Ionic vs Xamarin

Ionic vs Xamarin

Ionic and Xamarin are both the most popular frameworks used to develop a hybrid mobile application. Both frameworks are used in large enterprises by the developers. Here, we will discuss the important differences between the Ionic and Xamarin.

Ionic

Ionic is an open-source platform that is used to develop mobile applications. It is a free and open-source component library to build the application that runs on the iOS, Android, and Web platforms. It uses various web technologies such as HTML, CSS, SaSS, and JavaScript.

It emphasizes the front-end user’s knowledge or user interface interaction of the application. It is easy to learn and work with various libraries or frameworks such as AngularJS and Apache Cordova.

Ionic was created by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradly of Drifty Company in 2013. The first (1.0) beta version of the ionic framework was released in March 2014. Although the ionic framework is integrated with Angular, it also provides support for Vue.js and React.js.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of the ionic framework.

Advantages of Ionic Framework

• It is a free and open-source platform.
• It uses various languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to develop a mobile application.
• It provides very simple, clear, and consistent documentation.
• It supports multiple user interface development.
• It is also used for the Hybrid Mobile app Development that runs on iOS, Android, and Web platforms.
• It works on the MVC (Modal View Controller) Pattern.

Disadvantages of Ionic Framework 

• The ionic framework does not support large graphics-dependent apps or video games.
• The ionic application is not secure for financial apps such as banking or e-commerce apps. Also, it does not provide as much security as a native application.
• At present, ionic technology is under the development phase. It keeps updating its support and quality regularly, and thus its libraries can be modified at any time.
• The performance of the ionic app is slower than the native application. In some cases, the performance of the ionic application is not noticeable.

Xamarin

Xamarin is an open-source and cross-platform development framework that allows the developer to create a mobile application. Initially, it was introduced by the Xamarin company in 2011. In February 2016, Microsoft announced that it had signed a final agreement to acquire Xamarin. Later, it is maintained and developed by Microsoft.

It uses the C# language to develop a mobile application that runs on different platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows phones. Xamarin Framework is built on the .NET framework. Xamarin can be downloaded with Visual Studio.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of the Xamarin.

Advantages of Xamarin

• It allows the developers to build apps for various platforms, such as Android, iOS, Windows phones.
• It is cross-platform app development.
• It has a smaller number of bugs.
• There is no need to build several API for different mobile platforms because Xamarin allows the developer to use the same API to build Android, iOS, and Window phones applications.
• It helps you to create an efficient, high-performance code that will be able to access any native API. It is very easy to build a specific application on different platforms.

Disadvantages of Xamarin

• It does not share the User Interface platform.
• It is free for small companies and individual app development, but it is very expensive for enterprises.
• You need to purchase the license for Microsoft visual studio if you use the Xamarin for the enterprises.
• It supports most of the .NET framework libraries, but sometimes it is difficult to use open-source libraries in Xamarin.

Comparison chart between the Ionic and Xamarin

Features	Ionic	Xamarin
Purpose	It is used to develop a hybrid mobile application.	It is used to develop the cross-platform mobile application.
Language uses	CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.	C#
Developed by	Drifty Company developed it in 2013. The first version of the ionic framework was launched in March 2014,	Xamarin company developed it in 2011, but in 2016 Microsoft had signed an agreement to acquire Xamarin.
Performance	Performance is slower than Xamarin	Performance is higher than Ionic, and it quite close to the native application.
Code reusability	98% of code is reusable.	It also 98% of code is reusable.
Platforms	It supports Android, iOS, Windows Phones, etc.	It also supports Android, iOS, Windows Phones, etc.
Maintain	It is difficult to maintain.	It is easy to maintain.
GUI	It supports HTML.	It supports Native widgets.
Code binding capabilities	Adaptor is required	Any binary library
64-bit support	It supports 64-bit mode on the iOS application.	It also supports 64-bit mode only, but it can also compile on 32-bit.
Companies use	Accenture, Sellsuki, and Zenefits.	Olo, Siemens, Pinterest, World bank.