Xamarin

Cross-Platform Mobile Development Softwarexamarin.com

Xamarin was a cross-platform mobile and desktop development framework that let C# and .NET developers build native iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows apps from one shared codebase. Microsoft acquired it in 2016 and sunset support on May 1, 2024 in favor of .NET MAUI.

Company typePrivate
Founded2011
HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
Headcount251–500
GTM typeB2B
OfferingSoftware

What Xamarin does

Xamarin was a cross-platform mobile and desktop application development framework that enabled developers to build native iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows applications from a single shared C# and .NET codebase. Founded in 2011 in San Francisco, the company served enterprise development teams and independent .NET developers seeking to reduce duplication of business logic across mobile platforms, with paid offerings such as Xamarin Test Cloud and Xamarin Insights layered on top of the core framework. The company raised approximately $82.75M across three venture rounds between 2012 and 2014, led by CRV and backed by Floodgate, Ignition Partners, Insight Venture Management, and Lead Edge Capital, and it made two acquisitions (LessPainful in 2013 and RoboVM AB in 2015) to extend its testing and runtime capabilities. Microsoft acquired Xamarin in 2016 and integrated it into the .NET ecosystem, subsequently launching .NET MAUI in 2021 as the explicit evolution of Xamarin.Forms. As of May 1, 2024 Microsoft officially ended Xamarin support and directed all developers to migrate to .NET MAUI, leaving Xamarin itself as a sunset, non-revenue-generating product line.

Xamarin firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Xamarin
Legal name: Xamarin
Website: https://xamarin.com
Company type: Private
Founded year: 2011
Operating status: Closed
Headcount range: 251–500 employees
Short description: Xamarin was a cross-platform mobile and desktop development framework that let C# and .NET developers build native iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows apps from one shared codebase. Microsoft acquired it in 2016 and sunset support on May 1, 2024 in favor of .NET MAUI.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Xamarin industry classification

Industry

Product category: Cross-Platform Mobile Development Software
NAICS: Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Other Computer Related Services (541519)
SIC: Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
akta.pro primary industry: Custom Application Development (Web/Mobile/Desktop) (BPAEAFAA)
akta.pro secondary industry: App Testing, QA & Beta Distribution Platforms (BPAMADAK)

Keywords

Cross-platform mobile development
Mobile application testing
Native iOS Android development
.NET mobile framework
Mobile app diagnostics

Where Xamarin is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: San Francisco
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Markets served

Xamarin business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Software
Cost components: Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Xamarin product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Xamarin provided a cross-platform mobile and desktop application development framework that enabled developers to build native iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows applications from a single shared C# codebase using the .NET platform. The product portfolio included the Xamarin Platform, Xamarin Test Cloud (automated testing across a cloud-hosted device lab), Xamarin Insights (app monitoring and crash analytics), and Xamarin.Forms (a shared UI toolkit). Microsoft officially ended Xamarin support on May 1, 2024 and now directs customers to migrate to .NET MAUI, the evolution of Xamarin.Forms.

Product overview

Xamarin was a cross-platform mobile and desktop application development framework that enabled developers to build native Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows apps from a single C# codebase using the .NET platform. As of May 1, 2024, Xamarin support has ended and Microsoft has transitioned its cross-platform mobile development capabilities to .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI), which is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms. Developers are directed to migrate Xamarin apps to .NET MAUI to continue receiving updates and support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

Xamarin.Forms: The original cross-platform UI toolkit that allowed developers to build native iOS, Android, and Windows apps from a single shared C# codebase. It has since evolved into .NET MAUI.

Products and services

Xamarin Platform Cross-platform mobile and desktop application development framework that enabled developers to build native Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows apps from a single shared C# codebase using .NET. Targeted at professional mobile developers and enterprise dev teams. Support officially ended May 1, 2024.
Xamarin Test Cloud Cloud-based automated testing service for mobile applications, enabling developers and QA teams to run UI and functional tests across a large library of physical iOS and Android devices in the cloud.
Xamarin Insights Mobile app monitoring, crash reporting, and diagnostics product for Android and iOS apps built with Xamarin, providing real-time visibility into app stability and performance for development teams.
Xamarin.Forms A cross-platform UI toolkit that enabled developers to build native user interfaces for iOS, Android, and Windows apps from a single shared XAML/C# codebase, with platform-specific rendering for native look-and-feel.

Companies that use Xamarin

Customer profile

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Xamarin technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API: No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Xamarin partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Xamarin competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

Flutter: Google's UI toolkit for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single Dart codebase. Direct competitor to Xamarin in the cross-platform mobile development space, with strong momentum among enterprise and startup developers.
Sencha Ext JS: Enterprise-grade JavaScript framework for building data-intensive cross-platform web and mobile applications. Comparable to Xamarin as an enterprise-focused cross-platform development framework with strong tooling for building complex business applications.
NativeScript: Open-source framework for building truly native mobile applications using JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, or Vue.js. Directly overlaps with Xamarin in enabling cross-platform native mobile development from a non-platform-specific language.
Apache Cordova: Apache's mobile application development framework that uses HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to build cross-platform apps. Closely comparable to Xamarin in purpose (enabling cross-platform mobile development) but differs in technology stack (web standards vs. C#/.NET).
Appcelerator Titanium: Platform for building native mobile applications using web technologies (JavaScript, HTML, CSS). A direct historical competitor to Xamarin in the cross-platform mobile development space, with significant overlap in target developer audience and use cases.
Ionic: Open-source mobile UI toolkit that builds high-quality cross-platform mobile and desktop apps using web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) combined with frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue. Comparable to Xamarin as a cross-platform mobile development solution targeting enterprise developers.
React Native: Facebook/Meta's open-source framework for building native mobile applications using React and JavaScript. Directly competes with Xamarin as the leading cross-platform mobile development framework, offering developers an alternative path to building iOS, Android, and Windows apps from a shared codebase.

Broad incumbents

Unity: Broader cross-platform development platform primarily focused on game development but expanding into industrial, automotive, and mobile app use cases. While not a direct mobile-app competitor, it represents a broader cross-platform development paradigm that overlaps with Xamarin's value proposition of building once for many targets.

Emerging players

Kotlin Multiplatform: JetBrains' technology for sharing Kotlin code across iOS, Android, desktop, and web platforms. An emerging cross-platform alternative to Xamarin, particularly attractive to developers already in the JVM/Android ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks3 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

Xamarin financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Xamarin leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Xamarin funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Xamarin M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Xamarin

What does Xamarin do?

Is Xamarin a public or private company?

Xamarin is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently closed.

When was Xamarin founded?

Xamarin was founded in 2011. It employs 251 to 500 people.

Where is Xamarin based?

Xamarin is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.

Who are Xamarin's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are Flutter, Sencha Ext JS, NativeScript, Apache Cordova, Appcelerator Titanium, Ionic and React Native. Unity is listed as a broad incumbent. Kotlin Multiplatform is listed as an emerging player.

Does Xamarin have an API?

No public API is recorded for Xamarin.

What industry is Xamarin in?

Xamarin's product category is Cross-Platform Mobile Development Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAFAA, Custom Application Development (Web/Mobile/Desktop), with a secondary code of BPAMADAK, App Testing, QA & Beta Distribution Platforms. Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7371.