PCL (Portable Class Library)
Take advantage of your .NET/C# skills, and share code across platforms.
Share key artifacts for C# cross-platform across Windows, iOS, and Android.
Appropriate when developing with traditional Xamarin, Xamarin.Forms, Windows 10 UWP, and .NET.
You can share most of the C# logic across platforms, like Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM), and even the views/XAML, if using Xamarin.Forms.
Xamarin
Take advantage of your .NET/C# skills while building native apps.
Traditional Xamarin
o You can create apps for iOS, Android, and Mac, with specially tailored UI per platform (it is possible to have a different UI/views per platform), while sharing the same C# logic.
o Should be used in conjunction to PCL to share approximately 80 percent of the code (C# logic) between Xamarin and UWP/.NET apps.
o Appropriate when building mobile apps with the best possible UI and performance, like B2C apps.
Xamarin.Forms
Xamarin.Forms
o You can share most of the implementation (approximately 95 percent, including C# and XAML views) in a PCL, when creating apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 10 UWP.
o Appropriate when building apps for iOS, Android, and Windows, which will have the same UI/views with almost no differences in layout across platforms.
o Can be used in a mixed approach (Xamarin + Xamarin.Forms) so you can get the best of both worlds—using Xamarin.Forms for simpler views and traditional Xamarin with native views and UWP views, depending on the platform.
UWP with .NET
Take advantage of your .NET/C# skills.
With Universal Windows Platform (UWP), you can create the same app running on Windows 10 (desktop/tablet) and Windows 10 Mobile.
Should be used in conjunction with PCL, to share approximately 80 percent of the code (C# logic) between Xamarin and UWP/.NET apps.
Appropriate when building mobile apps with the best possible UI and performance, like B2C apps.
Source Of Information : Microsoft Platform and Tools for Mobile App Development
Take advantage of your .NET/C# skills, and share code across platforms.
Share key artifacts for C# cross-platform across Windows, iOS, and Android.
Appropriate when developing with traditional Xamarin, Xamarin.Forms, Windows 10 UWP, and .NET.
You can share most of the C# logic across platforms, like Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM), and even the views/XAML, if using Xamarin.Forms.
Xamarin
Take advantage of your .NET/C# skills while building native apps.
Traditional Xamarin
o You can create apps for iOS, Android, and Mac, with specially tailored UI per platform (it is possible to have a different UI/views per platform), while sharing the same C# logic.
o Should be used in conjunction to PCL to share approximately 80 percent of the code (C# logic) between Xamarin and UWP/.NET apps.
o Appropriate when building mobile apps with the best possible UI and performance, like B2C apps.
Xamarin.Forms
Xamarin.Forms
o You can share most of the implementation (approximately 95 percent, including C# and XAML views) in a PCL, when creating apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 10 UWP.
o Appropriate when building apps for iOS, Android, and Windows, which will have the same UI/views with almost no differences in layout across platforms.
o Can be used in a mixed approach (Xamarin + Xamarin.Forms) so you can get the best of both worlds—using Xamarin.Forms for simpler views and traditional Xamarin with native views and UWP views, depending on the platform.
UWP with .NET
Take advantage of your .NET/C# skills.
With Universal Windows Platform (UWP), you can create the same app running on Windows 10 (desktop/tablet) and Windows 10 Mobile.
Should be used in conjunction with PCL, to share approximately 80 percent of the code (C# logic) between Xamarin and UWP/.NET apps.
Appropriate when building mobile apps with the best possible UI and performance, like B2C apps.
Source Of Information : Microsoft Platform and Tools for Mobile App Development
