Blazor, MAUI, WPF, or WinForms? Picking the Right .NET UI Framework in the AI Coding Era

Progress (JB)Tue 27 Oct • 17:15–18:15DevIntermediate
Starting a new .NET application today, you face a question that has become more and more complicated over the years: which UI framework should you build on? Blazor provides web and pushes into desktop and native territory, .NET MAUI promises true cross-platform for mobile and desktop from a single codebase, and for native Windows UIs we have WinUI. But also WPF and Windows Forms that still power more production line-of-business apps than anyone really wants to admit. And then there is the new requirement you don't want to miss: how productive can you actually be when AI is writing most of the UI code? In this session, you'll get a practical comparison of the Microsoft .NET UI landscape - Blazor, .NET MAUI, WinUI, WPF, and Windows Forms - looking at: target platforms, developer experience, ecosystem, performance, distribution and AI-assisted development experience using GitHub Copilot. By the end of this session, you'll know what each framework is good at and which one fits your next project. So you can start building your actual app, not rewriting it.

About the speaker

Mark Allibone

Mark Allibone serves as a Technical Lead at Rey Technology and a Microsoft MVP. Specializing in aiding prominent companies in their digital transformation journeys across multiple sectors, Mark brings a fervor for creating not just functionally robust applications, but also those that enhance user experience. In addition to his professional endeavors, he co-hosts the Null Pointers podcast. You can find him on most platforms as mallibone.