Choosing Between WPF and .NET MAUI for Desktop and Cross-Platform App Development

In this article, we explore the key differences between Microsoft WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and .NET MAUI, two powerful frameworks within Microsoft’s .NET stack for desktop and cross-platform application development.

Whether your priority is rich UI features or cross-platform compatibility, it's essential to understand each framework's strengths and weaknesses.

Drawing from our extensive experience in desktop and cross-platform .NET development, we'll highlight the pros and cons of WPF and .NET MAUI to guide your decision.

WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)

Pros:

• Great Tooling:

  Tools like Expression Blend enhance collaboration between UI designers and developers, improving design efficiency and consistency.

• MVVM Pattern Support:

  WPF works well with the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern, promoting clean separation of concerns, maintainability, and testability.

• Excellent UI Performance:

  High runtime performance with rich effects and advanced styling capabilities for responsive, modern interfaces.

• Extensive Library Support:

  A vast number of third-party libraries and controls are available, providing out-of-the-box functionality for various UI components and features.

• Hardware Interaction and USB Communication:

  There are well-established libraries and APIs for handling USB communication in .NET Framework (e.g., HidLibrary, LibUsbDotNet), other drivers for low-level hardware interactions.

• Open Source:

  WPF is open source, with its source code available on GitHub, allowing for community contributions and transparency in its development.

Cons:

• Windows-Only Support:

  WPF applications are restricted to Windows environments, limiting their reach across platforms.

• Build and CI/CD Constraints:

  Building WPF applications requires a Windows environment with .NET, making it challenging to implement in containerized environments or with CI/CD systems that prefer cross-platform builds.

Now let's explore .NET MAUI, Microsoft's newer cross-platform technology, and see how it differs from WPF.

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) for Cross-Platform .NET Development

Pros:

• Cross-Platform:

  Supports Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, enabling the creation of a single codebase for multiple platforms, thus reducing development and maintenance efforts.

• Native UI Controls:

  Leverages native controls on each platform, ensuring consistent behavior and appearance according to platform-specific standards.

Cons:

• Less Mature than WPF:

  As a newer framework, MAUI has more open issues, especially related to UI layout and platform-specific bugs.

• Limited Tooling:

  UI debugging and design capabilities are not as advanced as those offered by WPF, potentially slowing down the development and troubleshooting process.

• Less Flexible XAML:

  MAUI’s XAML language is less feature-rich compared to WPF's XAML, limiting some of the customization and advanced UI features that developers may be accustomed to in WPF.

Conclusion

Choosing among WPF, .NET MAUI, BlazorWebView, and HybridWebView depends on the application's specific needs, including cross-platform requirements or the need to integrate existing web solutions. Evaluating the strengths of each technology against your project's requirements will help in making the right decision. Conducting pilot projects or prototypes with these technologies can also provide valuable insights into their suitability for your domain.

Balancing these factors will depend on your strategic direction—whether you prioritize immediate stability and proven capabilities (WPF) or future-proofing and broader reach (MAUI). Testing both in pilot projects could provide insights into how well each framework meets your specific needs.