What is .NET MAUI?
.NET MAUI is the officially launched successor of Xamarin.Forms, that was launched and fully matured in 2022. It is a cross-platform framework that allows developers to create native applications using C# and XAML while sharing most of the code between target platforms.
.NET MAUI KEY FEATURES (BULLET POINTS).
One project structure. One project, multiple platforms:
.NET MAUI has a single project structure with multiple targets. For example, the same project for building apps on Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS.
Performance. Apps compile to a native binary for each platform.
Native experience on each platform with direct access to .net features and APIs.
Unified UI and Business Logic. The use of shared UI and business logic across devices.
Access, access to native APIs. The developer is able to directly access the native environment-based UI features and APIs in order to provide the user a native experience on each platform.
Hot Reload. Real-time UI updates during the development phase of the app creation process.
.NET MAUI is part of the wider ecosystem of .NET that allows project integration and access to other MS technologies such as ASP.NET Core, Blazor, Azure, and Visual Studio.
Reason to Use .NET MAUI in 2025
The pandemic created a rare, and global, working experiment that became part of the fabric of modern work culture. This experiment, alongside hybrid work and multi-device use, has led to demand for rapid development timelines. Overall, this is why DOTNET MAUI has become a popular choice for developers and companies both big and small.
One Development Experience
In the past, when targeting Android, iOS and desktop, you would be required to manage different codebases. .NET MAUI allows you to write once and deploy many, while still reaping the benefits of reduced time to develop and lower maintenance costs.
Native Performance with Common Code
Because MAUI applications compile to native code as opposed to web-based hybrid frameworks, they have a much better performance and responsiveness. All while allowing developers to share up to 95% of code between platforms.
Great Ecosystem and Tooling
Visual Studio 2025 is a true enhancement for .NET MAUI developers and provides a much improved experience overall. It even allows developers to share code between projects. Developers enjoy a lot of the amenities of modern development environments such as IntelliSense, diagnostics, integrated testing features, and more.
Supports Modern UI/UX Development
Because .NET MAUI is native, it uses responsive layouts, dark mode, uses accessibility features, and allows for platform tweaks while still providing knowledge of the shared design system to plan your work.
Enterprise Level
Whether you are a startup or part of a Fortune 500 company, DOTNET MAUI has been adopted for internal tools, customer facing products, and IoT dashboards and applications. MAUI makes it easy to integrate your .NET MAUI application with Azure and Microsoft Entra for even greater scalability and security.
What’s new in DOTNET MAUI
Since its launch, .NET MAUI has made awesome progress. Now in 2025 there are many more features for developers to take advantage of such as: Blazor Hybrid Integration Developers can now embed Blazor components directly into MAUI apps, providing a single experience that mixes web and native UI. This is a huge gain if your team is moving from web to mobile. New Layout Engine The new layout engine is better in many ways including better performance, which is ideal for complex UIs and animations. Modular Architecture With MAUI modular app patterns are now supported making it easier to build larger applications and structure your dependencies. AI- assisted development With the use of Copilot and other AI application, MAUI can now offer the potential for faster and smarter development. AI can help now with code suggestions, bug suggestions, and UI generation.
Real-World Use Cases
Here are a few examples of how developers and businesses are using .NET MAUI in 2025:
| Industry | Use Case | Benefit |
| Healthcare | Patient portals and appointment apps | Secure, cross-device access |
| Finance | Mobile banking and investment dashboards | High performance, native feel |
| Retail | Inventory and POS systems | Shared code across tablets and PCs |
| Education | Learning platforms and classroom tools | Unified experience across devices |
| Logistics | Fleet tracking and delivery apps | Real-time updates, offline support |
Begin with .NET MAUI
If you are ready to start with MAUI, here is a plan to get you started:
Install the tools
Visual Studio 2025 (MAUI workload to include) .NET SDK (latest available)K
Create your first project
dotnet new maui -n MyFirstMauiApp
Look around the layout
Understand you have a single project layout, different folders for each platform and shared resources.
Build and run
You can use the Visual Studio emulator, or you can deploy to a physical device.
Add some features
Let’s start to integrate pages, navigation, services, and platform specific code.
FAQS
Q1: What is .NET MAUI and how does it differ from Xamarin.Forms?
A: .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, unifying mobile and desktop development under a single .NET 7+ framework. It introduces a streamlined single-project structure, improved layout engine, and deeper integration with Blazor and AI-assisted tooling.
Q2: Which platforms can I target with .NET MAUI in 2025?
A: You can build native apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows using the same codebase. MAUI’s single-project model handles platform-specific resources and compilation automatically, so you focus on features instead of project configuration.
Q3: How do .NET MAUI apps achieve native performance?
A: MAUI apps compile down to native binaries (ARM or x64/x86), so they run with the same performance characteristics as platform-specific apps. You also gain direct access to platform APIs and controls for smooth UI rendering and low-level optimizations.
Q4: What development tools and IDE support .NET MAUI?
A: The primary IDE is Visual Studio 2022/2025 on Windows and Visual Studio for Mac, each with built-in MAUI workloads. You get features like Hot Reload, IntelliSense, integrated emulators, live diagnostics, and source-link debugging to streamline your workflow.
Summary
It’s 2025, and .NET MAUI is certainly the premier and future-proof application development framework for building and maintaining cross-platform applications. It is powerful enough to provide native application performance, light enough to easily build apps with less friction, and flexible enough to engage with current technology running on a single code base. It is a clear path to build beautiful, scalable applications across every platform.
If you are searching for deep cross-platform .NET development, or are a .NET developer who is just starting out how can you not see the value of taking a journey with MAUI? With its exponentially growing community, depth of documentation, and inherent support from enterprise, it is much more than a mono framework, it is a movement towards a simpler, efficient and elegant framework to design and build applications.
