System requirements
Xamarin products rely upon the platform SDKs from Apple and Google to target iOS or Android, so our system requirements match theirs. This page outlines system compatibility for the Xamarin platform and recommended development environment and SDK versions.
Take a look at the installation instructions for more information on obtaining the software and required SDKs.
Development environments
This table shows which platforms can be built with different development tool & operating system combinations:
| macOS | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Development Environment | Visual Studio for Mac | Visual Studio |
| Xamarin.iOS | Yes | Yes (with Mac computer) |
| Xamarin.Android | Yes | Yes |
| Xamarin.Forms ^ | iOS & Android | Android, Windows/UWP (iOS with Mac computer) |
| Xamarin.Mac | Yes | Open project & compile only |
^ Other platforms are also available.
Note
To develop for iOS on Windows computers there must be a Mac computer accessible on the network, for remote compilation and debugging. This also works if you have Visual Studio running inside a Windows VM on a Mac computer.
macOS requirements
Using a Mac computer for Xamarin development requires the following software/SDK versions. Check your operating system version and follow the instructions for the Xamarin installer.
| Recommended | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | macOS Mojave (10.14) | Xcode 10 requires macOS High Sierra (10.13) or newer. |
| Xamarin.iOS | iOS 12 SDK | The iOS 12 SDK ships with Xcode 10. |
| Xamarin.Android | Android 6.0 / API level 23 | You can still target older Android versions while using the latest SDK, or you can build against older versions of the SDK if required. |
| Xamarin.Forms |
|
|
| Xamarin.Mac | macOS Mojave (10.14) SDK | The macOS Mojave (10.14) SDK ships with Xcode 10 and is required to build apps that use the newest macOS APIs. |
Note
Xcode can be installed (and updated) on developer.apple.com or via the Mac App Store.
Testing & debugging on macOS
- Xamarin mobile applications can be deployed to physical devices via USB for testing and debugging (Apple Watch apps are deployed first to the paired iPhone).
- Xamarin.Mac apps can be tested directly on the development computer.
| Testing Notes | |
|---|---|
| Xamarin.iOS |
|
| Xamarin.Android | Follow these instructions to configure your device, or use an emulator:
|
| Xamarin.Forms | Xamarin.Forms apps for iOS and Android can be deployed to the relevant platforms as described above. |
| Xamarin.Mac | Xamarin.Mac apps can be tested directly on the development computer. |
Warning
Xamarin.Mac 4.8 only supports macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) or higher. Previous versions of Xamarin.Mac supported macOS 10.7 or higher, but these older macOS versions lack sufficient TLS infrastructure to support TLS 1.2. To target macOS 10.7 or macOS 10.8, use Xamarin.Mac 4.6 or earlier.
Windows requirements
Using a Windows computer for Xamarin development requires the following software/SDK versions. Check your operating system version (and confirm that you are not using an Express version of Visual Studio - if so, consider updating to a Community edition). The Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2017 installer includes an option to install Xamarin automatically (the Mobile development with .NET workload).
| Recommended | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 | The minimum operating system version is Windows 7. Xamarin.Forms UWP support requires Windows 10. |
| Xamarin.iOS | iOS 10 SDK (installed on a Mac) | To build iOS projects on Windows requires:
|
| Xamarin.Android | Android 6.0 / API level 23 | You can still target older Android versions while using the latest SDK, or you can build against older versions of the SDK if required. |
| Xamarin.Forms |
|
|
| Xamarin.Mac | Xamarin.Mac projects (macOS desktop apps) can be opened in Visual Studio and compiled to check for errors, but Mac applications cannot currently be built for distribution in Visual Studio. |
Note
- Xamarin for Visual Studio supports Visual Studio 2019 or Visual Studio 2017 (Community, Professional, and Enterprise).
- To use the latest Android and iOS SDKs requires the latest version of Visual Studio. For specific version requirements, refer to the Xamarin.Android release notes and Xamarin.iOS release notes.
- To develop Xamarin.Forms apps for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) requires Windows 10 with Visual Studio 2017. Visual Studio 2019 is recommended.
Testing & debugging on Windows
Xamarin mobile applications can be deployed to physical devices via USB or wirelessly for testing and debugging (iOS devices must be connected to the Mac computer, not the computer running Visual Studio).
| Testing Notes | |
|---|---|
| Xamarin.iOS |
|
| Xamarin.Android | Follow these instructions to configure your device, or use an emulator:
|
| Xamarin.Forms | Xamarin.Forms apps can be deployed to the relevant devices and emulators as described above. The iOS app can only be tested via the connected Mac hardware; and the Windows tablet/desktop apps for UWP can be tested directly on the development computer. |
Installation instructions
The latest Xamarin release for macOS can be downloaded with Visual Studio for Mac. For Windows, follow the Visual Studio installation instructions.
A complete list of our current product releases is available on the what's new page. This page also links to the release notes.
Specific installation instructions for each platform are available here:
There's also additional information about Xamarin.Forms supported platforms.