Comparison: Flutter vs .NET MAUI

Introduction

In recent years, the rise of cross-platform frameworks has profoundly transformed mobile development strategies. Companies seek to reduce costs, share skills, and accelerate delivery cycles, while maintaining high standards for quality, performance, and user experience.

In this context, two approaches stand out:

• Flutter, backed by Google, based on Dart, with a declarative UI approach and a proprietary rendering engine.
• .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI), evolution of Xamarin by Microsoft, integrated into the .NET and C# ecosystem.

This article offers an in-depth comparative analysis of these two solutions, aimed at tech leads and mobile developers facing architectural or stack choices in their projects.

The goal is to clearly identify the strengths, weaknesses, and preferred use cases of each technology, through a set of key criteria: productivity, performance, native integration, maintainability, ecosystem, and more.

Note : we chose not to include React Native in this comparison, to focus the analysis on two contrasting but emerging approaches in different technological contexts. React Native will be the subject of a dedicated article, allowing for a broader evaluation later.

Whether you are in the scoping phase, redesigning a mobile app, or seeking a unified technical foundation across platforms, this comparison aims to provide you with an objective and directly usable framework for making the right decisions.

General presentation of the Frameworks

Before diving into the detailed comparative analysis, it is essential to lay the groundwork by presenting the two frameworks on fundamental aspects: publisher, main language, year of creation, target platforms, technical approach, and some reference application examples.

These generalities help to better understand the DNA of each technology, their strategic positioning , and the ecosystems in which they fit. They also provide a first level of insight to anticipate possible affinities with a team's skills or a project's constraints.

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI)

The .NET (.NET MAUI) cross-platform application user interface is a cross-platform infrastructure for building native mobile and desktop applications with C# and XAML. It is the successor to Xamarin.Forms, integrated into the .NET 6+ ecosystem.

With .NET MAUI, you can develop applications that run on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows from a single shared codebase.

.NET MAUI is intended for developers who want to:

• Write cross-platform applications in XAML and C#, from a single shared codebase in Visual Studio.
• Share UI layout and design across multiple platforms.
• Share code, tests, and business logic across multiple platforms.

Development Environment

Android Emulator

The Android emulator is directly integrated into Visual Studio and simulates an Android device on your computer. It allows you to launch, test, and debug applications without using a real physical device.

Android SDK, Android Emulator, AVD Manager (included with Visual Studio when you install MAUI for Android).

UI Development

• UI in XAML (declarative, similar to WPF)

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
  <ContentPage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
               xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
               x:Class="Notes.AboutPage">
    <VerticalStackLayout Spacing="10" Margin="10">
      <HorizontalStackLayout Spacing="10">
        <Image Source="dotnet_bot.png"
               SemanticProperties.Description="The dot net bot waving hello!"
               HeightRequest="64" />
        <Label FontSize="22" FontAttributes="Bold" Text="Notes" VerticalOptions="End" />
        <Label FontSize="22" Text="v1.0" VerticalOptions="End" />
      </HorizontalStackLayout>
      <Label Text="This app is written in XAML and C# with .NET MAUI." />
      <Button Text="Learn more..." Clicked="LearnMore_Clicked" />
    </VerticalStackLayout>
  </ContentPage>

• And in C#

      private async void LearnMore_Clicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
          // Navigate to the specified URL in the system browser.
          await Launcher.Default.OpenAsync("https://aka.ms/maui");
      }

State Management and Logic

• Recommended MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern
• Use of `INotifyPropertyChanged`, `Command`, etc.
• Compatible with `CommunityToolkit.Mvvm`

There are three main components in the MVVM model: the model, the view, and the view model. Each serves a distinct purpose. The diagram below shows the relationships between the three components.

At a higher level, the view "knows" the view model, and the view model "knows" the model, but the model is unaware of the view model and the view model is unaware of the view. Thus, the view model isolates the view from the model and allows the model to evolve independently of the view.

Navigation

• Via `Shell` (`AppShell.xaml`) for centralized navigation
• `Routing.RegisterRoute()` and `GoToAsync()`

API Calls and Persistence

• HTTP via `HttpClient`
• JSON serialization with `System.Text.Json` or `Newtonsoft.Json`
• Storage:
  • `Preferences` (key/value)
  • `SecureStorage` (encryption)
  • SQLite (via `sqlite-net-pcl`)
  • EF Core (with SQLite for mobile)

Tests

• Unit tests: `xUnit`, `NUnit`
• UI tests: with `MAUI.UITest` (preview) or Appium
• Mock : `Moq`, `FakeItEasy`

Build & Deployment

• Visual Studio offers build for each platform
• `dotnet publish` / `dotnet build`
• Integration with Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, CI/CD
• Deployment to Play Store / App Store / Microsoft Store

Publishing possible directly from Visual Studio…

Creation and signing of the package for distribution

.NET MAUI allows you to generate:

• APK (old format) or
• AAB (Android App Bundle) (format recommended by Google).

Documentation

• .NET Multi-platform App UI Documentation - .NET MAUI
• Enterprise Application Patterns using .NET MAUI

Flutter

Flutter is an open-source UI framework developed by Google for creating native multi-platform applications with a single codebase. It uses the Dart language and offers custom graphics rendering via its own engine.

General Architecture

• Language: Dart
  • Object-oriented language, compiled to native code (JIT & AOT).
  • Syntax similar to JavaScript and Java/C#.
  • Package manager: pub.dev.
• Key components:
  • Widgets : Everything is a widget (UI, layout, animation, etc.).
  • State Management : Several solutions:
  • setState (basic)
  • Provider, Riverpod, Bloc, Cubit, GetX, etc.
  • Flutter Engine : C++ engine rendering via Skia.
  • Platform Channels : Allows calling native code (Kotlin, Swift, etc.).

Development Environment

• Recommended IDEs:
  • Android Studio
  • Visual Studio Code
  • IntelliJ IDEA
• Tools:
  • Flutter CLI (`flutter doctor`, `flutter build`, `flutter run`, etc.)
  • Hot Reload: instantly updates the UI without restarting the app.
  • Dart DevTools: debugging, performance, logs, widget inspector.

UI Development

Flutter enables pixel-perfect design , with many capabilities:

• MaterialApp, Scaffold, AppBar, Container, Row, Column, Stack
• Highly composable custom components
• Responsive design withLayoutBuilder, MediaQuery, Flexible

State Management

Depending on your project's complexity:

• Simple → setState
• Medium → Provideror Riverpod
• Complex → Bloc, Cubit, Clean Architecture

Navigation

• Native (Navigator, Navigator 2.0)
• With packages like:
  • go_router
  • auto_route

API Calls and Persistence

• HTTP:http, dio, chopper
• Local storage:
  • shared_preferences (key-value)
  • sqflite (SQLite)
  • hive (fast NoSQL)
• Authentication : Firebase, OAuth, etc.

Firebase

Integrating Firebase into a Flutter application offers many advantages, whether for development, user management (password, recovery, email sending…), FCM notifications, or Google Analytics.

Firebase offers a set of packages maintained and optimized for Flutter (firebase_core, firebase_auth, cloud_firestore, etc.).

Tests

• flutter test for unit tests
• flutter_driver or integration_test for integration tests
• mockito, bloc_test for mocking and logic verification

Build & Deployment

• flutter build apk / flutter build ios / flutter build web
• Integration with GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Codemagic, etc.
• Use of Flavors for multi-environment dev/uat/prod management flutter run --flavor dev

Documentation

• Flutter documentation
• Firebase documentation

Conclusion

In summary, Flutter and.NET MAUI are two powerful frameworks for cross-platform application development.

Flutter stands out for its fast development, its broad compatibility with many devices, and the support of an active community.

Conversely, .NET MAUI is particularly suited for projects that leverage the .NET ecosystem, with a familiar language (C#) and excellent integration with Microsoft tools.

The choice between the two depends primarily on the specific needs of the project, the team's skills, and the tools and technologies already in place.