FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Avalonia Project

Yes, Avalonia is free to use and open-source under the MIT licence. The code is available on GitHub, and packages can be downloaded from Nuget. We're also a member project of the .NET Foundation and are typically one of the most popular community projects within the Foundation.

MAUI is an evolution of Xamarin.Forms, enabling developers to create applications using a unified API using the platforms underlying native UI toolkit. Think of it as an abstraction over the operating systems existing UI controls; thus, Xamarin.Forms can only provide the lowest common denominator of UI controls and APIs available on the supported platforms. In contrast, Avalonia is an entire UI toolkit in its own right, responsible for rendering every pixel of the UI. This approach is closer to how Google's Flutter UI framework has been designed and offers numerous benefits, including pixel-perfect apps across every platform and a simplified process of supporting new platforms. Learn more about the benefits on our our blog.

Avalonia is maintained by a vibrant community of developers, with contributions from hundreds of individuals. Alongside this, the 'core' team comprises around 20 seasoned developers. Additionally, a commercial entity, AvaloniaUI OÜ, was established by the core team that funds a team of full-time developers dedicated to advancing Avalonia.

Avalonia was initially published to GitHub in 2013, though its original name was Perspect. It's been actively developed for the last decade.

Avalonia, being open-source, allows anyone to contribute to the project's future. With that said, we understand the critical importance of long-term support when selecting a framework. Avalonia is an enterprise-grade tool built on a decade of open-source development. We've developed comprehensive product roadmaps that extend well into the next decade, underlining our commitment to sustained innovation and support.

Avalonia is funded entirely by AvaloniaUI OÜ, a commercial entity created by the core team of developers. The company provides commercial support agreements, development services and sells licenses to Avalonia XPF, our cross-platform fork of WPF. The company has been profitable since its inception and operates without pressures of external investment, ensuring we can focus on customer needs.

Avalonia is similar to WPF but not 100% compatible and will require work to port your application. We have created a cross-platform WPF fork named Avalonia XPF that utilises Avalonia. It allows you to run your WPF app on macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and Browser without modification. We also sell XPF Hybrid licenses, which enable the use of existing WPF controls, such as those developed by Actipro, Telerik, Syncfusion, SciChart and more within your Avalonia application.

Avalonia XPF

Avalonia XPF is based on WPF shipped with .NET 6.0 SDK. For WPF apps that are using older versions of .NET, we recommend upgrading to NET6, NET7 or NET8

Yes, many of our customers successfully use Telerik WPF Controls with Avalonia XPF without issues.

Yes, many of our customers successfully use DevExpress WPF Controls with Avalonia XPF without issues.

Yes, many of our customers successfully use Actipro WPF Controls with Avalonia XPF without issues.

Yes, many of our customers successfully use Syncfusion WPF Controls with Avalonia XPF without issues.

We are collaborating with the SciChart team to enable SciChart support for Avalonia XPF.

Yes. Avalonia XPF has partial support for controls developed with WinForms. However, we do not provide a solution for apps developed entirely with WinForms.

No. Avalonia XPF is not open-source, and its source code is not freely available.

Avalonia XPF is a commercial solution to reduce the costs and risks involved in modernising existing enterprise WPF applications. We recommend that OSS maintainers consider modernising their projects with Avalonia to enable wider adoption and community engagement.

Avalonia will stay free and open-source, continuing to see new features and many updates. Avalonia XPF is a premium product designed for businesses, with the revenue going towards funding the development of our OSS projects, including Avalonia.

Avalonia XPF is licensed per app, per platform, with a perpetual license and optional upgrades after one-year. There are no limitations to distribution.

Many applications can run on Avalonia XPF with zero modifications outside of changing the project SDK. We are developing an analyser to enable you to understand your app's compatibility with XPF.

Yes. Web Assembly and Mobile platforms will be supported in 2024.

Yes. We are happy to create bespoke license agreements for enterprises with several applications.

Support

If you need support with guarantees around response times and want to work directly with the core team, then consider subscribing to one of our support agreements. Alternatively, you can engage our vast community of OSS developers by creating issues on GitHub or joining the chat on Telegram.

Yes. However, we recommend you investigate using Avalonia XPF, which enables running WPF applications on macOS and Linux with almost no modifications.

We offer both virtual and onsite training for up to 15 people. Please get in touch with us for more details.

Billing

Please get in touch with your account manager as soon as possible so that we can investigate.

We don't offer student and OSS discounts at this time. If you need support, then you should engage our vast community.

No. We do not accept PayPal payments.

Subscriptions are for a minimum of 12 months. Contact your account manager to discuss cancellation.

Yes. We offer discounts for large support subscriptions. Contact us to discuss your needs.


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