Anthony Tietjen

A comparison of app startup speed using Xamarin Native and Xamarin Forms.

A comparison of Xamarin Forms versus React Native. Topics include hot reload, fonts, code navigation, debugging and more.

In  Xamarin  I created a  Single View App  targeted for iOS and Android with a Shared Library. I changed the scheme to Release and removed the button click logic from ViewController.cs since Xcode's doesn't start with any button click logic. I confirmed that debugging was not enabled by putting a breakpoint in the ViewDidLoad() event, and it never hit that breakpoint. The deployment target was set to iOS 9.2. In  Xamarin  I created a  Xamarin.Forms App  targeted for iOS and Android with a Shared Library. I changed the scheme to Release. I confirmed that debugging was not enabled by putting a breakpoint in the App() method, and it never hit that breakpoint. The deployment target was set to iOS 9.2. In Xcode I created a Single View App using Swift targeting Universal devices. I opened the Run scheme, changed it to use the Build Configuration of Release and unchecked Debug Executable. Under Options I unchecked Core Location, XPC Servi...

Hannes Nel with Microsoft New Zealand has written an excellent article on what to consider when choosing between Xamarin and Cordova .

I created a blank single-view application in three different IDEs and compared the file size and startup time of the resulting apps once deployed to my iPhone 5S. Listed below are the IDEs I used, the file sizes and startup speeds for each app: IDEs Used: Xcode 5.02 with the deployment target set to iOS 7.0 Xamarin Studio 4.2.3 Titanium Studio 3.2.1 using Alloy File Sizes: Xcode: 216 KB Xamarin (for Release): 2.9 MB Xamarin (for Debug): 5.1 MB Titanium Alloy: 4.6 MB Startup Speeds: ( From home icon tap to after launch screen finished) Xcode: ~1.056 seconds (Average of: 1.06, 1.08, 1.03) Xamarin (for Release): ~1.056 seconds (Average of: 1.06, 1.11, 1.00) Xamarin (for Debug): ~2.49 seconds (Average of: 2.33, 2.58, 2.58) Titanium Alloy: ~1.07 (Average of: 0.96, 1.10, 1.12, 1.11)