The .NET Cross-Platform Showdown: MAUI vs Uno vs Avalonia (And Why Avalonia Won)

The author recounts their journey attempting to port a SwiftUI tool to Windows, ultimately abandoning Microsoft's fragmented UI framework strategy. He experienced frustrations with MAUI's performance, theming, and packaging issues, especially on MacOS, and its lack of Linux support. While Uno Platform showed promise with its powerful developer tools and Linux compatibility, the project structure complexity and some lingering issues were deterrents. Avalonia, with its focus on modern rendering and packaging tools, proved to be their preferred solution, particularly due to its developer-friendly packaging process. Avalonia's strong documentation, strong community support, and the addition of SukiUI for professional-looking UI, ultimately won the author over. The author highlights Avalonia's solid performance across all platforms, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux, making it a reliable choice for cross-platform development. He also underscores the important of Avalonia's Impeller rendering and Microsoft's use of Avalonia for Linux rendering in MAUI.