explaingit

dotnet/maui

📈 Trending★ 23,252C#Audience · developerComplexity · 3/5ActiveLicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

Microsoft's framework for building native mobile and desktop apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac from a single C# codebase.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((dotnet/maui))
    What it does
      Single codebase
      Multiple platforms
      Native performance
    Platforms supported
      iOS and iPadOS
      Android
      Windows
      macOS
    Tech stack
      C# language
      XAML markup
      .NET runtime
    Use cases
      Cross-platform apps
      Mobile and desktop
      Code sharing
    Developer experience
      Visual Studio integration
      Built-in emulators
      Project templates

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build an iOS and Android app with shared business logic and UI code in C#.

USE CASE 2

Create a desktop app for Windows and Mac that reuses the same codebase as your mobile app.

USE CASE 3

Ship a cross-platform app without maintaining separate codebases for each platform.

USE CASE 4

Develop and test mobile apps on emulators built into Visual Studio without physical devices.

Tech stack

C#.NETXAMLAndroidiOSWindowsmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires .NET SDK installation and platform-specific SDKs (Android SDK, Xcode for iOS, etc.) depending on target platforms.

MIT license, use freely for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you include the copyright notice.

In plain English

dotnet/maui is the source code for .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI), Microsoft's framework for building native mobile and desktop applications from a single shared codebase. Instead of writing separate apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac, you write one app in C# and XAML (a markup language for describing user interfaces) and MAUI compiles it to run natively on each platform. The key benefit is code reuse: business logic, data handling, and much of the user interface can be shared across all target platforms, while still producing apps that feel native and use the platform's own controls and capabilities. It is the successor to Xamarin.Forms, expanding beyond mobile to also cover Windows and macOS desktop apps. You would use .NET MAUI when you're building a cross-platform app and your team already works in the .NET ecosystem (C#, Visual Studio), or when you need to ship to both mobile and desktop without maintaining separate codebases. It integrates with Visual Studio and includes emulators for testing on Android and iOS without physical devices. The framework targets Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS (via Mac Catalyst), and Windows. You create a new project with a single command, and it sets up the shared structure automatically. It is written in C# and is an official Microsoft open-source project.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I create a new .NET MAUI project and set up the folder structure for a cross-platform app?
Prompt 2
Show me how to write a C# class that works on both iOS and Android in a MAUI app.
Prompt 3
What's the difference between .NET MAUI and Xamarin.Forms, and should I migrate?
Prompt 4
How do I use platform-specific code in MAUI when I need to call native iOS or Android APIs?
Prompt 5
Walk me through building a simple todo app in MAUI that runs on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac.
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.