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  1. Stackups
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  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. PHP vs Xamarin

PHP vs Xamarin

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Xamarin
Xamarin
Stacks1.3K
Followers1.5K
Votes785
PHP
PHP
Stacks147.4K
Followers82.9K
Votes4.6K
GitHub Stars39.6K
Forks8.0K

PHP vs Xamarin: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore the key differences between PHP and Xamarin. Both PHP and Xamarin are popular tools used for developing web and mobile applications, respectively. However, they differ in various aspects that need to be understood before choosing one for a project.

  1. Language Type: PHP is a server-side scripting language primarily used for web development, while Xamarin is a cross-platform development tool that utilizes C# to create mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows.

  2. Platform Compatibility: PHP can run on various platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it highly compatible. On the other hand, Xamarin allows developers to build applications that are compatible with multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows, using a shared C# codebase.

  3. Integration with Native APIs: Xamarin provides direct access to native APIs, allowing developers to access and utilize the extensive features and capabilities of the underlying platforms. PHP, however, relies on different libraries and frameworks to interact with native APIs, limiting its native integration capabilities.

  4. Performance: Xamarin applications tend to have better performance compared to PHP applications. This is because Xamarin allows developers to write native code in C#, resulting in faster execution times. PHP, being an interpreted language, may have slightly slower performance due to the processing required during runtime.

  5. Development Environment: PHP can be easily set up on most web servers, making it accessible for development. Xamarin, on the other hand, requires specific development environments like Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio to build applications, which can be more complex to set up.

  6. Community and Support: PHP has been widely used for web development for many years and has a large community with extensive documentation and support. Xamarin, while growing rapidly, has a smaller community by comparison. However, Xamarin does have official support from Microsoft, which provides comprehensive documentation, forums, and resources.

In summary, PHP is a popular server-side scripting language primarily used for web development, while Xamarin is a cross-platform development tool that allows developers to create mobile applications using C#. They differ in terms of language type, platform compatibility, integration with native APIs, performance, development environment, and community support.

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CLI (Node.js)
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Manual

Advice on Xamarin, PHP

Kyle
Kyle

Web Application Developer at Fortinet

Jun 2, 2020

Decided

Node continues to be dominant force in the world of web apps, with it's signature async first non-blocking IO, and frankly mind bending speeds. PHP and Python are formable tools, I chose Node for the simplicity of Express as a good and performant server side API gateway platform, that works well with Angular.

394k views394k
Comments
Octavian
Octavian

Software Engineer

May 26, 2020

Decided

Both PHP and Python are free but when it comes to web development PHP wins for sure. There is no doubt that Python is a powerful language but it is not optimal for web. PHP has issues... of course; but so does any other language.

Another reason I chose PHP is for community - it has one of the most resourceful communities from the internet and for a good reason: it evolved with the language itself.

The fact that OOP evolved so much in PHP makes me keep it for good :)

377k views377k
Comments
Davit
Davit

Apr 11, 2020

Needs advice

Hi everyone, I have just started to study web development, so I'm very new in this field. I would like to ask you which tools are most updated and good to use for getting a job in medium-big company. Front-end is basically not changing by time so much (as I understood by researching some info), so my question is about back-end tools. Which backend tools are most updated and requested by medium-big companies (I am searching for immediate job possibly)?

Thank you in advance Davit

390k views390k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Xamarin
Xamarin
PHP
PHP

Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Cross-platform development- Thinking about supporting iOS, Android, Mac and Windows? Xamarin allows you to write it all in C#.;Reuse existing code- Use your favorite .NET libraries in Xamarin apps. Easily use third-party native libraries and frameworks.; Discover as you type- Explore APIs as you type with code autocompletion.;Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio- Create, build, debug, and deploy apps in Visual Studio. Or use Xamarin Studio, a fully-featured IDE that is built for mobile app development.;Native UI, Native Performance- Xamarin delivers high performance compiled code with full access to all the native APIs so you can create native apps with device-specific experiences.; Point and Click UI Design- Xamarin provides a world class Android UI designer. Use Apple Xcode UI designer to create interfaces and Storyboards that automatically sync with your Xamarin.iOS project.
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
39.6K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
8.0K
Stacks
1.3K
Stacks
147.4K
Followers
1.5K
Followers
82.9K
Votes
785
Votes
4.6K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 121
    Power of c# on mobile devices
  • 81
    Native performance
  • 79
    Native apps with native ui controls
  • 73
    No javascript - truely compiled code
  • 67
    Sharing more than 90% of code over all platforms
Cons
  • 9
    Build times
  • 5
    Visual Studio
  • 4
    Price
  • 3
    Scalability
  • 3
    Complexity
Pros
  • 954
    Large community
  • 820
    Open source
  • 767
    Easy deployment
  • 488
    Great frameworks
  • 387
    The best glue on the web
Cons
  • 21
    So easy to learn, good practices are hard to find
  • 16
    Inconsistent API
  • 8
    Fragmented community
  • 6
    Not secure
  • 3
    No routing system
Integrations
No integrations available
Laravel
Laravel
JavaScript
JavaScript

What are some alternatives to Xamarin, PHP?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Ionic

Ionic

Free and open source, Ionic offers a library of mobile and desktop-optimized HTML, CSS and JS components for building highly interactive apps. Use with Angular, React, Vue, or plain JavaScript.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

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