.NET MAUI explained: one app for phones, tablets and desktops

You need an app. Your staff or customers use iPhones and Android phones, and some of them work on Windows laptops or Macs. The obvious question is whether you have to pay for the app to be built two or three times, once for each kind of device. Sometimes the answer is yes. Often it is no, and the difference is worth understanding before you sign anything.

This article explains .NET MAUI, Microsoft's framework for building one app that runs on several platforms. It covers when that approach is the sensible choice, when it is not, and the trade-offs in plain terms. We supply Microsoft licences and know these tools well, but the right choice depends on your business, and we say below when a different approach is better. It is written as of 16 October 2026.

What .NET MAUI is

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) lets a team write one project, in one codebase, in the C# language, and produce apps for several platforms. It is the successor to Xamarin.Forms, an earlier Microsoft framework with the same aim.

Microsoft's documentation lists the main platforms as Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. On the Mac, the app runs through a technology called Mac Catalyst, and on Windows it uses Microsoft's WinUI 3. Building for iOS and macOS needs a Mac somewhere in the process, a practical point that surprises people.

Where an app needs something specific to one platform, MAUI lets the developers write that part separately. You get shared code for most of the app and platform-specific code where it matters. Microsoft documents cross-platform access to device features such as location, the camera and secure storage.

A note on Tizen

Tizen is Samsung's operating system for televisions and wearables. It can be targeted from MAUI, but through Samsung's own support rather than Microsoft's: Microsoft's supported platforms page says Tizen support is provided by Samsung, and it does not appear on the policy page above. Its position on current .NET versions is unclear to us, so if Tizen matters to you, treat it as something to check with Samsung and your supplier rather than assume.

When one app makes sense

A single cross-platform app tends to be a good fit when:

• the screens and business rules are much the same on every device
• you have a small team, or want one team and one set of business rules to look after
• it is an internal or customer-facing business app, such as forms, lists, scheduling, approvals or field data capture, rather than something graphics-heavy
• speed to market and a single budget matter more than the last degree of polish on each platform

For many business apps, this is the case. A field-services app that captures job details, photos and signatures looks the same to the user on an iPhone and an Android tablet. Building it once means a fix or a new feature reaches every device together.

When it does not

It is usually the wrong choice when:

• the app depends heavily on one platform's newest features, which often arrive in the native tools first
• it is a game or something with demanding graphics or animation
• the app needs the very particular look and feel of one platform
• a website would do the job. If users only need to look things up or fill in a form, a responsive website may be simpler and cheaper, and it needs no app store at all

The honest alternatives

There are two other routes worth putting on the table.

The web option. A responsive website, or a progressive web app that can be added to a phone's home screen, avoids app stores and works everywhere. It has limits on what it can do with the device and on how it behaves offline, particularly on iPhones.

Native twice. Building separate apps for iOS and Android, each in the platform's own tools, gives the most control and the best polish, at roughly double the work and two codebases to look after. It is the right choice when the app is the product and the experience on each platform is what customers are paying for.

We looked at these options in more detail in an older post, What are my options for app development in both iOS and Android?, written in 2018. The tools have moved on since, but the questions are much the same.

What it costs, and the trade-offs

We do not give prices in articles, and every app is different, but the shape of the trade-off is clear:

• In favour: one team, one codebase and one set of business rules, so less duplicated work and fewer differences between platforms.
• Against: some platform-specific polish can take extra effort, and you rely on a framework that is itself updated regularly.
• The app stores still need attention. Apple and Google change their requirements, and operating systems update every year. An app needs updating to keep up, whichever way it was built.
• Testing on real devices is needed either way, because phones and tablets behave differently.
• Third-party controls (charts, maps, scanners) must be checked for each platform you want.
• An app needs looking after like any other system, with someone named responsible for it.

Support dates

As of 16 October 2026, .NET MAUI 9 reached end of support on 12 May 2026, and .NET MAUI 10 is the supported release, according to the support policy. Microsoft publishes the end date for a MAUI release when its successor ships, so we have not stated one for MAUI 10.

If you still have an app built on Xamarin, Xamarin support ended on 1 May 2024. That means no fixes or updates, including security updates, in the same way as the situation we described for Windows Server 2012. Microsoft provides a migration guide, and we will cover moving to MAUI in a later article.

What to ask a supplier

• Why do you recommend one cross-platform app, native apps or a website for this?
• Which platforms are you targeting on day one, and which later?
• Which MAUI release will it be built on, and who updates it as support dates pass?
• Which devices and operating system versions will you test on?
• Will the code and documentation be in our own repository?
• Who looks after the app after launch?

A sensible first step

Before you speak to a supplier, write down which devices your users actually have, and the three things the app must do on them. If most of your users are on two platforms and the app is a business tool, one cross-platform app is likely to deserve a serious look.

Eastpoint builds .NET MAUI apps and migrates Xamarin apps, and looks after .NET (C#) applications. If you want to talk through whether one app is right for you, our software and integration work is the place to start, and our software care service looks after apps once they are live.