Xamarin vs React Native
6pm Wednesday 20th September, Freshwater Place, Melbourne
Xamarin and React Native are competing head to head to dominate the native app development space. Both fill that niche of being able to develop an app that deploys indistinguishably from native built iOS, Android or UWP apps, but with a single development team and a single language.
The days of employing a different set of developers for the differing platforms are numbered. Even if your organisation has decided it will only deploy Android, if it costs nothing more to have an iOS version, why would you not keep that option open?
Xamarin has an advantage for .Net organisations as it uses the same C# language as their existing staff, whereas React Native has a similar advantage for organisations or individuals that use JavaScript.
According to StatCounter[1], the use of mobile devices surpassed the use of desktops about a year ago. We see quite staggering predictions of app growth based on revenue forecasts but this is only half the story as there are a large proportion of apps built by organisations for internal use and other non-revenue earning reasons.
In Australia the demand for resources is outstripping supply and even though skilled individuals can ask higher rates, the overall lifetime cost to an organisation is cheaper because of the single development team advantages and the ability to leverage existing C# or JavaScript resources.
But which platform, Xamarin or React Native, is the right long term strategy?
The full lifecycle cost of any significant IT investment is not just about which language is used. You will also be considering performance and how to integrate into your existing development environment, handle ongoing deployments and quickly take advantage of new emerging device capabilities. You will be considering issues like source control, continuous integration, coding standards, inclusion into your Agile processes, automation testing … and the list goes on.
This month we are pleased to present Michael Williams[2] who will explain the technical and performance differences between Xamarin and React Native, best practices in using them, pros and cons of choosing one over the other and DevOps considerations.
Michael is a technical solutions professional with Microsoft and Full Stack developer. He is passionate about both Xamarin and React Native.
He has over 5 years experience working with Xamarin, was one of the first to use Xamarin.Forms, has built 25 Xamarin apps, worked with many frameworks including ReactiveUI, MVVMCross and Prism, is the author of the book “Xamarin Blueprints [PACKT Publishing]” and his second book “Xamarin Design Patterns & Practices” is due to be published in about 6 weeks.
He has worked with React for almost 3 years using Flux and the Redux library, worked with React Native since 2015 and has built 7 React Native apps.
He is currently focused on data science and neural networks, is a great fan of large scale CQRS systems and in his spare time is working on a new open-source framework and creating a Redux version of Xamarin.Forms.
This presentation is one not to be missed. It is a free event but registration is essential at Xamarin Melbourne Meetup.
As an added incentive, every attendee will receive a complementary digital version of Michael’s first book, Xamarin Blueprints.
Your hosts,
Kym Phillpotts and Rod Hemphill
References:
- StatCounter - Use of mobile devices surpasses desktop
- Michael Williams: LinkedIn, Flusharcade.com, mwilliams@flusharcade.com