Magic xpa Application Platform vs Xamarin Platform comparison

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Magic Software Logo
684 views|270 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
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1,487 views|1,029 comparisons
92% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Magic xpa Application Platform and Xamarin Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Mobile Development Platforms solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Magic xpa Application Platform vs. Xamarin Platform Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"xpa gives us a fast development speed.""Magic is rapid, it's a tool which we use to develop, change and maintain our programs. xpa has a lot more features onboard and it gives us the opportunity to do such things so that we can easily adapt and maintain our programs. It gives certain benefits to stay with our customers and the market.""What I found most valuable in the Magic xpa Application Platform is that it has a client-server and web browser technology that's perfect for company users.""Speed of development and database connectivity (MS SQL, Oracle, DB2, Btrieve/Pervasive PSQL, ODBC, MySql, and SQLite).""The best feature of Magic is the development time. The time it takes to develop something is incredibly fast if you compare Magic with, for example, Java.""Typically an experienced Magic developer can do the work of two to three experienced C#/.NET developers. Customers are amazed at how quickly most new features can be added and bug fixes implemented. I have worked for four employers - including myself - using Magic, and in most instances, bug fixes are addressed and deployed in under six hours.""The speed of development is the quickest for any tool on the market.""Magic’s unique approach to development ensures that the programmer stays focused on the objective of the program (i.e. display all customers in California), instead of the repetitive tasks that surround it (i.e. connect to database, open customers table, create the query to retrieve records within the specified criteria, fetch the result of the query, connect it to a data grid, etc.)."

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"Plugins like MvvmCross make a developer’s life easy.""It brings about good code sharing strategies, which bring down cost and maintenance efforts.""The solution's most valuable asset is its shared code base in C# that is better for large apps.""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.""The cross platform ability is a great asset.""Xamarin makes it easy to create white label applications for all platforms.""The initial setup is very simple.""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."

More Xamarin Platform Pros →

Cons
"In the next version of the Magic xpa Application Platform, I want tables or small programs where I can directly add expressions. I can do it on SQL, but it would make life much easier if that specification were added to the platform.""They want to be one toolbox for everything, but primarily, we are using xpa to develop desktop applications, and in that area they're lacking functionalities, flexibility, and modern stuff.""I would like to see a spell checker included with optional language support. Currently, this has to be purchased from a third-party.""The user interface could be improved to be more friendly for developers.""When you have several tasks, you open a screen in a task in developing mode, and you don't see the parent screens. Debugging lacks the effects to solve problems. You have to do it first in a kind of studio. Then you have to be sure that you can do it in Magic because there is almost nothing to debug it. It's practically impossible to debug. You have to be sure before you put your snippets.""The configuration of the xpa RIA mobile environment is complex and a discouragement to new developers. Also, Magic's documentation can be less than complete at times which leads to frustration for new developers. (I encourage new Magic developers to join the Magic Users Group).""The Android environment is missing a number of functions for file/folder manipulation, sending receiving text messages (SMS) and the menuing options are limited. For now, it is left to the developer to write his/her own Java functions to include in the APK.""Support is very bad."

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"There are compatibility issues between versions of various Xamarin components.""Xamarin Platform is missing the code renderer.""The worst build issue concerns are the caching process MSBuild uses to reduce the build time.""We have noticed that there have been stability-based performance issues with this product, which need to be improved.""Needs to improve the customization of its screens.""Xamarin Platform's performance base could be improved.""I feel that the Android AppCompat library creates a lot of issues. A lot of development time is often wasted solving these issues.""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."

More Xamarin Platform Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Magic is not the cheapest IDE out there. If you are considering Magic xpa, you should do a cost-benefit analysis to feel comfortable with your decision. The Magic sales staff is very helpful in providing pricing."
  • "It's not cheap. The licenses are not cheap. Not at all. They cost much money. There are other tools with free licenses but Magic asks for a lot of money."
  • "The cost for developers is high because you have to pay for licenses as well as runtime."
  • "The licensing is too costly."
  • "My clients have to purchase additional licenses in order to use what I built. It's not a fair approach."
  • "There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform."
  • "The main problem with the Magic xpa Application Platform is pricing. You have to pay a lot of money for development, and you also have to pay a lot for the deployments and runtime, while in most competitors, you have to pay a lot for one of the two and not both."
  • "The licensing cost varies because nowadays Magic has tailor-made offerings for clients. I think the solution is worth the money."
  • More Magic xpa Application Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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."
  • "For personal use, the Community Edition is free."
  • "This is a free product, so there is zero investment on licenses and IDE."
  • "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."
  • "It saved a lot of time and resources needed to develop a cross platform mobile app."
  • "Xamarin is free, or comes with Visual Studio. Therefore, it is very profitable."
  • "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."
  • More Xamarin Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The Magic xpa Application Platform is very suitable for production since it is easy to update. The program is simple to upgrade and deploy. The solution is convenient in production. You need to adjust… more »
    Top Answer:There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform.
    Top Answer:Throughout my career, I've encountered difficulties when integrating new technologies with Magic xpa Application Platform. In particular, when attempting to incorporate features from other development… more »
    Top Answer:The platform is easy to learn as many tutorials are available on YouTube.
    Top Answer:Regarding improvements, there are still some limitations with Xamarin, particularly regarding access to core functionality in Android and iOS. When developers need to utilize certain core features of… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    684
    Comparisons
    270
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    856
    Rating
    8.5
    Views
    1,487
    Comparisons
    1,029
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    577
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    uniPaaS
    Learn More
    Overview

    Magic xpa Application Platform is a mobile development platform that is designed to enable organizations to simplify and manage every aspect of their application development process. It enables users to construct applications while expending a minimal number of resources. Developers can leverage AI technology in a way that maximizes their ability to effectively deploy their resources toward the end of producing the best possible applications. Ultimately, Magic xpa Application Platform allows developers to rapidly develop and deploy applications across multiple platform types. 

    Magic xpa Application Platform Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by deploying Magic xpa Application Platform include:

    • Decrease time needed for application production and refinement. Magic xpa Application Platform comes with pre-built application components that can be used to quickly create iterations of the application that can then be deployed or tested.  It also makes it so that any and all changes or upgrades that are applied to the application take effect across all of the devices that run the application.
    • Allows developers to be far more productive than they would be otherwise. Various features, such as Magic xpa Application Platform’s drag-and-drop capability, allow developers to worry less about the more technical aspects of designing the applications and have more time to design the best possible application. 
    • Ease of use. Magic xpa Application Platform is a low-code application development platform. This means that developers do not need to have extensive programming knowledge to create applications. Solutions of this type are far more accessible to the general employee of an organization than a program that is code-heavy. Fewer resources need to be spent training users to employ Magic xpa Application Platform than would be true of other similar platforms. Organizations increase their overall productivity when the process of application development becomes something that even those employees who are not the most technically savvy can take part.

    Magic xpa Application Platform Features

    Some of the many useful features Magic xpa Application Platform has to offer include:

    • AI-powered development capabilities. Magic xpa Application Platform has a built-in AI that users can leverage to simplify every step of the development process. Users can use this AI to automate various development steps. This increases the speed at which they can produce applications. 
    • Mobile use capability. Magic xpa Application Platform has a mobile application that organizations can use to run their product development from anywhere in the world. 
    • Collaboration tools.  Magic xpa Application Platform provides developers with tools that enable them to work with others to create the enterprise applications that their organizations need.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Magic xpa Application Platform is a solution that beats out the competition in a number of areas.  Two major advantages are the way that it simplifies the application management process and its scalability. It greatly eases the work that developers and administrators do by providing all of the tools that they need to meet their objectives. Additionally, users never have to worry about running out of development capacity in their digital environment. Magic xpa Application Platform can scale up and provide developers with the capacity to design and create their applications in the way that best meets their needs. 

    Per H., the CEO of Mass Marketing Software AB, writes, “The solution makes the managing and adapting of the software very easy. When it comes to the application's service, mistakes can easily be resolved. This shortens the time it takes to progress from an idea to a new function.”

    He also writes, “The solution is highly scalable, allowing one to use very large databases and systems.

    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.

    Sample Customers
    ADD, Cape plc, Adecco, Kuno Kinzoku Industry Co., GE Capital, Dove Tree, CBS Outdoor, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, Allstate Life Insurance Company, Titan Software Systems
    Cinemark, MixRadio, Sqor Sports, Storyo, JetBlue, The World Bank, Cr_dito Agrcola, Applied Research Associates
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Insurance Company9%
    Media Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm25%
    Music Company13%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Educational Organization8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business75%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business34%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business47%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise62%
    Buyer's Guide
    Magic xpa Application Platform vs. Xamarin Platform
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Magic xpa Application Platform vs. Xamarin Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Magic xpa Application Platform is ranked 11th in Mobile Development Platforms with 10 reviews while Xamarin Platform is ranked 6th in Mobile Development Platforms with 39 reviews. Magic xpa Application Platform is rated 8.6, while Xamarin Platform is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Magic xpa Application Platform writes "Fast development and user-oriented functionalities, but it needs better .NET integration and a completely different pricing structure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Xamarin Platform writes "It's about to be retired and replaced with an inferior product, but offers excellent cross-platform development capabilities". Magic xpa Application Platform is most compared with Microsoft .NET Framework, Mendix, OutSystems and GeneXus, whereas Xamarin Platform is most compared with Appium, Ionic, OutSystems, Apple Xcode and Mendix. See our Magic xpa Application Platform vs. Xamarin Platform report.

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    We monitor all Mobile Development Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.