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SAP Mobile Platform vs Xamarin Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

SAP Mobile Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Mobile App Platforms (4th)
Xamarin Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of SAP Mobile Platform is 3.2%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Xamarin Platform is 6.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

ShahzadRafique - PeerSpot reviewer
Flexible, well-designed, and offers good scalability
It's not that difficult to set up. SAP has provided the complete installation and configuration scripts, and there's ample documentation available. Implementing it is not an issue. If you are just talking about installing the standalone SAP Mobile Platform, that won't take more than two to three hours. The problem is that when you have multiple integrated third-party integrations, it can be longer. In that case, the deployment really depends on how you actually do it, as, in a financial institution, there is a lot of middleware and other third-party systems that are also integrated with your system. We have a complete set of APIs exposed to different partners, and how everything goes together depends on what type of integrations are there and how complex they are. That said, it should not take more than three to four hours when it comes to only the standalone SMP.
Prince Tiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is helpful."
"Two of the very fascinating features that make SAP Mobile Platform stand out from other platforms are its offline capability and integration capability."
"One valuable feature of SAP Mobile Platform is its enterprise-grade standard and maintained APIs, available out of the box for easy integration with various systems."
"If we work with the mobile extension of the ERP platform, we save time."
"The initial setup is not overly complex."
"Both platforms, the SAP Mobile Platform, and SAP, are highly valuable for our company because they facilitate integration, which can be expensive. It's very convenient to connect and create billing accounts through the SAP Mobile Platform."
"It's not that difficult to set up."
"Xamarin.Forms reduced the effort and time to build and market our solution, market our features, and get our solution into production."
"The Xamarin platform can reduce overhead significantly through code-share and reuse. The typical team size for a Xamarin project is significantly reduced compared to purely native projects."
"The best part while using the Xamarin Platform is a cross-platform application. We could execute iOS and Android while writing a single line of code."
"You can create one solution in C Sharp."
"Xamarin makes it easy to create white label applications for all platforms."
"You can just write one XM channel core and it'll be used for both iOS and Android."
"Xamarin.Forms exposes a complete cross-platform UI toolkit for .NET developers. The advantage is that a single team can target multiple platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows) on a shared C# codebase."
"The platform is easy to learn as many tutorials are available on YouTube."
 

Cons

"SAP has announced that they'll be ending the support on the SAP platform."
"The tool is not easy or simple to integrate with other infrastructures."
"The licensing model is a bit dated."
"If it was low code or no code it would be ideal."
"The toolkit to develop front end applications, especially native applications, is not that good."
"One drawback is that SAP Mobile Platform apps are only available through the browser, making offline capability more challenging to implement."
"The cost of the SAP Mobile Platform is high, and there is room for improvement in its pricing."
"The android application compilation time needs to be reduced."
"We have noticed that there have been stability-based performance issues with this product, which need to be improved."
"Xamarin Platform is missing the code renderer."
"There are compatibility issues between versions of various Xamarin components."
"In Xamarin.Forms, we have the option to preview our UI designs, but the functionality can be limited. So, this is not fully functional. Since I have some knowledge of iOS, where when you write code or design in the storyboard, your design is immediately visible in the preview."
"The performance needs improvement, especially the dev tools, and also the ultimate output of the mobile applications."
"The solution does not include Hot Reload which is painful because it causes us to wait quite some time for huge builds."
"They need to improve performance, especially for the Android platform. Also, some controls are missing in the Xamarin framework when compared to native controls; for example, the checkbox control."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of SAP is extremely high, and it's not affordable for everyone."
"If you already paying for an SAP license and have SAP products that you are using, the price for SAP Mobile Platform is negligible."
"The tool is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight or nine out of ten."
"The price of the Xamarin Platform is not expensive. However, the price of the solution depends on the application that is made. For example, if you have small applications, it's different from large or enterprise applications."
"There's no licensing cost for Xamarin."
"Xamarin Platform is a free open-source solution."
"I think the solution is free."
"Xamarin is free. There is no license unless you go for some high-end enterprise features. Other than that, everything's free."
"Xamarin is free, or comes with Visual Studio. Therefore, it is very profitable."
"Xamarin Platform is open-source, but there are fees for deployment, the API Store and Play Store, and using third-party libraries."
"This is an open-source solution, but there is a subscription charge to use the App Center of around $100."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
18%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP Mobile Platform?
One valuable feature of SAP Mobile Platform is its enterprise-grade standard and maintained APIs, available out of the box for easy integration with various systems.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Mobile Platform?
The tool is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight or nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with SAP Mobile Platform?
For a couple of years, SAP deployment and updates were not fair and simple. After the last evolution of mobile development in SAP, I need to check the latest features of the tool. At the company wh...
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.
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.
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...
 

Also Known As

SAP Syclo Agentry Mobile Platform, Sybase Mobile Development Platform, Sybase Unwired Platform
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Swarovski, CareFusion Corp., Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd.
Cinemark, MixRadio, Sqor Sports, Storyo, JetBlue, The World Bank, Cr_dito Agrcola, Applied Research Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Mobile Platform vs. Xamarin Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.