XForms

XForms is a lightweight .NET UI framework for apps with a custom look that should look the same on every platform, while keeping the platform's own text rendering, text entry and scrolling.

What makes XForms different

• Native text, custom look. Text rendering (the platform's fonts, shaping and emoji), text entry (input methods, spell checking, selection, accessibility, autofill), scrolling physics and virtualized lists all use the platform's own implementation. Everything else is owner-drawn, so controls look identical everywhere and don't change when a platform's design language does.

  Other frameworks usually pick one side:

  • MAUI and React Native use native controls, so apps look different on each platform.
  • Flutter, Avalonia, Compose Multiplatform and Uno's Skia renderer draw everything, text and text entry included.

  XForms does both: native where quality comes from the platform, owner-drawn everywhere else.

• A small framework, with controls on top. All platform-specific code lives in a small framework. Control libraries, including XForms' own XForms.Controls, are written once on its public API. The compiler enforces that, so any control library you write runs on every supported platform.

• No markup or styling machinery. There's no XAML, styling engine or binding engine to learn or carry. Controls are plain C# that draws and lays itself out.

• Lean. On Windows, XForms uses Win32, DirectComposition, Direct2D and DirectWrite directly, with no XAML or Windows App SDK. Its test app is about 21 MB self-contained and trimmed, compared with about 221 MB for the same app on WinUI 3. The Windows backend uses source-generated interop, so it's trimmable and compatible with Native AOT.

• Native performance. Layout is shared across platforms but driven by each platform's own layout system, and animations run on the platform's compositor, off the UI thread.

Why choose XForms

XForms is a good fit when:

• you want a distinctive, fully custom design that's identical on every platform;
• you also want text and text entry to behave exactly as they do in the platform's own apps;
• you work in C# and prefer a small, understandable stack to a large framework.

It's not the right choice (yet) when:

• you need macOS, Linux or the web today;
• you need a large ready-made control set, design tooling or hot reload;
• you want a native look on each platform (consider MAUI), or need to reuse WPF or WinUI XAML (consider Avalonia or Uno Platform).

See docs/comparisons.md for detailed comparisons with Uno Platform, Avalonia, .NET MAUI, Electron, React Native, Flutter and Compose Multiplatform.

Why a custom look?

If you've been shipping apps for more than a few years, you'll know that the "native" look on every platform periodically changes, and apps that once looked sleek and modern now look obviously dated. Not necessarily bad, just dated, because they're using old "native" controls.

I noticed that some old iOS apps in particular still looked great, and the thing they all had in common was a completely custom user interface that still looked and worked great for their scenario.

That's when the light clicked on for me.

Despite how much each platform owner (Apple, Google, Microsoft) pushes you to support their latest native look, so your app looks like every other app and you'll probably have to rewrite it for every platform as well, it may not be your best option.

If you agree that makes sense for your app, then XForms may be just what you need.

How it's organized

Folder	Project	What it is
framework/	XForms.Framework	The platform-neutral framework: app hosting, layout, input, accessibility, popups, and the native primitives
platform/win32/	XForms.Framework.Win32	Windows: Win32, DirectComposition, Direct2D, DirectWrite, RichEdit
platform/android/	XForms.Framework.Android	Android: native views
platform/ios/	XForms.Framework.iOS	iOS: UIKit
platform/web/	XForms.Framework.Web	Browsers: .NET on WebAssembly, DOM elements and canvases
controls/	XForms.Controls	Controls (buttons, pickers, calendar, menus, flyouts, lists, ...), panels and gestures, built only on the framework's public API
test/	XForms.Test.*	Test apps for each platform, with shared pages in test/XForms.Test

An app references the framework, one platform project, and the control libraries it uses. See docs/architecture.md for how the layers, layout, drawing, input, popups and lists work.

Building

Requirements:

• the .NET 10 SDK;
• the .NET Android workload, for Android;
• the .NET iOS workload, and a Mac, to build for and run on iOS.

Build everything with:

dotnet build XForms.slnx

Run the Windows test app with:

dotnet run --project test/XForms.Test.Win32

Status

XForms is in active development, and its API is changing.

Platform	Status
Windows (Win32, no XAML)	In development: rendering, input, scrolling, lists, keyboard focus and UI Automation work
Android	In development: rendering, input, scrolling and lists work
iOS	In development: builds, but not yet tested since the latest restructure

Planned work includes aligning the API with WPF, WinUI and Avalonia conventions, lightweight controls, a richer drawing API, an animation system played by the compositor, and accessibility and keyboard focus on every platform.

Documentation

• Architecture: the layers, and how layout, drawing, input, popups, lists and accessibility work.
• Comparisons: XForms compared with Uno Platform, Avalonia, .NET MAUI, Electron, React Native, Flutter and Compose Multiplatform.
• Alignment: the framework's main gaps, and the plan to align its API with familiar frameworks.