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Sencha Touch vs Xamarin: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In the world of software development, there are various frameworks and tools available to create cross-platform mobile applications. Two popular options are Sencha Touch and Xamarin. While both frameworks are used to develop mobile apps, there are distinct differences between them. Let's explore the key differences below.

  1. Architecture and Language: Sencha Touch uses extensible and customizable JavaScript and HTML5/ CSS3 for app development. It follows the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) architectural pattern. On the other hand, Xamarin uses C# and .NET framework for app development. It follows the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) architectural pattern.

  2. Platform Support: Sencha Touch primarily focuses on building mobile web applications that can run on various platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows. It is not suitable for creating native applications. On the contrary, Xamarin allows developers to build native mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Windows using a single codebase, providing a highly platform-specific user experience.

  3. Development Tools and Ecosystem: Sencha Touch comes with its own integrated development environment (IDE) called Sencha Architect, which provides a visual interface for designing and building apps. It also has a rich set of UI components and plugins available in the Sencha marketplace. Xamarin, on the other hand, integrates with popular IDEs like Visual Studio and offers a wide range of tools and libraries for UI development and testing.

  4. Community and Documentation: Sencha Touch has a strong and active community with extensive documentation, tutorials, and forums available for developers. It also offers premium support options. Xamarin, being backed by Microsoft, has a large and growing community with ample resources, including official documentation, forums, and support from the Xamarin team.

  5. Performance and Native Access: Sencha Touch applications are built using web technologies and run in a web browser or a WebView component. Although it provides good performance for mobile web apps, it may not match the smoothness and responsiveness of native apps. Xamarin, on the other hand, allows developers to access native APIs and features directly, resulting in excellent performance and access to device-specific functionality.

  6. Cost and Licensing: Sencha Touch is an open-source framework available under the GPLv3 license. It offers a free version with limited features and a paid commercial license for enterprise use. Xamarin offers a free version called Xamarin Community Edition, which has certain limitations. To unlock advanced features and use Xamarin in a commercial environment, developers need to purchase Xamarin Platform or choose a Visual Studio subscription.

In summary, Sencha Touch is a JavaScript-based framework suitable for building mobile web applications across multiple platforms, while Xamarin is a C#-based framework focused on native app development for iOS, Android, and Windows. Sencha Touch emphasizes cross-platform compatibility and provides a visual interface for app development, while Xamarin offers native performance and access to device-specific features. The choice between the two depends on the specific requirements and preferences of the project.

Advice on Sencha Touch and Xamarin
Bhupendra Madhu
Web Developer at Ecombooks · | 8 upvotes · 513.7K views
Needs advice
on
FlutterFlutterReact NativeReact Native
and
XamarinXamarin

I want to learn cross-platform application frameworks like React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, or Ionic, and I'm a web developer. I can learn other programming languages as well. But I'm confused about what to learn, which framework is best, and which framework will last long as the application grows further into complexity.

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Replies (3)
Myo Win
CTO at Myanmar Web Designer (MWD) Co., Ltd. · | 5 upvotes · 36.2K views
Recommends

Flutter is the best one. If you are a new comer in mobile app development, choose Flutter.

But if you have strong experience in JavaScript and you have a lot of JS websites that you want to develop into mobile apps, choose React Native.

Ionic also has its strong points such as a lot of prebuilt components for different platforms and minimal dev environment requirement (you only need a browser).

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Recommends

React Native has a very rich ecosystem and if you're already a web developer, the skills that you already possess will transfer over very well. React is the second most popular web framework according to Stack Overlow's 2022 Developer Survey. No one framework is the 'best' as they all serve different purposes and have different use cases. If you're looking to pick up something popular, I would recommend React Native.

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Kubilay Cagri Yildirim
Senior System Architect at Profelis Bilisim ve Danismanlik · | 1 upvotes · 3.8K views
Recommends

The easiest and fastest for you right now is React Native. I dont know about the Xamarin but I dont like microsoft.

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William Miller
Needs advice
on
PyQtPyQtReact NativeReact Native
and
XamarinXamarin

We are developing an AWS IoT app for large boats. The IoT devices have sensors all over the boat for engine oil pressure, position, water depth, fuel level, crew location, etc. When the boat has internet, we interact with AWS cloud using lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. When the boat is offshore, the captain and crew still need normal and emergency alerts and real-time sensor information. The crew might have an Android or IoS phone or a Windows or macOS PC to receive alerts and interact with sensors. We may use the AWS GreenGrasss edge computing solution and either MQTT or HTML for that function.

Question: We want to develop a cross-platform client to run on Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, and possibly Linux. We are primarily Python programmers, so PyQt or Kivy are options for us, but we have heard good things about React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and others. We think an AWS Greengrass core on an RPI4 could communicate to the client with MQTT or a local webserver with a client web interface.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

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Replies (2)
Recommends
on
React NativeReact Native

I don't know much about Xamarin but I know about PyQt and React Native.

However, I don't recommend PyQt because the apps made using PyQt are not that suitable for mobile apps. If you take a look at the PyQt interface, you will be able to see that the features are more of a desktop apps kind.

React Native uses JavaScript. React Native is immensely flexible in upgrading your apps because it allows you to formulate your app code into independent blocks.

In Xamarin, you have to write the code in .NET . The best thing about Xamarin is, that it extends the.NET developer platform with tools and libraries specifically for building apps for Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and Windows

While the best choice for you depends on various factors but React Native app development is a promising overall choice. In today’s scenario, React Native has steady growth, flawless code structure, and brilliant and large community support. We suggest you go for React Native for your next project owing to its outstanding support from developers, easy availability, and cost-effectiveness.

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Saamer Mansoor
Founder at The First Prototype · | 4 upvotes · 45K views

It seems like your app is not really using any native functionality on the phone. I have experience with cross platform iOS & Android development. They are all really good tools! Xamarin (all the project on the website portfolio I attached) is awesome for accessing native functionality (NFC, Sensors, Bluetooth, etc), and I have built apps that have millions of downloads, some that hit Top 5 on Utilities, another that hit Top 50 in Finances. You just have to look at what your application intent is, it seems like it's just to read and post data. For that they are all pretty good, but you should also look into Ionic which may serve the same purpose

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Decisions about Sencha Touch and Xamarin
James Bender
Lead Application Architect at TekPartners · | 5 upvotes · 49.7K views

I've yet to see a non-native application that I felt performed as well and/or provided the same user experience with Cordova/PhoneGap/Xamarin. Frankly, at best they all seemed like underpowered web applications deployed to a sandbox that ran on a phone. They didn't feel "slick" or "mobile-first" and in some cases the performance was unacceptable. At previous companies, we built a few of these apps at the client's insistence, and in every case, they re-engaged us about 18 months later to re-write the app(s) natively.

We are doing some research on React Native and Flutter, but I am not yet convinced that they can provide the same level of experience and performance as native, though I am trying to keep an open mind.

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Pros of Sencha Touch
Pros of Xamarin
  • 8
    Structured code
  • 5
    Mvc
  • 5
    PhoneGap intergation
  • 3
    Customised Component
  • 2
    Rich Charting Components
  • 2
    Mobile oriented theme
  • 2
    Easy Data Binding
  • 1
    Open source
  • 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
  • 45
    Ability to leverage visual studio
  • 44
    Mvvm pattern
  • 44
    Many great c# libraries
  • 36
    Amazing support
  • 34
    Powerful platform for .net developers
  • 19
    GUI Native look and Feel
  • 16
    Nuget package manager
  • 12
    Free
  • 9
    Backed by Microsoft
  • 9
    Enables code reuse on server
  • 8
    Faster Development
  • 7
    Use of third-party .NET libraries
  • 7
    It's free since Apr 2016
  • 7
    Best performance than other cross-platform
  • 7
    Easy Debug and Trace
  • 7
    Open Source
  • 6
    Mac IDE (Xamarin Studio)
  • 6
    Xamarin.forms is the best, it's amazing
  • 5
    That just work for every scenario
  • 5
    C# mult paradigm language
  • 5
    Power of C#, no javascript, visual studio
  • 4
    Great docs
  • 4
    Compatible to develop Hybrid apps
  • 4
    Microsoft stack
  • 4
    Microsoft backed
  • 3
    Well Designed
  • 3
    Small learning curve for Mobile developers
  • 2
    Ionic
  • 2
    Ability to leverage legacy C and C++

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Cons of Sencha Touch
Cons of Xamarin
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 9
      Build times
    • 5
      Visual Studio
    • 4
      Price
    • 3
      Complexity
    • 3
      Scalability
    • 2
      Nuget
    • 2
      Maturity
    • 2
      Build Tools
    • 2
      Support
    • 0
      Maturidade
    • 0
      Performance

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Sencha Touch?

    Sencha Touch 2, a high-performance HTML5 mobile application framework, is the cornerstone of the Sencha HTML5 platform. Built for enabling world-class user experiences, Sencha Touch 2 is the only framework that enables developers to build fast and impressive apps that work on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire, and more.

    What is Xamarin?

    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.

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    What companies use Sencha Touch?
    What companies use Xamarin?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Sencha Touch or Xamarin.
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    What tools integrate with Sencha Touch?
    What tools integrate with Xamarin?

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    What are some alternatives to Sencha Touch and Xamarin?
    PhoneGap
    PhoneGap is a web platform that exposes native mobile device apis and data to JavaScript. PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.
    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.
    jQuery Mobile
    jQuery Mobile is a HTML5-based user interface system designed to make responsive web sites and apps that are accessible on all smartphone, tablet and desktop devices.
    Appcelerator
    Appcelerator is the first mobile platform to combine the flexibility of open source development technologies with the power of cloud services.
    React Native
    React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.
    See all alternatives