{"slug": "avalonia", "name": "Avalonia", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "Open-source cross-platform .NET UI framework using XAML for desktop, mobile, and web apps.", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 9, "warners": 1, "score": 4.672, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-11-12", "latest": "2026-08-29", "why": "HN commenters recommend Avalonia as a free, cross-platform .NET GUI toolkit, especially as a WPF alternative that runs on Linux and as a safer choice than Microsoft's WinUI.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [2, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Cross-platform .NET GUI", "WPF alternative"], "caveat": "Wayland drag-and-drop", "short_quote": "if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free).", "icon": true, "domain": "avaloniaui.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://avaloniaui.net/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Avalonia", "Avalonia UI", "AvaloniaUI"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters recommend Avalonia as a free, cross-platform .NET GUI toolkit,", "cites": [{"id": 735716945, "item_id": 45982309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45982309", "by": "bhubert", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free).", "excerpt": "I use .NET at $job, and have been running arch for the last few years, without any problems. I also have two collegues using Apple silicon, also no problems there. The official aspnet core web framework is (in my opinion) good enough that you don't need anything 3rd party. The GUI story is not a good one though, and if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free). I use Rider as IDE, but the", "context": "uses .NET at work, runs Arch", "use_case": "GUI programs in .NET", "switched_from": "", "story": "Programming the Commodore 64 with .NET"}, {"id": 759712993, "item_id": 47482062, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47482062", "by": "giancarlostoro", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The only option I have is Avalonia and Photino.", "excerpt": "Nice, I love MAUI but hate that it has no support for Linux. The only option I have is Avalonia and Photino. I love .NET but when I want to make a GUI I reach for other languages because Microsoft despite reinventing their .NET GUI stack every few years, they never add Linux support. Personally I prefer to use their built-in stuff as much as possible.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux GUI", "switched_from": "", "story": "MAUI Is Coming to Linux"}]}, {"text": " especially as a WPF alternative that runs on Linux", "cites": [{"id": 746773648, "item_id": 46673353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673353", "by": "Rohansi", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "check out Avalonia UI [1] which is a cross-platform alternative that is also probably better", "excerpt": "It is. But if you mean .NET WinForms then you don't really need Wine because Wine uses Mono to run .NET executables. If using WPF then you should check out Avalonia UI [1] which is a cross-platform alternative that is also probably better (and has good tooling in VS). There's also .NET MAUI [2] but it's maybe not as good for desktop apps. [1] https://avaloniaui.net/ [2] https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/apps/maui", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform desktop GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wine 11.0"}, {"id": 786369569, "item_id": 49148098, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148098", "by": "masfuerte", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I like WPF and I still use it for my own apps. In fact, my own software is the only thing keeping me on Windows now. I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "context": "", "use_case": "porting apps to Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity"}]}, {"text": " and as a safer choice than Microsoft's WinUI.", "cites": [{"id": 759680901, "item_id": 47480056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480056", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Otherwise, Qt, VCL, Firemonkey, Avalonia, Uno, ImGUI,....", "excerpt": "Again, unless you have existing Windows 8/10 applications that were written against WinRT, UAP or UWP[0], that make use of WinUI 2.0, forget about touching anything related to WinUI 3.0 or WinAppSDK, stay away from the marketing. Exception being the few APIs that have been introduced in Win32 that instead of COM, actually depend on WinRT like the new MIDI 2.0 or Windows ML. Keep using Win32, MFC (yes it is in a bette", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform UI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows native app development is a mess"}, {"id": 759435427, "item_id": 47464714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47464714", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-03-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "better use Win32, Forms, WPF, Avalonia, Qt,...", "excerpt": "People stop believing in anything related to WinUI coming from Microsoft marketing machine. Besides examples like this one. The amount of issues on Github across all WinUI related tools, keeps increasing all over the place, there is almost no visible activity, the community calls have been a disaster with Q&A being ignored, team rotation, whatever. Native AOT still cannot do what .NET Native did (there is a CsWinRT 3", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11's Start menu was built using React \u2013 now switching to native WinUI"}]}, {"text": " The one reported problem is external drag and drop not working on Wayland.", "cites": [{"id": 755945443, "item_id": 47246590, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47246590", "by": "moogly", "date": "2026-03-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I tried Uno Platform and AvaloniaUI last year but I had similar problems there with external drag 'n' drop not working on Wayland", "excerpt": "I have also used Tauri for one of my private apps, and using the OS's webview just doesn't work for me, so for my next stuff I'm probably going to use Electron as well since you can embed the webview. Yeah, it's bloated, but I'm so tired of things not working properly on Wayland without disabling this and that with random env vars and not able to do a fully OOTB single portable AppImage build on Linux. I can either m", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude is an Electron App because we've lost native"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Cross-platform .NET GUI", "summary": "Fills the gap for .NET desktop GUIs on Linux, where Microsoft's MAUI has no support.", "quotes": [{"id": 759712993, "item_id": 47482062, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47482062", "by": "giancarlostoro", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The only option I have is Avalonia and Photino.", "excerpt": "Nice, I love MAUI but hate that it has no support for Linux. The only option I have is Avalonia and Photino. I love .NET but when I want to make a GUI I reach for other languages because Microsoft despite reinventing their .NET GUI stack every few years, they never add Linux support. Personally I prefer to use their built-in stuff as much as possible.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux GUI", "switched_from": "", "story": "MAUI Is Coming to Linux"}, {"id": 735716945, "item_id": 45982309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45982309", "by": "bhubert", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free).", "excerpt": "I use .NET at $job, and have been running arch for the last few years, without any problems. I also have two collegues using Apple silicon, also no problems there. The official aspnet core web framework is (in my opinion) good enough that you don't need anything 3rd party. The GUI story is not a good one though, and if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free). I use Rider as IDE, but the", "context": "uses .NET at work, runs Arch", "use_case": "GUI programs in .NET", "switched_from": "", "story": "Programming the Commodore 64 with .NET"}, {"id": 786369569, "item_id": 49148098, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148098", "by": "masfuerte", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I like WPF and I still use it for my own apps. In fact, my own software is the only thing keeping me on Windows now. I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "context": "", "use_case": "porting apps to Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity"}]}, {"label": "WPF alternative", "summary": "Suggested as a cross-platform replacement for WPF, possibly better than it, with good tooling in Visual Studio.", "quotes": [{"id": 746773648, "item_id": 46673353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673353", "by": "Rohansi", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "check out Avalonia UI [1] which is a cross-platform alternative that is also probably better", "excerpt": "It is. But if you mean .NET WinForms then you don't really need Wine because Wine uses Mono to run .NET executables. If using WPF then you should check out Avalonia UI [1] which is a cross-platform alternative that is also probably better (and has good tooling in VS). There's also .NET MAUI [2] but it's maybe not as good for desktop apps. [1] https://avaloniaui.net/ [2] https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/apps/maui", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform desktop GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wine 11.0"}, {"id": 786369569, "item_id": 49148098, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148098", "by": "masfuerte", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I like WPF and I still use it for my own apps. In fact, my own software is the only thing keeping me on Windows now. I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "context": "", "use_case": "porting apps to Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity"}]}, {"label": "Alternative to WinUI", "summary": "Listed among the toolkits to use instead of WinUI 3 and WinAppSDK.", "quotes": [{"id": 759680901, "item_id": 47480056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480056", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Otherwise, Qt, VCL, Firemonkey, Avalonia, Uno, ImGUI,....", "excerpt": "Again, unless you have existing Windows 8/10 applications that were written against WinRT, UAP or UWP[0], that make use of WinUI 2.0, forget about touching anything related to WinUI 3.0 or WinAppSDK, stay away from the marketing. Exception being the few APIs that have been introduced in Win32 that instead of COM, actually depend on WinRT like the new MIDI 2.0 or Windows ML. Keep using Win32, MFC (yes it is in a bette", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform UI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows native app development is a mess"}, {"id": 759435427, "item_id": 47464714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47464714", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-03-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "better use Win32, Forms, WPF, Avalonia, Qt,...", "excerpt": "People stop believing in anything related to WinUI coming from Microsoft marketing machine. Besides examples like this one. The amount of issues on Github across all WinUI related tools, keeps increasing all over the place, there is almost no visible activity, the community calls have been a disaster with Q&A being ignored, team rotation, whatever. Native AOT still cannot do what .NET Native did (there is a CsWinRT 3", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11's Start menu was built using React \u2013 now switching to native WinUI"}]}, {"label": "Capable showcase", "summary": "Its showcase is cited as evidence that it can build anything from weather apps to video and PDF editors.", "quotes": [{"id": 734369056, "item_id": 45898066, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898066", "by": "jeroenhd", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can check out the Avalonia demo reel to see what you can already do with the .NET GUI stack", "excerpt": "You can make CAD programs with any toolkit as long as you have a GPU surface to render your actual CAD output to. You can do anything with this toolkit from weather apps to video editors, map analysis, and PDF editors. You can check out the Avalonia demo reel to see what you can already do with the .NET GUI stack that MAUI now uses on Linux and on the web: https://avaloniaui.net/showcase", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": ".NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser"}]}, {"label": "Works with F#", "summary": "One commenter had good results using it with F#.", "quotes": [{"id": 791779424, "item_id": 49486214, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49486214", "by": "satya71", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I had good luck with Avalonia UI and F#.", "excerpt": "I had good luck with Avalonia UI and F#. I don\u2019t understand either, but Claude nailed it.", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform desktop apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Any true alternatives to electron JavaScript?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Wayland drag-and-drop", "summary": "External drag and drop did not work on Wayland for one commenter.", "quotes": [{"id": 755945443, "item_id": 47246590, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47246590", "by": "moogly", "date": "2026-03-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I tried Uno Platform and AvaloniaUI last year but I had similar problems there with external drag 'n' drop not working on Wayland", "excerpt": "I have also used Tauri for one of my private apps, and using the OS's webview just doesn't work for me, so for my next stuff I'm probably going to use Electron as well since you can embed the webview. Yeah, it's bloated, but I'm so tired of things not working properly on Wayland without disabling this and that with random env vars and not able to do a fully OOTB single portable AppImage build on Linux. I can either m", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude is an Electron App because we've lost native"}]}], "who": [{"by": "bhubert", "context": "uses .NET at work, runs Arch", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45982309", "date": "2025-11-19"}], "tags": ["for .NET developers", "for WPF developers", "for Linux desktop apps", "for F# users"], "use_cases": ["cross-platform desktop apps", "porting apps to linux", "linux gui", "cross-platform ui", "linux desktop app", "cross-platform desktop gui apps"], "compared": [{"slug": "wpf", "name": "WPF", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "qt", "name": "Qt", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "uno-platform", "name": "Uno Platform", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "electron", "name": "Electron", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478014", "title": "Ask HN: Any true alternatives to electron JavaScript?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147263", "title": "SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478687", "title": "MAUI Is Coming to Linux", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475938", "title": "Windows native app development is a mess", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47463884", "title": "Windows 11's Start menu was built using React \u2013 now switching to native WinUI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47235430", "title": "Claude is an Electron App because we've lost native", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 791779424, "item_id": 49486214, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49486214", "by": "satya71", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I had good luck with Avalonia UI and F#.", "excerpt": "I had good luck with Avalonia UI and F#. I don\u2019t understand either, but Claude nailed it.", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform desktop apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Any true alternatives to electron JavaScript?"}, {"id": 786369569, "item_id": 49148098, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148098", "by": "masfuerte", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I like WPF and I still use it for my own apps. In fact, my own software is the only thing keeping me on Windows now. I really should take a look at Avalonia and port my stuff over to Linux.", "context": "", "use_case": "porting apps to Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity"}, {"id": 759712993, "item_id": 47482062, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47482062", "by": "giancarlostoro", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The only option I have is Avalonia and Photino.", "excerpt": "Nice, I love MAUI but hate that it has no support for Linux. The only option I have is Avalonia and Photino. I love .NET but when I want to make a GUI I reach for other languages because Microsoft despite reinventing their .NET GUI stack every few years, they never add Linux support. Personally I prefer to use their built-in stuff as much as possible.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux GUI", "switched_from": "", "story": "MAUI Is Coming to Linux"}, {"id": 759680901, "item_id": 47480056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480056", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Otherwise, Qt, VCL, Firemonkey, Avalonia, Uno, ImGUI,....", "excerpt": "Again, unless you have existing Windows 8/10 applications that were written against WinRT, UAP or UWP[0], that make use of WinUI 2.0, forget about touching anything related to WinUI 3.0 or WinAppSDK, stay away from the marketing. Exception being the few APIs that have been introduced in Win32 that instead of COM, actually depend on WinRT like the new MIDI 2.0 or Windows ML. Keep using Win32, MFC (yes it is in a bette", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform UI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows native app development is a mess"}, {"id": 759435427, "item_id": 47464714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47464714", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-03-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "better use Win32, Forms, WPF, Avalonia, Qt,...", "excerpt": "People stop believing in anything related to WinUI coming from Microsoft marketing machine. Besides examples like this one. The amount of issues on Github across all WinUI related tools, keeps increasing all over the place, there is almost no visible activity, the community calls have been a disaster with Q&A being ignored, team rotation, whatever. Native AOT still cannot do what .NET Native did (there is a CsWinRT 3", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11's Start menu was built using React \u2013 now switching to native WinUI"}, {"id": 755945443, "item_id": 47246590, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47246590", "by": "moogly", "date": "2026-03-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I tried Uno Platform and AvaloniaUI last year but I had similar problems there with external drag 'n' drop not working on Wayland", "excerpt": "I have also used Tauri for one of my private apps, and using the OS's webview just doesn't work for me, so for my next stuff I'm probably going to use Electron as well since you can embed the webview. Yeah, it's bloated, but I'm so tired of things not working properly on Wayland without disabling this and that with random env vars and not able to do a fully OOTB single portable AppImage build on Linux. I can either m", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude is an Electron App because we've lost native"}, {"id": 746773648, "item_id": 46673353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673353", "by": "Rohansi", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "check out Avalonia UI [1] which is a cross-platform alternative that is also probably better", "excerpt": "It is. But if you mean .NET WinForms then you don't really need Wine because Wine uses Mono to run .NET executables. If using WPF then you should check out Avalonia UI [1] which is a cross-platform alternative that is also probably better (and has good tooling in VS). There's also .NET MAUI [2] but it's maybe not as good for desktop apps. [1] https://avaloniaui.net/ [2] https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/apps/maui", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform desktop GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wine 11.0"}, {"id": 739557985, "item_id": 46222374, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46222374", "by": "joeld42", "date": "2025-12-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Take a look at Slint or Avalonia if you miss this experience.", "excerpt": "Take a look at Slint or Avalonia if you miss this experience. And I'll take needing an internet connection over having to install Visual Basic from a stack of CDs.", "context": "", "use_case": "native GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "You used to be able to just create a Native GUI App in 10 seconds"}, {"id": 735716945, "item_id": 45982309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45982309", "by": "bhubert", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free).", "excerpt": "I use .NET at $job, and have been running arch for the last few years, without any problems. I also have two collegues using Apple silicon, also no problems there. The official aspnet core web framework is (in my opinion) good enough that you don't need anything 3rd party. The GUI story is not a good one though, and if I were to write a GUI program I'd reach for Avalonia (3rd party, free). I use Rider as IDE, but the", "context": "uses .NET at work, runs Arch", "use_case": "GUI programs in .NET", "switched_from": "", "story": "Programming the Commodore 64 with .NET"}, {"id": 734369056, "item_id": 45898066, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898066", "by": "jeroenhd", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can check out the Avalonia demo reel to see what you can already do with the .NET GUI stack", "excerpt": "You can make CAD programs with any toolkit as long as you have a GPU surface to render your actual CAD output to. You can do anything with this toolkit from weather apps to video editors, map analysis, and PDF editors. You can check out the Avalonia demo reel to see what you can already do with the .NET GUI stack that MAUI now uses on Linux and on the web: https://avaloniaui.net/showcase", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-platform GUI apps", "switched_from": "", "story": ".NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser"}]}