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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
6.8
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Rapid Application Development Software (7th)
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 November 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure App Service is 4.7%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Xamarin Platform is 6.6%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure App Service4.7%
Xamarin Platform6.6%
Other88.7%
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

AntonioNascimento - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless integration and application hosting enabled through versatile service
When using a Linux App Service or containerized App Services, the logging is not as good as when using the Windows version. The Linux App Service should be more user-friendly, focusing on logging, troubleshooting, and similar features. With Microsoft Azure App Service, it is more difficult with Linux or other container solutions because there are many options. When creating an App Service, you can create it as Linux or Windows. After that, you can choose some stack or use Docker to container. When using Linux with container, the logging functionality is not as robust.
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 most valuable features in the context of development and deployment are the integration with SDKs and the infrastructure standpoint."
"What I found most valuable in Microsoft Azure App Service is that it's a PaaS. I also like that it supports Docker and multiple frameworks so that you can work on Java, Ruby on Rails, PHP, and Python."
"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."
"Azure App Service has several features that are valuable, including its scalability and seamless integration with other systems, which support flexibility."
"One valuable feature of Azure App Service for us is its integration with Azure DevOps, which we heavily rely on in our development process."
"It allows you to host your App Service on Azure and provides the ability to bypass online."
"The initial setup of Microsoft Azure App Service is straightforward, and for two or three clients, we have configured more complex setups."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure App Service is autoscaling and resource grouping. Additionally, the integration works well, it is easy to do."
"I think the best part about Xamarin is that you can create apps for both platforms using one source code. That's the most powerful feature. When you develop something for Android, it also builds for iVerse as well. The cross-platform aspect of Xamarin is unique. The ability to develop both apps with a single code base is something very unique."
"We very much like the XAML design techniques, multiple layout and pages, MVVMCross support, and portability across different platforms."
"We were able to optimize the service organization for one of our clients."
"You can just write one XM channel core and it'll be used for both iOS and Android."
"I like Renderers in Xamarin. They allow us to use native-platform controls 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."
"Plugins like MvvmCross make a developer’s life easy."
"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."
 

Cons

"Sometimes customer service and support can be challenging."
"If you are not using the product properly, then it can cost you a lot of money. Hence, you need to make sure that you choose the services wisely. You need to make sure that you have a budget and have some alerts associated with it. The tool's cost can easily go high if you don't consider these things properly. You need to review your existing subscription."
"In terms of room for improvement, ease of deployment would be an area that needs some focus. Azure does provide out-of-the-box deployment features, but I found that deploying to an App Service instance can be better in terms of more tools that could be available to perform a deployment."
"Documentation is not well-organized, making it difficult to find current and relevant information."
"The outbound connectivity is not great."
"Initially, there were some rare instances when the server went down because it was deployed on Linux."
"When trying to scale up, it has a limitation, specifically an upper limitation. In general, scalability should be improved."
"Customers love it when a solution is affordable, but with Microsoft Azure App Service, you can start and stop it, and when you stop it, it won't be reachable and it won't be available, yet you're still being charged for it. You'll still be charged even if the solution isn't accessible because Microsoft Azure App Service runs on a shared virtual machine that keeps on running, so if there's a way to work this out, it'll be a great improvement to only pay for what you use. The solution should have no hidden cost and no extra charge when it's stopped. This is what needs improvement in Microsoft Azure App Service."
"Regarding improvements, there are still some limitations with Xamarin, particularly regarding access to core functionality in Android and iOS."
"Xamarin Platform lacks in app size."
"We'd like to have some chat support functionality."
"It needs offline sync capabilities to store data on devices persistently."
"The major I see with Xamarin right now is that there is no visual editor"
"The performance needs improvement, especially the dev tools, and also the ultimate output of the mobile applications."
"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."
"The problem that I faced was that the communication, the roles, and the responsibilities, weren't defined between Microsoft and Xamarin."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is high overall."
"We have no complaints about the pricing."
"I would rate the product's pricing a five out of ten and is subscription based."
"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."
"The pricing and cost of this solution depends on the use and needs of a business."
"The pricing for Microsoft Azure App Service is per hour, and you're billed per hour, and it depends on the plan you're using. Each plan can host up to a minimum of four to eight applications at a time, so the pricing is quite okay with how I use Microsoft Azure App Service currently, but with the little testing I've done, I saw that some other regions tend to be costlier than others. If the same SLE is delivered for all services, there should be a way to make the prices parallel across regions. Having more transparent pricing for Microsoft Azure App Service would give customers more comfort."
"The pricing model of Microsoft Azure App Service could be made more clear. There is a scale and range and it can be complicated and convoluted. Some simplification is needed."
"The product's price is low, especially if we compare it with other tools or clouds, like Google Cloud or AWS Cloud."
"My company provided all the licenses that we need to support our use of Xamarin Platform."
"Xamarin Platform is a free open-source solution."
"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."
"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."
"There is no license fee because the solution is open-source."
"Xamarin is free. There is no license unless you go for some high-end enterprise features. Other than that, everything's free."
"You can build in Xamarin without paying any money."
"It saved a lot of time and resources needed to develop a cross platform mobile app."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
32%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Performing Arts
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
 

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: September 2025.
872,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.