.NET MAUI
Shares rank 4 of 13 cross-platform UI frameworks by recommenders
Free Microsoft framework for building C# apps on mobile and desktop, with Linux support arriving. Critics doubt its desktop strength and long-term support.
Free Microsoft framework for building C# apps on mobile and desktop, with Linux support arriving. Critics doubt its desktop strength and long-term support.
89 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 68
- approval share
- 24%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Good for mobile apps
“a .NET MAUI Blazor Hybrid app that's published to the app stores”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Would you choose the Microsoft stack today if starting greenfield?” “Maui is optimized for mobile, Avalonia is superior on desktop.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Would you choose the Microsoft stack today if starting greenfield?” Productive for C# developers
“lots to like and be super productive in”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Would you choose the Microsoft stack today if starting greenfield?” “it's working fine with .Net Upgrades”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Doubts long-term Microsoft support
“I don't believe it will be good given the previous fiasco with the MAUI initial release”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” “I really love Blazor and heck even MAUI, but will they still be there in 10 years?”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET 10” “That's not to say that Microsoft's attitude toward MAUI doesn't leave concerns.”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” - Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser”
- Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser”
Weak on desktop apps
“I've pretty much considered MAUI a non-starter without Linux desktop as a target”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” “Maui is optimized for mobile, Avalonia is superior on desktop.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Would you choose the Microsoft stack today if starting greenfield?” “it's maybe not as good for desktop apps”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Wine 11.0” - Comment from 2 May 2026 in “Visual Studio 2026 still ships the form designer Alan Cooper drew in 1987”
Bugs and broken features
“the transition to MAUI has been full of woe and even more bugs and weird edge case functionality than Xamarin had”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Swift on FreeBSD Preview” “back navigation is broken and it leaves the whole app returning to the previous website”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser” “Everything else is incredible broken and stops being supported in such a short time.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Winapp, the Windows App Development CLI – Windows Developer Blog”
Other cross-platform UI frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other cross-platform UI 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flutter | 171 | 106 | 62% | 12 | 3 yrs11 owners | — |
| React Native | 98 | 128 | 43% | 12 | 8 yrs7 owners | — |
| Kotlin Multiplatform | 27 | 12 | 69% | 9 | 2 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| .NET MAUIThis page | 21 | 68 | 24% | 7 | — | — |
| Expo | 21 | 10 | 68% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 98 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Not everything is flowers and sunshine (got a couple of open issues myself... in .NET MAUI too)”
“AI is useless when developing with Maui, as it's too new of a development framework”
“Give it a few more years and MAUI will join the list of abandoned UI frameworks”
“you're now using a layer that's trying to use native controls on the underlying systems that don't always align completely”
“Microsoft itself rugpulls even stuff they offer as "improvements" and "better"”
“I don't get why it exists. It's like the worst of both worlds between desktop and mobile”
“I'd really wish they fixed existing issues instead of extending it further.”
“Microsoft's list of abandoned UI libraries says otherwise.”
“they're addicting to introducing new toolkits instead of improving existing ones”
“I love MAUI but hate that it has no support for Linux”
“a .NET MAUI Blazor Hybrid app that's published to the app stores”
“Maui is optimized for mobile, Avalonia is superior on desktop.”
“lots to like and be super productive in”
“it's working fine with .Net Upgrades”
“Everything else is incredible broken and stops being supported in such a short time.”
“it's maybe not as good for desktop apps”
“I really love Blazor and heck even MAUI, but will they still be there in 10 years?”
“Building MAUI with Binding/Layout/Themes on top of another engine with Binding/Layout/Themes doesn't sound efficient.”
“I've pretty much considered MAUI a non-starter without Linux desktop as a target”
“they're sacrificing any hope of accessibility and compatibility with browser standards for UX”
“back navigation is broken and it leaves the whole app returning to the previous website”
“before the tab froze and locked up”
“I don't believe it will be good given the previous fiasco with the MAUI initial release”
“The whole thing becomes locked with the word puzzle on the background and the main menu on top of it. Nothing is clickable any more.”
“it takes more than a minute to load or it does not work on iOS with Lock Down mode enabled”
“Decades later with a cross-platform cloud-centric stack they have a shrug emoji as big and wide as the eyes can see”
“This is a huge win for people using MAUI.”
“MAUI is first and foremost a mobile UI framework.”
“The fact that they had to use Avalonia under the covers to get it to work on Linux seems to defeat the point.”
“The really cool thing is being able to target the Linux desktop finally.”
“MAUI was never meant to target the web”
“They will abandon it in the matter of a few years like they did about 10 times already.”
“Why invest strongly in a desktop-first framework when society aren't too sure about it?”
“That's not to say that Microsoft's attitude toward MAUI doesn't leave concerns.”
“Never build a frontend on a .NET technology. Period. They always end up unsupported in the end.”
“Without MSFT backing this I am not sure if there is much more future left for MAUI”
“I get the value in this and realize it's not for your polished -$500 ARPU consumer social apps, but man this is weird.”
“It was quite messy getting it setup on Mac but eventually I got a simple hello world app working.”
“it doesn't _feel_ like the web”
“the transition to MAUI has been full of woe and even more bugs and weird edge case functionality than Xamarin had”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.