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Microsoft Azure App Service 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

Microsoft Azure App Service
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Rapid Application Development Software (7th)
Xamarin Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
6th
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 July 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure App Service is 4.6%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Xamarin Platform is 6.9%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Ajit Chandra - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined development and robust SDK integration with auto and vertical scaling
The main area that requires improvement is the function apps and logic apps, specifically from a VNet integration standpoint. When running in private network configurations, Logic Apps do not fulfill most of the requirements. Deploying Logic Apps in a private network environment becomes complicated due to the extensive white testing and configurations needed at the networking layer.
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

"The product is easy to maintain and deploy."
"Some of the features I found valuable are auto-scaling, SSL integration, cost-effectiveness, and the certificates provided by Microsoft Azure App Service."
"It's very easy to use. That's one of the advantages for the business, that you don't need to struggle to configure your website and your app service. Microsoft made sure to make it stable and very easy to configure."
"My organization has significantly improved operations using Azure App Service."
"The solution is very simple to set up."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure App Service is customization. It provides the building block from its modularity. You can add what you need with the appropriate code."
"The solution can scale."
"I would rate the product ten out of ten."
"It brings about good code sharing strategies, which bring down cost and maintenance efforts."
"A single line of code works with android and iOS."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"The platform is easy to learn as many tutorials are available on YouTube."
"The solution is easy to understand and has banking integrated. The shorter development time, the bugging and as well as availability of a lot of documentation on the web. Also the native integration is easy."
"Recently, Xamarin has added a lot of features such as Effects, Behaviors, Triggers, etc. This has made the UI user-friendly, lively, and attractive."
"We were able to optimize the service organization for one of our clients."
"You can create one solution in C Sharp."
 

Cons

"The configuration is slow without understanding the systematic process."
"The solution is somewhat expensive."
"Sometimes we face problems, but those are technical problems in Microsoft, bugs or something doesn't work as expected, but that's normal."
"Microsoft Azure App Service could be improved in various application functions, as we have a need for improvement after monitoring and diagnosing each application."
"The outbound connectivity is not great."
"I do not have notes for improvements."
"The pricing is average. It could be lower."
"Extended uptime and improved speed would be beneficial for both development purposes and the free tier of the service. Currently, the uptime is limited to a few hours per day, which could be increased to provide more continuous and efficient usage."
"It needs offline sync capabilities to store data on devices persistently."
"From time to time, it is a bit harder to code some specific scenarios compared to the native approach."
"It is common to find a problem that you would need to develop from the start since there are no third-party components to reuse."
"The application platform could be improved."
"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."
"All Xamarin library issues need to be taken care of as a top priority."
"The primary area for improvement is the support for third-party libraries, especially for major providers like Microsoft and Google."
"The solution struggles a little bit with binding libraries."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for this solution is set in tiers, with the overall cost depending on the features that are required. I would advise organizations to have a detailed look at the functions they need, to ensure that they are in the correct pricing tier."
"The product's price is low, especially if we compare it with other tools or clouds, like Google Cloud or AWS Cloud."
"The pricing and cost of this solution depends on the use and needs of a business."
"The price of the solution is high overall."
"Azure App Service is expensive compared to its competitors, especially its cloud-only version."
"Microsoft Azure App Service is an expensive platform, but it depends on the data ingestion. There's a pay-as-you-go plan and a savings plan for compute, but total costs depend on data ingestion and disk space. For high performance, security, and isolation, Microsoft offers a disk space of 1 TB, with a pay-as-you-go price of $40 per hour, if I'm not mistaken."
"Less than USD $100 per month."
"The cost is reasonable."
"Xamarin is free, or comes with Visual Studio. Therefore, it is very profitable."
"This is a free product, so there is zero investment on licenses and IDE."
"The product is inexpensive."
"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. There is no license unless you go for some high-end enterprise features. Other than that, everything's free."
"It saved a lot of time and resources needed to develop a cross platform mobile app."
"For personal use, the Community Edition is free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
24%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Would you choose Microsoft Azure App Service or PowerApps?
Microsoft Azure App Service is helpful if you need to set up temporary servers for customers to run their programs in locations that other cloud providers do not cater to. When servers are closer t...
Do you recommend Microsoft Azure App Service?
I highly recommend Microsoft Azure. We have been using it for nearly four years. We mostly use it for creating and maintaining websites, such as content management systems like WordPress sites, whi...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure App Service?
One valuable feature of Azure App Service for us is its integration with Azure DevOps, which we heavily rely on in our development process.
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

Azure App Service, MS Azure App Service
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Real Madrid, Absolut, AccuWeather, Heineken, NBC News, Paramount
Cinemark, MixRadio, Sqor Sports, Storyo, JetBlue, The World Bank, Cr_dito Agrcola, Applied Research Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure App Service vs. Xamarin Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
862,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.