We performed a comparison between IBM MobileFirst and Xamarin Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about OutSystems, Mendix, Salesforce and others in Mobile Development Platforms."I like Its capability for developing hybrid applications, with an ability to integrate device-native code as well"
"IBM MobileFirst has one of the most feature-rich admin panels."
"With help of this product, we have been able to develop mobile applications without having complete knowledge of each mobile OS's native programming technology. App development, delivery, and code management have been very efficient using this product."
"We were able to optimize the service organization for one of our clients."
"The cross platform ability is a great asset."
"Xamarin is well-integrated with Visual Studio so it will feel very familiar to you once you start."
"Test Cloud, Calabash, SpecFlow, and Xamarin.UITest are the features which can’t be ignored because just writing code doesn’t mean your app will run flawlessly. You need to test your app on each possible device and configuration, which you can do easily."
"The most valuable features of the Xamarin Platform are that it has cross-platform development, one code base serves a purpose on both, and the grid layout is a lifesaver."
"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 most important impact is the reduction in product lifecycle costs."
"There are issues with push notifications, especially for Windows mobile apps. JSONStore also crashes abruptly at times."
"I would like to see improved support for native device functions."
"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."
"They need to take a step towards independence from the UI platform. It takes a lot of time to adapt the native controls."
"We need to think about partnering with IBM because there is a need for a big data partner; someone who has machine learning and can help us connect the app to big data."
"From time to time, it is a bit harder to code some specific scenarios compared to the native approach."
"For those who use only XAML to design the UI, it would be better if there was a better XAML previewer or designer."
"I feel that the Android AppCompat library creates a lot of issues. A lot of development time is often wasted solving these issues."
"Xamarin's profiling tools are only available for the highest tier of MSDN subscription and compatibility with platform-native profiling tools is rather lacking. This causes friction when working on performance-related issues."
"The recent move to .NET MAUI is a big change that's affecting a lot of the good features."
Earn 20 points
IBM MobileFirst is ranked 13th in Mobile Development Platforms while Xamarin Platform is ranked 5th in Mobile Development Platforms with 37 reviews. IBM MobileFirst is rated 8.4, while Xamarin Platform is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM MobileFirst writes "It provides access management for the enterprise user as well as for the consumer". 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". IBM MobileFirst is most compared with IBM MaaS360, Ionic, SAP Mobile Platform and Microsoft Azure App Service, whereas Xamarin Platform is most compared with Appium, Ionic, OutSystems, Apple Xcode and Mendix.
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