GeneXus vs Xamarin Platform comparison

GeneXus and Microsoft are both solutions in the Mobile Development Platforms category. GeneXus is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.4. GeneXus holds a 3.4% mindshare in MDP, compared to Microsoft’s 6.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GeneXus users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

GeneXus

Read 14 GeneXus reviews

456 Views
217 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Xamarin Platform

Read 40 Xamarin Platform reviews

861 Views
583 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

GeneXus

Xamarin Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Xamarin Platform and GeneXus are two leading products in the mobile development category. Xamarin holds an advantage due to its open-source nature and strong community support, while GeneXus excels in automation capabilities, offering an enhanced speed of development.

Features: Xamarin Platform facilitates cross-platform development with shared codebases and seamless Visual Studio integration, perfect for C# developers. Its support for Xamarin.Forms and plugins like MvvmCross enhance development flexibility. GeneXus simplifies with automatic code generation for multiple platforms, including web and mobile. Its integration capabilities, procedural generation of applications, and multi-language support make it efficient for rapid development cycles.

Room for Improvement: Xamarin could benefit from better integration with third-party libraries, especially in .NET MAUI and support for more complex functionalities like PDF handling without dependencies on external libraries. It could also improve its debugging in complex environments. GeneXus could enhance its front-end customization options, streamline its learning curve for new users, and offer more straightforward integration processes with external services.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Xamarin's deployment is well-integrated within its robust ecosystem, providing comprehensive documentation and community-driven support. In contrast, GeneXus simplifies deployment through automatic updates and integrated tools, alongside offering more personalized customer service, advantageous for enterprises needing targeted assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Xamarin Platform's cost-effectiveness lies in its open-source base, potentially lowering maintenance costs driven by community enhancements. GeneXus, despite a higher initial setup cost, promises faster ROI owing to its automation features that significantly reduce time-to-market and ongoing maintenance needs, making it a strategic option for efficiency-focused long-term projects.

To learn more, read our detailed GeneXus vs. Xamarin Platform Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GeneXus vs. Xamarin Platform

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

GeneXus

Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Low-Code Development Platforms (21st)

Xamarin Platform

Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of GeneXus is 3.4%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Xamarin Platform is 6.7%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Mobile Development Platforms

Featured Reviews

XavierEspinoza

Internal System Coordinator at Red CEDIA

Offers a simplified architecture with outstanding integration capabilities

The integration capabilities of GeneXus are highly valuable for our organization. The metadata obtained within the logic of different systems is also vital. Due to the solution, our company team doesn't have to work with multiple languages and integrations can be made with C Sharp. JavaScript can also be used with GeneXus, the tool takes charge of all the rest and has a simple architecture. The solution can be used out of the box without facing any issues and nothing much needs to be done with frameworks. In our case we need to use Python with GeneXus, we use Ironpython to embed python code in C# .

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Prince Tiwari

Senior Software Engineer at AAPC

Facilitates UI development with XAML, enabling shared UI code across platforms and reducing platform-specific work

I like its simplicity. As someone who didn't start my career as a dedicated developer, I was used to building websites or Windows applications. Transitioning to mobile app development meant learning new languages like Swift or Java. With C# and Xamarin, though, I could leverage my existing skillset. Xamarin, and specifically Xamarin.Forms, let me write my code once and deploy it natively to both Android and iOS. Xamarin.Forms are very useful. Essentially, it's a framework that allows me to create the UI mostly in XAML. This XAML code is then translated into the native UI elements for each respective platform. The advantage is that roughly 90% of my UI code can be shared. This significantly reduces the amount of platform-specific UI work compared to having to write separate UIs for each platform. For the most part, Xamarin's integration with Visual Studio improved the workflow, whether I'm on Windows or Mac. Since I'm familiar with Visual Studio, it provides a comfortable development environment. Additionally, features like Hot Reload and the integration of tools like Copilot help streamline the development process. Overall, it offers a positive development experience.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like that it's very compatible with other tools. The most important feature is getting the developer to focus on the project's business case. It's not about focusing on how I can command this or how I can develop a front end, or how I can work with the advantages. The developer should focus on the business case of the project. No need to focus on connecting the database to the server or connecting the server and the front end. The developer can concentrate on the views."

"The front-end features are the most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is that GeneXus works with several languages. It's possible to develop chatbots and other functionalities."

"GeneXus evolves with technology."

"This solution works extremely quickly in terms of enabling an application in a production environment."

"The integration capabilities of GeneXus are highly valuable for our organization"

"It is fast in creating systems and connects to the database quickly."

"The solution provides ease of programming and the speed of delivery of demands."

More GeneXus pros

"It has significantly reduced the skill barrier for development and testers."

"The native features and Xamarin Essentials package are highly valuable to us."

"Their leadership is exceptional at both listening to the customer base and delivering innovative, best-in-class products."

"We were able to optimize the service organization for one of our clients."

"Xamarin Platform enables you to use a single code language. This is beneficial for Android, iOS, and Windows platforms, so they can be developed over application or built over application."

"Because of the C# programming language, we can train our .NET developers to learn Xamarin and develop mobile apps easily."

"For me, developing apps for iOS and Android is a dream came true, without migrating to Objective-C or Java. Xamarin enables me to do so."

"Recently, Xamarin has added a lot of features such as Effects, Behaviors, Triggers, etc. This has made the UI user-friendly, lively, and attractive."

More Xamarin Platform pros

Cons

"GeneXus is a wonderful tool for the backend. It's the best in the world, but for the frontend, GeneXus needs to improve. There should be easier steps for managing various aspects, such as alerts and messages to show to the end-users."

"The tool needs to be tuned before being used. You need some experience to get the best out of the tool."

"GeneXus's user interface has room for improvement."

"Code generation is highly time-consuming for GeneXus"

"It would be better if GeneXus had a wiki. The developer needs some experience to work with the tools. It would be better if they could improve the community. If we have some problem, I open a ticket that takes us to a board, and I have to describe my issue in detail. If the tools have a general community for us to explore with some videos or some articles, I think that that may help the developer."

"There are issues in integrating it with other solutions."

"The front-end with GeneXus is not as good as the back-end."

"We would like to see more extensions and more user controls added to the front-end of this solution, in order to help developers manage the website."

More GeneXus cons

"Regarding improvements, there are still some limitations with Xamarin, particularly regarding access to core functionality in Android and iOS."

"It needs offline sync capabilities to store data on devices persistently."

"Xamarin's profiling tools are only available for the highest tier of MSDN subscription and compatibility with platform-native profiling tools is rather lacking. This causes friction when working on performance-related issues."

"We'd like to have some chat support functionality."

"There are compatibility issues between versions of various Xamarin components."

"The worst build issue concerns are the caching process MSBuild uses to reduce the build time."

"The major I see with Xamarin right now is that there is no visual editor"

"We need to think about partnering with IBM because there is a need for a big data partner; someone who has machine learning and can help us connect the app to big data."

More Xamarin Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't know about the price because I am an employee, but I hear it's cheaper than other tools."

"It's expensive. I'd rate it a four out of ten in terms of pricing."

"People tend to work with GeneXus if it's cheap, but GeneXus does have licensing policies...Moreover, the cost of resourcing work in GeneXus may make it more expensive than other programming languages."

"I know that its licenses are generally per year, and in the past, the license for GeneXus was around $5,000, but I don't know what's the current price of the GeneXus license."

"The tool's price is good."

"This solution offers multi-plan licenses, depending on the size of the company and the features required, as opposed to being priced per user/device."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten"

"The price is good."

More GeneXus pricing and cost advice

"Xamarin Platform is a free open-source solution."

"My company provided all the licenses that we need to support our use of Xamarin Platform."

"Xamarin is free, or comes with Visual Studio. Therefore, it is very profitable."

"There is no requirement for a license. It is available for free as an open-source product."

"There is no license fee because the solution is open-source."

"You can build in Xamarin without paying any money."

"Xamarin Platform is open-source, but there are fees for deployment, the API Store and Play Store, and using third-party libraries."

"Xamarin Platform is open-source, so it is free to use."

More Xamarin Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Educational Organization

19%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GeneXus?

GeneXus evolves with technology.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GeneXus?

GeneXus needs to be more consistent in functionality without any errors. Code generation is highly time-consuming for GeneXus, but in some cases, it saves time as well. Some errors will take too lo...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for GeneXus?

Our company uses the latest version of GeneXus. The solution is used in our company to develop various enterprise systems, and GeneXus is used as an integrator, which further facilitates low-cost d...

See all answers

What do you like most about Xamarin Platform?

Xamarin.Forms are very useful. Essentially, it's a framework that allows me to create the UI mostly in XAML. This XAML code is then translated into the native UI elements for each respective platform.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Xamarin Platform?

Xamarin Platform is free, and we use an Azure subscription at a relatively low cost for our builds. It offers a good value for money, although it requires time to make it work effectively.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Xamarin Platform?

The primary area for improvement is the support for third-party libraries, especially for major providers like Microsoft and Google. The lack of robust documentation and support for third-party bin...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 28% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GeneXus

April 2025

Download GeneXus product report

Buyer's Guide

Xamarin Platform

April 2025

Download Xamarin Platform product report

Overview

What is GeneXus? GeneXus™ is the best Low-Code Platform that you don't know yet.

It's a Software Development Platform that simplifies and automates the tasks of creating and evolving enterprise applications and multi-channel user-experiences. Great Advantages:

- Higher productivity, with automatic maintenance & evolution
- Multi-Experience, we continuously create new code generators
- Agile, incremental approach, with fully functional prototypes
- Easier to learn, one single language to cover all technologies
- Future-proof, we've been around for 30 years, evolving for you

Key Differentiators against the competition:

- No runtime fees, we charge by developer
- Best theoretical framework, which allows us to evolve
- Best coverage in the market: Most technologies, most languages, most markets and industries
- We run on-premise or on the cloud
- Multiple starting points depending on the type of company you work in, with products for Students, Startups, ISVs, Corporate Development, and SAP technologies

GeneXus uses Artificial Intelligence techniques to create software, enabling truly incremental development of apps, providing a low-code, future-proof development platform for the leading execution platforms and languages, and the most popular DBMS.

GeneXus

Xamarin is an open-source platform for developing modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows using.NET. Xamarin is an abstraction layer that manages how shared code is communicated to the platform's underlying code. Xamarin is for developers with the two following goals:

Cross-platform sharing of code, tests, and business logic.
Writing cross-platform apps in C# with Visual Studio.

Xamarin allows developers to share an average of 90% of their program across platforms. This enables programmers to achieve native performance, look, and feel on each platform while writing all of their business logic in a single language (or reusing existing application code).

Xamarin applications can be created on a PC or a Mac and compiled into native application packages, such as an .apk file for Android or an .ipa file for iOS.

Xamarin Platform Features

Xamarin Platform has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Complete binding for the supporting SDKs: Xamarin includes bindings for almost all of the underlying platform SDKs in iOS and Android.
Java, C, Objective-C, C, C++ Interop: Xamarin gives you the ability to use a variety of third-party code by providing tools for directly invoking Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries.
Modern language constructs: Xamarin applications are written in C#, a modern language with many capabilities that Objective-C and Java do not have, like lambdas, LINQ, parallel programming, generics, and more.
Strong base class library (BCL): Xamarin apps use the .NET BCL, a large collection of classes with streamlined features, like powerful XML, database, serialization, IO, string, and networking support, among others.

Xamarin Platform Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing the Xamarin Platform. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Native UIs and APIs: Xamarin delivers comprehensive access to each platform's native SDK and UI controls, projecting the entire native API of each device into C#. Therefore, the apps you develop are native instead of write-once/run-anywhere programs that look alien on every platform. Xamarin provides you access to all of the capabilities that distinguish each platform.

Share code between platforms: With Xamarin, you can share all code across platforms while providing a native user interface tailored to each individual device. With Xamarin, you can execute the same C# code on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. With Xamarin, your software is compiled to a native binary rather than being interpreted, in contrast to other cross-platform frameworks. Even in the most demanding situations, native compilation provides users with excellent app performance. Xamarin provides responsive, multi-user input and feedback, fluid scrolling, sophisticated graphics and animations, complicated data visualization, and realistic high frame rates for games.

Code with C#: Write shorter, more concise, and more maintainable code by leveraging advanced language features, such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ), delegates, lambdas, events, garbage collection, and many other features. With Xamarin's fully extensible platform, you can include libraries written in C, Objective-C, C++, or Java. In C#, you have access to the entire native ecosystem of components and libraries.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Canal de Panamá, Gerdau, Coca-Cola, Mercado Libre, DHL, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, TECNISA, Mexican Polak Group, Ferrovalle, Canon, Azteca, KPMG, TURBUS, Santander, BBVA

Cinemark, MixRadio, Sqor Sports, Storyo, JetBlue, The World Bank, Cr_dito Agrcola, Applied Research Associates

Buyer's Guide

GeneXus vs. Xamarin Platform

April 2025

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