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Xamarin VS JavaFX

Compare Xamarin VS JavaFX and see what are their differences

Xamarin logo Xamarin

Create iOS, Android and Mac apps in C#

JavaFX logo JavaFX

JavaFX is the next step in the evolution of Java as a rich client platform.
  • Xamarin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17
  • JavaFX Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-18

Xamarin features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Xamarin allows developers to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows), which can significantly reduce development time and effort.
  • Native Performance
    Apps built with Xamarin perform as well as native apps because they leverage platform-specific hardware acceleration and compile directly to native ARM assembly code.
  • Shared Codebase
    With Xamarin, developers can use a single codebase for different platforms, making it easier to maintain and update apps across multiple operating systems.
  • Large Ecosystem
    As part of the broader .NET ecosystem, Xamarin benefits from a large collection of libraries, tools, and developer resources provided by Microsoft.
  • Strong Community Support
    Xamarin has a strong developer community and comprehensive documentation, making it easier for developers to find support and resources.
  • Integration with Visual Studio
    Xamarin integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio, providing a robust development environment complete with debugging, profiling, and unit testing tools.

Possible disadvantages of Xamarin

  • App Size
    Xamarin apps tend to have larger file sizes compared to native apps because of the additional overhead of the Mono runtime.
  • Limited Third-Party Library Support
    While Xamarin supports a wide range of libraries, not all third-party libraries and SDKs are compatible, which might require custom bindings or workarounds.
  • Performance Overhead
    Some performance overhead might still exist compared to fully native applications, especially in complex and resource-intensive apps.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers coming from purely native development backgrounds might face a learning curve when adopting Xamarin, particularly in understanding the shared codebase approach and platform-specific nuances.
  • Platform Limitations
    Certain platform-specific features and UI elements might not be fully supported or might require additional custom code to implement.
  • Licensing Costs
    Although Xamarin itself is open source, enterprise-level features or more advanced tools might require a Visual Studio Enterprise subscription, which can be costly.

JavaFX features and specs

  • Rich UI Controls
    JavaFX provides a wide range of built-in UI controls, such as buttons, tables, and charts, which makes it easy to create complex user interfaces.
  • FXML Support
    JavaFX allows developers to use FXML, a scripting interface that enables them to design user interfaces with XML, separating the logic from design, enhancing maintainability.
  • CSS Styling
    The framework supports CSS for styling UI components, offering flexibility in design and the ability to create visually appealing applications.
  • Scene Graph
    JavaFX's scene graph provides a hierarchical structure for managing the layout, simplifying the development of complex UIs with animations and transformations.
  • Cross-Platform
    JavaFX applications are cross-platform, allowing developers to run the same application on different operating systems without modifications.
  • Integration with Java
    As a part of the Java ecosystem, JavaFX integrates seamlessly with existing Java libraries and tools, benefiting from Java's robust environment.

Possible disadvantages of JavaFX

  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Despite its powerful features, JavaFX can be challenging to learn for beginners, especially those not familiar with Java.
  • Limited Third-Party Libraries
    Compared to other UI frameworks like Swing or frameworks outside of Java, JavaFX has a relatively smaller ecosystem of third-party libraries and tools.
  • Performance Issues
    JavaFX might face performance challenges, particularly when dealing with resource-intensive applications or those requiring very high responsiveness.
  • Mobile Support Limitations
    JavaFX's support for mobile platforms is not as strong as other frameworks, requiring additional tools or platforms like Gluon for mobile development.
  • Market Adoption
    The adoption of JavaFX in the industry is not as widespread as other technologies like React or Angular, which might influence community support and development resources.

Xamarin videos

Pros and Cons of Xamarin Development

More videos:

  • Review - Is Xamarin Forms Any Good?
  • Review - Why Xamarin Is Awesome

JavaFX videos

JavaFX Project Car Review #6 Homepage GUI and Controller

More videos:

  • Review - JavaFX will be removed from JDK 11
  • Review - JavaFX Projects Car Review #2 Login and GUI Controllers

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Xamarin and JavaFX)
Developer Tools
94 94%
6% 6
Development Tools
68 68%
32% 32
Rapid Application Development
App Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Xamarin and JavaFX

Xamarin Reviews

Explore 9 Top Eclipse Alternatives for 2024
Xamarin.Forms An open-source UI framework that enables developers to conjure up applications for Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, and Windows from a singular shared codebase. Offers rich features like XAML user-interface language, databinding, gestures, effects, styling.
Source: aircada.com
Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
Developed and launched by Microsoft, Xamarin facilitates developers to build apps for iOS and Android by using C# and .NET. It ensures a seamless integration with Visual Studio and lets developers experience a fully familiar environment. The framework provides a single codebase and allows developers to perform app development rapidly.
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
Xamarin is a Microsoft-created framework for building native iOS, Android, and Windows apps in C#/.NET. On the complexity front, Xamarin apps generally require more focus on memory management and garbage collection tuning relative to alternatives like Flutter. The additional diligence pays dividends in runtime performance when done properly. However, developers with...
THE BEST 34 APP DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE IN 2022 LIST
Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned tool to write native code for apps. Free. Cross-platform. Open-source. An app platform for building Android and iOS apps with .NET and C#.
9 Of The Best Android Studio Alternatives To Try Out
You can also access the required resources at the Xamarin Universal project. You can stay up to date with the latest updates by subscribing to their YouTube channel or blogs. The Xamarin community is most active, and you can get answers to your questions swiftly.

JavaFX Reviews

We have no reviews of JavaFX yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

JavaFX might be a bit more popular than Xamarin. We know about 37 links to it since March 2021 and only 28 links to Xamarin. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Xamarin mentions (28)

  • Wine Releases Framework Mono 6.14 in Taking over the Mono Project
    I haven't been following .NET lately, but AFAIK .NET works on Linux now and "Mono" is basically .NET for Linux... What even are the differences? Sounds like Microsoft just doesn't want to maintain 2 different versions so they're dumping it. Also, > Microsoft became the steward of the Mono Project when it acquired Xamarin in 2016 They probably never even wanted Mono, they just inherited it because they wanted... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • C# Fundamentals
    Mobile Applications: With Xamarin, a cross-platform mobile development framework, developers can write C# code to build native Android, iOS, and Windows mobile applications. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Making an android app with c#
    Xamarin - Basically an older version of MAUI. I would advise against creating new projects on Xamarin since MAUI is supposed to render it obsolete. Source: over 2 years ago
  • App developer
    Microsoft Xamarin: For this you'll need to know C# and .net. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I own a web development company in San Antonio and I'm looking for ideas to support the UTSA students with some sort of free courses or classes
    At my internship, we moved to Microsoft's Visual Studio for C# development from Java, and for application development we use Xamarin which can be used on Windows and Mac. Source: over 2 years ago
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JavaFX mentions (37)

  • JBang, the missing scripting tool of the Java ecosystem
    JavaFX is a desktop and UI framework. Its official website is openjfx.io and is also supported by Gluon which provides additional UI components and brings mobile app support to JavaFX. JBang supports this frameowrk and can be used to create signle file JavaFX applications. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Home to Anything JavaFX Related
    It has a very active community, nothing is dead when there are active users. It has been living as independent package for a long time https://openjfx.io. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Book review - Frontend Development with JavaFX and Kotlin
    Other topics handled in this chapter are Kotlin utilities for JavaFX and direct downloads of JavaFX releases from openjfx.io. The author also explains why FXML is not used in the book. I agree with his view that the XML files are not as dynamic as code and bring a mix of technologies into your project. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Setting up Continuous Integration
    One, I don't understand Java environments really well. All I have done so far is create some GUI applications using JavaFX. Wish I could share my code, but unfortunately, its part of my assignments and can't be open-sourced. Second, the instructions I found in the Contributing docs were bare-minimum, and kinda hard to follow for a beginner. An experienced Java developer would get them really quickly, no doubt... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to use the JavaFX library Medusa to display weather data
    JavaFX (an open source, next generation client application platform for desktop, mobile and embedded systems) has many useful out the box UI controls to build modern interactive desktop apps. These include buttons, checkboxes, list views, labels etc, that can be configured and styled in countless ways. I’ve using them for many years at work building mapping apps! - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Xamarin and JavaFX, you can also consider the following products

Android Studio - Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA

Qt - Powerful, flexible and easy to use, Qt will help you not only meet your tight deadline, but also reduce the maintainable code by an astonishing percentage.

OutSystems - Build Enterprise-Grade Apps Fast.

Electron - Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

Xcode - Xcode is Apple’s powerful integrated development environment for creating great apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Xcode 4 includes the Xcode IDE, instruments, iOS Simulator, and the latest Mac OS X and iOS SDKs.

Flutter - Build beautiful native apps in record time 🚀