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Xamarin on Forms is the basis of your app. The question you might ask is why so much attention is given to .NET MAUI. Microsoft ceased Xamarin from last May 2024 and no longer provides it with legacy or diminished support, security patches, bug fixes or updates.
Your application has been alright until recently, but now it has been frozen on an older platform. With every release of iOS or Android, your app is in danger of breaking or being rejected by app stores.
We will discuss Xamarin.Forms migration guide below the process, cost, timeline, and why not postponing the migration will only add to the problem: what is meant by migrating off Xamarin.Forms to MAUI migration?
The Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
CTOs usually say that the app is working well, and it does not require modifications, so why migrate from Xamarin to MAUI. That might sound logical, but the facts are otherwise.
Each release of a new iOS and Android version compels Apple and Google to introduce new requirements in the form of mandatory API additions. Xamarin targets Android API 34 and XCode 15 so when Google needs Android 15 APIs or Apple needs iOS 18, your Xamarin app cannot support it. Store rejection is an inevitability.
Security is another issue. Assuming that some vulnerability is found in Xamarin code tomorrow, it will never be fixed. You might be left with running code that is vulnerable in the production environment or scrambling to migrate at much greater expense.
Performance also suffers. Modern frameworks apply aggressive optimizations to native platforms, whereas Xamarin never gets it. The users complain of slow startup, slow scrolling and high battery depletion.
Play Store reviews go low, App Store ratings decline, and support tickets flood. None of this can be patched, unless the underlying problem is resolved.
Companies that shifted away from the Xamarin platform to .NET MAUI are experiencing actual benefits: any given app that once took 40% longer to start now does so in less time, bug counts are reduced by 25%, and development time is cut in half due to improved tooling. These are not Vendor promises, but measured results.
What Actually Changed Between Xamarin and MAUI
MAUI reinvents cross-platform development. It migrate Xamarin to MAUI into a single project, instead of the three independent projects (iOS, Android, and shared pre-Xamarin.Forms).
There is still platform-specific code, but it resides in properly structured folders as opposed to being scattered around solution files.
One important performance improvement is the replacement of custom renderers with handlers. The renderer system of Xamarin was untidy in the sense that it had to customise UI elements to inherit a platform code and override lifecycle events.
MAUI handlers are called on property mapping: they are executed when cross-platform properties are modified. This brings about cleaner code, faster execution and reduction in memory.
Visual Studio 2022 Hot Reload supports MAUI. You write UI code, and see the difference right away on all platforms, and no rebuild is necessary. The debugging of iOS, Android, Windows and Mac is done by a single interface.
One deployment pipeline is used across all platforms, which does not involve the gymnastics that is needed with Xamarin.
In the long run, MAUI works better. It is compliant with the modern .NET lifecycle policies, receives frequent updates, such as security patches and new features, and is up-to-date with Apple and Google APIs. You invest in proactively developed code as opposed to frozen legacy code.
There is no more question about whether to migrate or not, but now how to migrate Xamarin.Forms app to MAUI fast without regressions.
What You Need to Figure Out First
Begin with actual technical audit. Check the compatibility of all NuGet packages with MAUI. Do not think that third-party libraries are updated. When a library is at Xamarin and does not have a MAUI version, you will need either an alternative solution or create your own solution.
Watch your own renderers. Migration complexity is directly dependent on the number of renderers. Five renderers mean a few days of labour; fifty might mean weeks of special labour.
Before planning, see which version of Xamarin.Forms you are using. You are on an older version than 5.0, then upgrade to Forms 5. This step in between eliminates the difference between APIs and eliminates compound problems that consume time.
Take a real-life assessment of the team capabilities. Xamarin specialists continue to require training in MAUI. Theories align, but details of implementation diverge enough to be the bane of assumptions. Consider the ability of your team to deliver on the necessitating timelines or whether it is more economically viable to outsource skills.
Business continuity plan. Migration interferes with normal development. Incremental builds are selected to keep velocity in some teams; focused sprints to complete conversion are selected in others. Each of them is not always the best option, but choose according to your limitations.
Two Ways to Actually Do This
There are two basic approaches to Xamarin vs .NET MAUI: page-by-page migration or full-lift conversion. The selection is based on complexity of the app and team ability and reality of the business.
With 5-10 pages, incremental migration is initiated with basic platform code and regular controls. Transfer those, test builds, test UI, expand. This is effective with large applications where a full migration would paralyse development over months.
MAUI is learned over time, and business functions are run in a hybrid architecture. The negative aspect is that it requires momentary maintenance of two codebases and increased complexity of the architecture.
Full-lift conversion converts it all in one go. form a new MAUI solution, migrate all the components collectively, and perform thorough testing, and deploy. This style is appropriate when the apps or team size is small enough to get distracted by migration sprints.
It provides architectural consistency and lacks the hybrid complications, yet it needs full attention and stops feature work as the migration progresses.
You may consider hiring expert migration teams to do the technical stuff with your developers working on business applications. This parallel method accelerates migration without halting normal operations.
Using Microsoft's Upgrade Assistant
The tool created by Microsoft was an automated repetitive conversion tool. .NET Upgrade Assistant Xamarin to MAUI is an installable command line tool which runs on your solution. It will automatically recreate project structure by adapting MonoAndroid and Xamarin.iOS, updating structures to net8.0 -android and net8.0 -ios, and changing the UseMaui property, and aspiring the required packages.
The tool also removes the namespaces when it can be confident of the change: Xamarin.Forms is renamed to Microsoft.Maui.Controls, and Xamarin.Essentials is renamed to Microsoft.Maui.Essentials. Nevertheless, manually constructed code which relies on deleted APIs still needs manual corrections since the tool does not understand your intent.
Understand the limitations. The custom renderers will not automatically translate; they must be translated manually to handlers. Platform-specific code might be referring to changed APIs. Any third-party packages without MAUI versions need to be replaced manually.
The helper is most compatible with Xamarin.Forms 5.0+ projects that already utilise .NET Standard 2.0, SDK-like projects. Writing up the solution prior to running the tool causes a significant decrease in manual work after conversion.
Converting Xamarin.Forms to MAUI best practices the Hard Parts Manually
Converting Xamarin.Forms to MAUI best practices is beneficial to projects, which require strict control. Visual Studio 2022 You should create a new MAUI solution to have the right structure with a single-project architecture and structured platform folders.
Business logic tends to be ported with minimal modifications. Profiles of replicate view models, services, and data models to the new project, correct namespaces and correct API differences. The majority of core logic is not sensitive to UI frameworks.
XAML pages are migrated with namespace updates. Copy the XAML and code-behind files and modify declarations to Microsoft.Maui. The majority of standard controls operate in the same way and only minimal property modifications are made.
The hardest is custom renderer conversion. In MAUI, renderers are substituted by property mapping. Rather than type-casting the native controls, handlers subscribe to callbacks to change properties as the values change. This is a more comprehensible pattern, although it involves API learning.
Code that is platform-specific is copied across different projects into the common Platforms folder. Platforms/Android/Code only executes Android, and Platforms/iOS/Code only executes iOS.
Why Consider Developers from India
Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI Migration Services need specialized expertise in both frameworks. Teams without MAUI experience face learning curves that extend timelines and increase costs through trial-and-error.
When you Hire .Net Developer India, you access talent pools with Xamarin and MAUI experience at competitive rates. Indian developers deliver quality without premium domestic pricing. Hire Dedicated Developers India through established firms for pre-vetted specialists with real migration experience.migrate Xamarin to .NET MAUI combines technical expertise with proven methodologies that reduce risk.
Rushkar Technology handles end-to-end migrations combining automated tools with expert manual conversion for complex scenarios like custom handlers and performance optimization.
Conclusion
Xamarin support ended migrate to MAUI. Every delay adds to the technical debt and contributes to the higher cost of eventual migration. Determine your circumstances now, audit dependencies, enumerate renderers, calculate how complex the project is doing your real project.
Ask a specialist to have a closer look at your needs. The teams that have experience detect problems at the outset, which are realised mid-way by other teams who ran out of budget. Steps to migrate Xamarin Android/iOS to MAUI differ greatly by project.
Your mobile platform requires actively developed, supported frameworks. Xamarin isn’t one. Begin to plan in advance before incompatible platforms cause customer facing crises which require costly reactive measures.