Xamarin vs. Hybrid HTML: Making the Right Choice for the Enterprise

We want to thank Kevin Ford at Magenic for helping us present a thorough comparison of cross-platform native vs. hybrid HTML approaches for mobile development for the enterprise.

Kevin’s team built a functionally identical sample app utilizing Xamarin and hybrid HTML (in this case Cordova) to understand the differences in user experience, performance, developer experience, and TCO.

Some of the key findings:

    Hybrid HTML approaches couldn’t deliver on key functionality without previous knowledge of Objective-C and Java to write custom, platform proprietary plugins
    Cross-platform native apps started 25% faster and loaded large datasets 62% faster
    Cross-platform native apps utilized 50% less memory and 76% less CPU time
    During development, Hybrid HTML apps compiled faster, and app sizes were smaller
    Hybrid HTML did have higher code reuse, but was not able to deliver required functionality in the required timeframe of 6 weeks

We have made the presentation available for everyone to view below.
On-Demand Recording

The webinar recording is available below and on YouTube if you weren’t able to catch it live, or if you want to forward on to your colleagues. There are several demos showing the differences between Xamarin and hybrid mobile that you’ll want to see.

Slides

Many of you also requested the presentation slides, which you can find here. They don’t have the demos and screenshots from the video, but they’re a good conversation starter or building blocks for your own presentations.
Q&A

Q: How does Xamarin.Forms promise 90+% code re-use?

A: Xamarin.Forms provides a UI framework for describing the layout of a screen element, which can be defined in either C# or XAML (XML syntax). At runtime, each page and its controls are mapped to platform-specific native user interface elements, so it renders native platform UI while still offering native performance. All business logic and backend code code is also completely reused between platforms.

Q: How does Xamarin compare to other mobile cross-platform native frameworks?

A: There are other frameworks that also take a cross-platform native approach. RoboVM does this with Java; in 2015 they became part of the Xamarin family so for Java developers this might be an alternative.

Other cross-platform native approaches utilize JavaScript to define UI and business logic and translate that to native controls. Although many developers know JavaScript, testing and maintaining mobile apps built on an interpreted language can be more challenging. While solutions like Xamarin Test Cloud can help, you’ll also need to test for errors that could have been caught during compilation.

Secondly, Xamarin has a big ecosystem of developers, components, and partners. There are over 1.6M C# developers worldwide, with thousands of components available from NuGet, the Xamarin Component Store, the ability to bind to CocoaPods, and 100% API access to iOS, Android, and Windows. There’s little you can’t do, and if you need help either our support or community sites like StackOverflow will usually have an answer.

Q: Are there any situations where hybrid HTML should be your first choice?

A: If your developer’s primary skill set is in web development, they may initially be more productive utilizing a hybrid HTML approach. However, you need to really think about future-proofing your app to stay on top of changes in iOS, Android, and Windows, and whether you’ll need more advanced access to a device’s sensors or the platform APIs, such as iOS’ 3D Touch, payments, or fingerprint recognition for example.

These features require contributions by a community to provide the necessary plugins, which sometimes require enhancement and testing, or else you’ll need to write your own custom extensions with Objective-C, Swift, or Java.

Xamarin, on the other hand, provides 100% API access to all the platforms, as well as many cross-platform plugins you can utilize. We also have world-class training through Xamarin University to accelerate development and teach best practices.

Source: https://blog.xamarin.com/webinar-recording-xamarin-vs-hybrid-html-making-the-right-choice-for-the-enterprise/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=hybrid-webinar-link&utm_campaign=march2016&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRolu6%2FAZKXonjHpfsX56eUrX6G%2Bi4kz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMT8tmN6%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7nCKc1q1c0QXBfr