If your app is mostly forms, grids and charts, those suites can make MAUI quicker. If it is a consumer app with custom UI, React Native’s community libraries usually cover more ground.

React Native vs Xamarin: Popularity

React Native is clearly the more widely used framework. Meta, Microsoft and Amazon all ship it: the official showcase lists Facebook, Meta Quest, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Teams, Xbox Game Pass, Amazon Shopping, Alexa and Kindle. It is not without critics, and some companies have moved specific apps back to fully native code, but its job market remains much larger than MAUI’s.

.NET MAUI is used mostly inside companies that already run on .NET: internal tools, field-service apps and enterprise line-of-business apps. Developers discussing the MAUI job market in 2026 describe it the same way, as a framework that .NET shops adopt because their existing team can use it, with fewer public consumer apps and fewer remote job listings than React Native.

Older versions of this page relied on a 2018 Stack Overflow ranking and lists of companies “using Xamarin”. Those lists are out of date, and we have removed them.

React Native vs Xamarin: Community Support

React Native has the larger community by a wide margin: more open-source libraries, more tutorials and more answers to common problems. Expo adds its own active community and documentation.

Xamarin’s community is now mostly people maintaining or migrating old apps. Forum threads from 2026 describe migrations to MAUI that took longer than expected, mostly because of custom renderers and third-party NuGet packages that never moved to .NET MAUI. If you inherit a Xamarin app, budget for that work and check every dependency first. Microsoft’s Xamarin upgrade guide lists which project types can move (nearly all can; Xamarin.watchOS and OpenGL on iOS cannot).

What are the similarities between React Native and Xamarin?

Despite different languages, React Native and Xamarin (and now .NET MAUI) share a lot:

• Cross-platform from one codebase. Both target iOS and Android with mostly shared code.
• Native UI. Both render real platform controls rather than a WebView.
• Backed by large companies. Meta maintains React Native; Microsoft maintains .NET MAUI. Both are free and open source.
• Escape hatches to native code. Both let you call Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin or Java APIs when the shared layer is not enough.
• Popular languages. JavaScript and C# are both among the most-used languages in the Stack Overflow survey, so learning either is a durable skill.

React Native vs .NET MAUI: which should you choose in 2026?

If neither fits, look at Flutter, which uses Google’s Dart language and draws its own UI; see React Native vs Flutter and Xamarin vs Flutter. For web-first teams, Xamarin vs Ionic covers the hybrid route, and Microsoft itself points .NET developers to Uno Platform as another open-source option.

Should you migrate a Xamarin app to React Native or .NET MAUI?

For most Xamarin apps, .NET MAUI is the shorter path, because your C# business logic, view models and services carry over. The UI layer is where the work is: custom renderers must become MAUI handlers, deprecated controls need replacing, and every NuGet package needs a .NET MAUI version. Rewriting in React Native makes sense when the app is small, when its UI is being redesigned anyway, or when your team is mostly JavaScript developers now.

• Inventory every NuGet package and custom renderer before choosing a path.
• Upgrade class libraries to SDK-style .NET projects first; Microsoft’s guide says every project must become SDK-style.
• Move one feature or screen at a time where you can, and test on real devices.
• Plan for yearly MAUI upgrades, since each version is supported for only about 18 months.

Best courses to learn React Native or .NET MAUI

Our picks, checked live in October 2026. Prices and ratings change, so check the course page; Udemy runs frequent sales.

See the Meta React Native Specialization on Coursera →

For more, see our best React Native courses and our guide to mobile app programming languages, and for native iPhone development, our iOS courses and tutorials. If you are deciding where to buy courses, our Udemy review explains how its pricing and refunds work.

In conclusion

React Native vs Xamarin used to be a fair fight between JavaScript and C#. In 2026 it is not: Xamarin is retired, and its apps can no longer meet Google Play and App Store build rules without moving to .NET. The real choice is React Native or .NET MAUI. Pick React Native for consumer apps, React teams and the larger job market. Pick .NET MAUI if you write C#, need desktop as well as mobile, or are moving an existing Xamarin app forward.

Frequently asked questions

Is Xamarin still supported in 2026?

No. Microsoft ended support for all Xamarin SDKs, including Xamarin.Forms, on 1 May 2024. The final versions target Android API 34 and Xcode 15, which is below what Google Play and the App Store now require for new uploads.

What replaced Xamarin?

Xamarin.Forms was replaced by .NET MAUI (.NET Multi-platform App UI). Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS became .NET for Android and .NET for iOS, which are part of .NET itself.

Is React Native better than .NET MAUI?

It depends on your team. React Native has the larger community and job market and suits JavaScript and React developers. .NET MAUI suits C# teams, apps that also need Windows and macOS desktop builds, and enterprise apps that share code with a .NET backend.

Is React Native faster than Xamarin?

Both render native controls, so typical apps perform similarly. MAUI compiles iOS apps ahead of time, and React Native’s New Architecture removed the old bridge bottleneck. Performance problems usually come from how an app is built, not the framework.

Can I still publish a Xamarin app to Google Play?

Not with an unmodified Xamarin toolchain. Since 31 August 2025 new apps and updates must target Android 15 (API 35), rising to Android 16 (API 36) from 31 August 2026, and Xamarin stops at API 34. Migrating to .NET for Android or .NET MAUI is the supported route.

Should I learn Xamarin in 2026?

No. Learn .NET MAUI instead if you want to build apps in C#. Xamarin knowledge is only useful for maintaining or migrating older apps.

Does React Native work on Windows and macOS?

Yes, through the separate React Native for Windows and React Native for macOS projects maintained by Microsoft, but they are less common than iOS and Android. .NET MAUI builds Windows and macOS apps from the same project as mobile.