At a glance
| Question | MauiWeb | Avalonia MAUI backend | Uno Platform | Blazor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you write | Your existing MAUI XAML and C# | Your existing MAUI XAML and C# | WinUI XAML and C# | Razor components (HTML and C#) |
| Existing MAUI pages | Run as they are | Run as they are | Ported to WinUI XAML | Rewritten in Razor |
| Where the app runs | Your server | The visitor's browser (WebAssembly) | The visitor's browser (WebAssembly) | Your server or the browser, by render mode |
| What the browser shows | HTML elements | Controls drawn on a canvas | Controls drawn on a canvas (Skia) | HTML elements |
| First load | Finished HTML; nothing to download | Runtime and app download first (Avalonia demo: about 13 MB) | Runtime and app download first | HTML with prerendering; WebAssembly mode downloads the runtime |
| Text in the first HTML for search engines | Yes | Not by default: a loading page | Not by default: a loading page | Yes, with prerendering |
| Hosting | ASP.NET Core server with WebSockets | Static files | Static files | Server, or static files for WebAssembly |
| Works offline | No | Yes, once loaded | Yes, once loaded | WebAssembly mode only |
| Status | Released; built on .NET MAUI 11 | Preview since March 2026 | Released | Released, by Microsoft |
| Price | Free to develop; from $249 a year per live domain | Free; Avalonia is MIT licensed and the backend preview is public | Open source (Apache 2.0); paid Studio tools | Free, open source (MIT) |
MauiWeb
MauiWeb runs your MAUI app on an ASP.NET Core server, one copy per browser tab, and turns each control into HTML. The first response is the finished page: about 17.5 KB for a page with 60 controls in our measurements. A WebSocket then carries taps to your C# and sends back only the parts of the page that changed.
- Best for: an existing MAUI app that should also be a website, found by search engines and opened instantly, with your code kept on your server.
- Trade-offs: it needs a server with WebSockets and a live connection; each tap is a round trip to that server; each visitor uses server memory (about 0.5 to 1.3 MB in our tests); a live domain needs a paid license.
Avalonia's MAUI backend
Avalonia, a cross-platform .NET UI framework, released the first preview of a backend for .NET MAUI on 16 March 2026. It adds Linux and WebAssembly targets to MAUI apps. Avalonia draws the controls itself, so they look the same on every platform, and the WebAssembly build is static files that any host can serve.
- Best for: MAUI apps that need Linux, or a browser version that runs on static hosting or offline after the first load.
- Trade-offs: it is still a preview; Avalonia says Essentials support is still being written. The browser downloads the runtime and app before the first screen (Avalonia's five-control demo is about 13 MB after Brotli), and the content is drawn on a canvas rather than written as HTML.
The detailed head-to-head is on MauiWeb vs Avalonia's MAUI backend for WebAssembly.
Uno Platform
Uno Platform runs WinUI XAML apps on the web, mobile and desktop. In the browser its current renderer draws through Skia onto a canvas; the 7.0 migration guide says there is no per-element DOM tree. It is open source under Apache 2.0, with paid Uno Platform Studio tools.
- Best for: new apps, or WinUI and UWP apps, that should run in the browser without a server.
- Trade-offs: it uses WinUI XAML, not MAUI XAML, so a MAUI app's pages have to be ported. The browser downloads the runtime and app before the first screen.
Blazor
Blazor is Microsoft's web UI framework for .NET. Components are written in Razor (HTML and C#) and run on the server, in the browser through WebAssembly, or both, with prerendered HTML for the first response. A MAUI app can host the same Razor components through Blazor Hybrid.
- Best for: teams that write, or are willing to rewrite, their interface in HTML and Razor and want one UI for web and app.
- Trade-offs: MAUI XAML pages do not run in Blazor. You share services and models, but the interface is new code.
Which should you choose?
- You have a MAUI app and want it on the web this year, readable by search engines: MauiWeb.
- You need Linux desktop or a fully static, offline-capable browser build, and can wait for a stable release: Avalonia's MAUI backend.
- You are starting fresh and like WinUI XAML: Uno Platform.
- Your team prefers HTML and Razor, or the web is the main product: Blazor, with Blazor Hybrid for the apps.
Try MauiWeb on your own app before you decide: it is free on localhost with no key. Start with the guide or open the live gallery.
Sources
- MAUI Avalonia Preview 1, Avalonia UI blog, 16 March 2026.
- Avalonia UI for WebAssembly (demo size measured by Avalonia on 23 August 2026).
- Uno Platform issue 24977, quoting the Uno 7.0 migration guide on WebAssembly rendering, October 2026.
- Uno Platform website.
- ASP.NET Core Blazor render modes, Microsoft Learn.
- Reuse Razor components in Blazor Hybrid, Microsoft Learn.
- MauiWeb performance measurements, 25 October 2026.
Something here out of date? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.