Overview
Often developers use different technologies when developing apps for different platforms. Also developing apps which work across multiple platforms is quite challenging. Whether its handling different UI frameworks, managing separate codebases, or dealing with platform-specific quirks, developers often find themselves go through a painful and time consuming process. Assume if you could write your code once and run it on different platforms from Windows, macOS, iOS, to Android.That’s possible with .NET MAUI .
What is .NET MAUI?
.NET MAUI stands for Multi-platform App UI.It is Microsoft’s evolution of Xamarin.Forms and is designed to provide a single codebase for creating cross-platform applications. It enables developers to build native apps using C# and .NET while sharing UI and business logic across platforms. It is a unified framework that abstracts the complexities of platform-specific development.
For .NET developers is one of the alternatives for developing cross platform apps. It integrates tightly with .NET 8 and beyond, supports hot reload for faster development, and leverages MVU (Model-View-Update) architecture as well as the traditional MVVM architecture. If you have some experience working with Xamarin or WPF, you will find familiarity working with MAUI.
Some of the important features of MAUI
- Single Codebase: Write once, run on multiple platforms.
- Native Performance: Unlike web-based cross-platform solutions, MAUI apps run natively.
- Unified UI and Logic: No need to maintain separate UI implementations for each platform.
- Seamless Integration with .NET: Leverage existing .NET libraries and tooling.
- Future-Proof: Microsoft is actively investing in MAUI, making it the future of cross-platform development in the .NET ecosystem.
Use cases of .NET MAUI
Here are some of the use cases:
- Enterprise Apps: Internal business applications that need to run on multiple devices.
- E-commerce & Retail: Shopping apps with consistent experiences on mobile and desktop.
- Healthcare & Telemedicine: Cross-platform apps for patient management and virtual consultations.
- IoT & Smart Devices: Apps that interact with hardware across different platforms.
- Gaming & Media: Lightweight interactive applications with native performance.
How Does .NET MAUI Work?
.NET MAUI simplifies cross-platform development by unifying UI and application logic under a single project structure. Here’s a high-level overview of how it works:
- Single Project Structure: Unlike Xamarin, which required separate projects for different platforms, MAUI consolidates everything into a single project. Platform-specific tweaks are still possible but kept minimal.
- Cross-Platform UI with Handlers: MAUI introduces “Handlers” instead of the old “Renderers” from Xamarin.Forms. Handlers map UI controls directly to native elements, resulting in better performance and flexibility.
- Shared Business Logic: The app logic is written once using C# and .NET and shared across all platforms.
- Native Access: While MAUI abstracts platform differences, it still allows developers to write platform-specific code when needed using dependency services and partial classes.
- Hot Reload & Live Preview: Developers can see changes instantly without recompiling the entire app, speeding up development.
- Blazor Hybrid: MAUI supports Blazor, allowing developers to reuse web UI components inside a native app—great for those already working with Razor and .NET web development.
So as we have looked into some of the features of .NET MAUI , it is a powerful toolkit which brings the enables cross-platform development for .NET developers.
Microsoft’s official documentation and GitHub repositories have excellent resources. for getting started with MAUI.


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