Avalonia UI
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 45 GUI frameworks by recommenders
Open-source .NET UI framework that runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and the web, often called a spiritual successor to WPF. Critics say its messaging is unclear.
Open-source .NET UI framework that runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and the web, often called a spiritual successor to WPF. Critics say its messaging is unclear.
65 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 51
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 51 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cross-platform on Windows, Mac, Linux
“Avalonia already works fine on Linux, allowing anyone to build a cross-platform .NET GUI application.”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” “With Avalonia you have a good cross-platform solution”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: TCP chat server written in C# and .NET 9, used in the terminal” “It supports Windows/Mac/Linux/WASM natively already.”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” - Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Oracle cites 'force majeure' to shield itself on controversial data center”
- Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux”
- Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: C# Game Engine with its own scripting language and IDE”
WPF-like, successor to WPF
“their own free regular WPF-like Avalonia UI toolkit is already the standard for cross desktop development”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “go straight for AvaloniaUI, as it is quite similar to wpf, actively devloped and cross-platform”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “Avalonia is a spiritual successor to WPF but FOSS and cross-platform.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” - Comment from 14 May 2026 in “WinUI 3 Performance: A Leap Forward”
Free, open source, licensing rarely an issue
“Drastically less likely to get a rug pull, licensing wouldn't really be an issue for any commercial project”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “Avalonia is a spiritual successor to WPF but FOSS and cross-platform.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “spiritual successor to WPF, cross-platform, and open source”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “WinUI 3 Performance: A Leap Forward” - Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Avalonia 12 – Ready for What's Next”
Strong technical quality and community
“Avalonia is the superior framework when it comes to technical quality as well as community response”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “often considered as one of the best way to make desktop app with .NET”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “Avalonia is considered quite powerful from what Ive heard.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Avalonia 12 – Ready for What's Next” - Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Programming the Commodore 64 with .NET”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Web platform overhead and poor fit
“I don't think their web platform is a good idea for new projects because of the massive overhead”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” “If you create a Flutter or Kotlin Compose Multiplatform or AvaloniaUI app and put it on the web, it's not going to feel right”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “WinUI 3 Performance: A Leap Forward” Feels underdeveloped and rough
“I'm truly surprised that it feels that underdeveloped. They market Avalonia as a direct replacement for WPF too.”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “dotNET (OK, C#) gets union types” “it has all the strengths and weaknesses of WinForms and feels about exactly as unfinished and rough as WinForms”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “dotNET (OK, C#) gets union types” “Total disaster. Could only get things to run after 10 attempts or so, and was only trying a very basic example.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Anthropic surpasses OpenAI to become most valuable AI startup”
Other GUI frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other GUI frameworks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qt | 191 | 133 | 59% | 12 | 15 yrs7 owners | — |
| GTK | 85 | 118 | 42% | 12 | — | — |
| Windows Forms | 76 | 33 | 70% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| SwiftUI | 75 | 121 | 38% | 11 | 4 yrs8 owners | — |
| Avalonia UIThis page | 51 | 14 | 78% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 89 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“high level enough to be cross-platform and not stupidly verbose”
“with Avalonia (and Uno?) I can run my GUI on any OS”
“Avalonia has grown and is far more the de-facto choice for .NET cross-platform GUI”
“Same applies to AvaloniaUI for cross platform.”
“Total disaster. Could only get things to run after 10 attempts or so, and was only trying a very basic example.”
“I'm truly surprised that it feels that underdeveloped. They market Avalonia as a direct replacement for WPF too.”
“it has all the strengths and weaknesses of WinForms and feels about exactly as unfinished and rough as WinForms”
“If you create a Flutter or Kotlin Compose Multiplatform or AvaloniaUI app and put it on the web, it's not going to feel right”
“spiritual successor to WPF, cross-platform, and open source”
“Avalonia also seems good too though I haven't used it myself.”
“Avalonia is considered quite powerful from what Ive heard.”
“I personally think what they offer for free is quite good.”
“Of course not portable out of the box (avalonia is then the ticket there).”
“it uses the Avalonia framework for cross-platform deployment”
“It actually has the enterprise component libraries that WPF has, and those are much more”
“Drastically less likely to get a rug pull, licensing wouldn't really be an issue for any commercial project”
“Avalonia is a spiritual successor to WPF but FOSS and cross-platform.”
“Avalonia is the superior framework when it comes to technical quality as well as community response”
“go straight for AvaloniaUI, as it is quite similar to wpf, actively devloped and cross-platform”
“For everyone interested in Avalonia's Linux / Wayland strategy”
“their own free regular WPF-like Avalonia UI toolkit is already the standard for cross desktop development”
“kudos to Avalonia to make it happen on GNU/Linux”
“I built multiple Avalonia apps with zero previous experience”
“often considered as one of the best way to make desktop app with .NET”
“It satisfies the requirement to "make easy things easy, make hard things doable" and it also gets you cross platform support.”
“There actually is a great GUI story also for Linux today enabled by the excellent Avalonia”
“I eventually came to the conclusion to use Avalonia after even my LLM told me to do it.”
“With Avalonia you have a good cross-platform solution”
“Take a look at Slint or Avalonia if you miss this experience.”
“My cross platform application written in C#/.NET and Avalonia strongly disagrees with this crazy assertion.”
“if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia”
“not sure I would consider it over just using Avalonia directly”
“It supports Windows/Mac/Linux/WASM natively already.”
“Avalonia itself is opensource, but i'd put in in a fremium/shareware category”
“You can do anything with this toolkit from weather apps to video editors, map analysis, and PDF editors.”
“I don't think their web platform is a good idea for new projects because of the massive overhead”
“I like Avalonia (and love .NET in general), but I think the messaging on this needs a lot of work.”
“Avalonia already works fine on Linux, allowing anyone to build a cross-platform .NET GUI application.”
“I've heard good things, but it's definitely a smaller player compared to Electron”
“Well, I guess Avalonia can solve 4 at least as you can negate a binding”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.