GeneXus vs Ionic vs Xamarin Platform comparison

GeneXus and Ionic are both solutions in the Mobile Development Platforms category. GeneXus is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.0, while Ionic is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. GeneXus holds a 3.6% mindshare in MDP, compared to Ionic’s 6.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GeneXus users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Ionic users who would recommend it.

GeneXus

Read 14 GeneXus reviews

881 Views
414 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Ionic

Read 14 Ionic reviews

739 Views
680 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Xamarin Platform

Read 40 Xamarin Platform reviews

778 Views
724 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

GeneXus

Ionic

Xamarin Platform

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between GeneXus, Ionic, and Xamarin Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about OutSystems, Salesforce, Mendix and others in Mobile Development Platforms.

To learn more, read our detailed Mobile Development Platforms Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Mobile Development Platforms

August 2025

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Helped 867,497 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of GeneXus is 3.6%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ionic is 6.8%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Xamarin Platform is 7.4%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Mobile Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Xamarin Platform	7.4%
Ionic	6.8%
GeneXus	3.6%
Other	82.2%

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# .

Read full review

Roche De Kock

Senior Developer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Allows us to create cross-platform mobile apps from a single code base, but should have a complete set of libraries for Capacitor

When they jumped from version 3 to version 4, 5, and 6, they introduced something called Capacitor, which is basically the tool that you use to convert your code to Xcode, etc. They have a few plugins that are still using, for instance, PhoneGap. So, you have to jump between Capacitor and PhoneGap. Their documentation is good, but there are some versioning control issues. For example, if you want to bring up a phone dial-up or a map, you have to decide whether to use Capacitor, PhoneGap, or Cordova. They started writing Capacitor to get rid of PhoneGap and Cordova, but they haven't yet got all the libraries and all the functionalities. They want you to start using Capacitor, but they don't have all the libraries there. They're developing them as they go. So, currently, you have to mix and match the three. When it comes to mobile applications, I would only like to use Capacitor. I don't want to jump between Cordova and Capacitor or have both of them. That's the main thing for me, but they have been working on it. They have started to bring them closer and closer so that you don't have to use two different sets of libraries. They're close to where you don't have to use Cordova or PhoneGap, and you can only use Capacitor. In versions 5 and 6, they have improved it a lot. They can also improve it in terms of publishing to different stores. For instance, I'm using Firebase to make my Ionic app web compatible. If I don't have a Node.js server to host on, I have to host it on Firebase or something like that. Currently, if I need to publish to different stores, such as the Microsoft store or the Huawei store, the only way I can publish to, for instance, the Huawei store is by creating the APK and uploading it. If they can start adding a little bit more integration to publish to different stores, such as the Samsung store, Huawei store, or Microsoft store, it would be good. Currently, there are no problems with iOS and Google Play Store, but for the other stores, you have to do a little bit of a workaround to get things done. Its stability could be better. For me, jumping between versions 3, 4, and 5 was a big problem because it wasn't seamless. Jumping from version 5 to 6 is more seamless. Jumping from version 3 to 5 has been a nightmare because I had to recode quite a lot to be compatible with version 5. I totally skipped version 4 because it was just too quick. Jumping between versions has definitely been a problem for me. If I have to do a lot of plugins and redo a lot of my coding because they're jumping versions, I'm going to look for something else.

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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 find the implementation process of GeneXus to be easy."

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

"With GeneXus, we can create logical representations of transactions in the form of objects."

"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."

"The integration module is the most valuable feature of this solution for our business, as it allows our clients to create new systems based on their outdated databases, across all API's."

"In Knowledge Base, being able to model the workflow before developing the screens is great. We first work with the tables or the transactions using GeneXus and then we work on the screens."

More GeneXus pros

"Being able to have one set of code is valuable. I don't have to recode for different platforms. I don't have to recode for Xcode, Angular, or Android. So, the biggest feature for me is that it's a hybrid system, and I can have one set of code, and then the tool sets that are in there convert my code for Xcode or Play Store. It makes work a lot easier."

"What I like the most about Ionic is live reloading, which enables us to develop new features without having to build the application again and re-check the functionality."

"I like that I can place the code and escalate data storage. I also like that it's user-friendly. Nothing is complex in Ionic."

"Ionic's best features are its hybrid app development, design, and tags."

"With the Capacitor feature, you have access to the native attributes of your phone such as your camera. This makes work a lot easier."

"The most valuable feature of Ionic is the ease of use and the simple connection of the applications. Additionally, the documentation is good in the Ionic application, and beginners can easily learn and download their own application using Ionic. Everyone can easily switch out, their domain, from native applications to hybrid applications."

"The most valuable feature is the one code deployed to all solutions, which means you do not need to have multiple teams."

"The solution is secure, reliable, and packed with features so we can easily implement apps even in the most complex situations."

More Ionic pros

"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."

"It is a true native solution, and we can use the cross-platform framework."

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

"Xamarin.Forms reduced the effort and time to build and market our solution, market our features, and get our solution into production."

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

"It usually saves time for application development. We write once and the code works everywhere."

"You can create one solution in C Sharp."

"The most valuable features of the Xamarin Platform are that it has cross-platform development, one code base serves a purpose on both, and the grid layout is a lifesaver."

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."

"It's expensive for a company."

"The graphical interface could be improved. I also notice some performance problems on hardware that should be more than adequate. GeneXus uses a lot of RAM and other computer resources."

"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."

"Code generation is highly time-consuming for GeneXus"

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

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

"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

"In a future release, we would like to have a little more support for the desktop environment. Currently it is still focused on mobile devices."

"The navigation within this solution could be improved; it is currently quite complicated to move through the different tabs."

"They started writing Capacitor to get rid of PhoneGap and Cordova, but they haven't yet got all the libraries and all the functionalities. They want you to start using Capacitor, but they don't have all the libraries there. They're developing them as they go. So, currently, you have to mix and match the three. When it comes to mobile applications, I would only like to use Capacitor. I don't want to jump between Cordova and Capacitor or have both of them. That's the main thing for me, but they have been working on it."

"It would be better if it had a speed niche system. There are a lot of things we need that weren't in the latest version. But I think they will be adding something."

"It would be good if the mobile version uses something other than JavaScript and HTML."

"Documentation for migrations and compatibility is insufficient."

"There is a lack of a community environment."

"Ionic is a cross-platform framework, so when we compare Ionic with native Android and iOS, we can see the drawbacks. For example, if you need to work on very high-level aspects of an application such as animation, even if everything else is not putting load on the app, you will still see high load from the server side."

More Ionic cons

"Needs to improve the customization of its screens."

"The file size is a bit big, so you have to make certain layers."

"I would like to see hot reload, similar to what Flutter has out-of-the-box. There is "Live Reload" but it’s still in preview and was only recently announced."

"The monitoring of the remote devices is not good as it should be extended along. It would be useful if the log is more integrated with the central console. I am not sure it can be accessed but it would be better."

"For those who use only XAML to design the UI, it would be better if there was a better XAML previewer or designer."

"There is room for increasing the scale a little bit further with the designer in the Visual Studio, more specifically, Xamarin.Android Designer in Visual Studio."

"It would be better if they offered more certifications. They offer a number of certifications for Azure but none for Xamarin. This is something that could be provided for developers to show off their competency. Technical support could be better."

"For beginners, the entire setup can be overwhelming because it involves setting up development environments for iOS, Android, and Windows at the same time if you want to target all three."

More Xamarin Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I give the cost of the solution a four out of ten."

"The solution is very expensive."

"The tool's price is good."

"The 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 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 cost of a GeneXus license is extremely high. At the same time, one person using the solution can do the work of three Java or data developers. I think that's why they charge so much. It's too expensive, which is one reason it isn't widely used."

"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."

More GeneXus pricing and cost advice

"The starting cost for the enterprise option is around one hundred dollars per month."

"Ionic is an open-source solution, it is free."

"Ionic is an open source solution, and there are no hidden fees."

"You can use the free version, but if you still want to buy it, the price starts from $499/month."

"We pay 50,000 dinars per month."

"The solution's open source option is free with no licensing fees."

"I think most of the plugins for Ionic are open source, and you can do a lot with many of the basic features. However, if you need to use a premium plugin for something like extra scroll list functionality, Ionic will ask for a certain sum of money."

"You don't have to pay anything except for certain projects. For example, Appflow has some costs related to it but you don't have to use it. You can also pay for extra support."

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

"For personal use, the Community Edition is free."

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

"I think the solution is free."

"Xamarin is available under several licensing arrangements. Each developer needs one license at least. All features, especially the Profiler, unlock only with the highest tier."

"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."

"In most cases, it is sufficient to have free/community license. But if you plan to seriously develop production-level, highly polished apps, you need to use Xamarin.Profiler and the professional or enterprise license."

More Xamarin Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Educational Organization

15%

Comms Service Provider

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

27%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with GeneXus?

GeneXus needs to be more consistent in functionality without any errors. Code generation is highly time-consuming for...

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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 sys...

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What advice do you have for others considering GeneXus?

The tool's use case depends upon the requirements. The solution is ideal for integrations to modernize systems. GeneX...

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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 XAM...

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 ...

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What needs improvement with Xamarin Platform?

The primary area for improvement is the support for third-party libraries, especially for major providers like Micros...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 27% of the time

OutSystems vs GeneXus

Compared 20% of the time

Microsoft Power Apps vs GeneXus

Compared 20% of the time

Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs GeneXus

Compared 19% of the time

Mendix vs GeneXus

Compared 15% of the time

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OutSystems vs Ionic

Compared 42% of the time

More Ionic Competitors

Verivo Pyxis Platform vs Xamarin Platform

Compared 19% of the time

Apple Xcode vs Xamarin Platform

Compared 18% of the time

Mendix vs Xamarin Platform

Compared 16% of the time

More Xamarin Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GeneXus

September 2025

Download GeneXus product report

Buyer's Guide

Ionic

September 2025

Download Ionic product report

Buyer's Guide

Xamarin Platform

August 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

Ionic is an open-source UI toolkit for developing high-quality mobile and desktop apps with web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Ionic focuses on the frontend UX and UI interaction of an app – UI controls, interactions, gestures, and animations. It is simple to learn and can be used without any frontend framework by utilizing a simple script inclusion.

While previous versions of Ionic were strongly connected to Angular, version 4.x of the framework was re-engineered to serve as an independent Web Component library, with integrations for the newest JavaScript frameworks, such as Angular. Ionic works well in most frontend frameworks, including React and Vue, however some frontend frameworks require a shim to enable full Web Component support.

The official Ionic CLI, or Command Line Interface, is a tool that enables developers to easily construct Ionic apps and offers a number of useful commands. The CLI installs and updates Ionic and also includes a built-in development server, build and debugging tools, and much more. If you are an Appflow member, you may manage your account and carry out cloud builds and deployments via the CLI.

Ionic Features

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

One codebase: Ionic is the first mobile app stack that allows web developers to use a single codebase to create apps for all major app stores and the mobile web. Ionic apps look and feel natural on every device thanks to Adaptive Styling.
High performance: Ionic is designed to run and behave well on the latest mobile devices, using best practices such as efficient hardware accelerated transitions and touch-optimized gestures.
Simple, clean design: Ionic is built to function and display well across all popular mobile platforms and devices. You'll be building in style thanks to pre-made components, typography, and an attractive (but flexible) base theme that adjusts to each platform.
Native and web-friendly: Ionic uses native SDKs and emulates native app UI guidelines to combine native app device features and UI standards with the full flexibility and power of the open web. Ionic operates as a Progressive Web App in the browser or deploys natively via Capacitor (or Cordova).

Ionic Benefits

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

Cross-platform: Create and distribute apps with a single code base. Apps run natively on iOS, Android, desktop, and the web as Progressive Web Apps. Publish once and go anywhere.

Based on web standards: Ionic is developed using cutting-edge web APIs like Custom Elements and Shadow DOM on top of reliable, industry-standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Ionic components have a solid API as a result, and they aren't subject to the whims of a single platform vendor.

Good design: Ionic is made to operate and look great right out of the box across all platforms. Start with typography, interactive paradigms, pre-designed elements, and an attractive (yet extensible) base theme.

Simplicity: Ionic was created with simplicity in mind, making it fun, simple to learn, and available to almost anyone with basic web development skills.

Ionic

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

MRA, Napa Group, Sworkit, Airbus, Sense Corp, Interactive Gaming Company, Pacifica, Untapp'd, Diesel, National Museum of African American History and Culture

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

Buyer's Guide

Mobile Development Platforms

August 2025

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