is monocross free?

Question

I want to develop with monocross android apps, but I read somewhere that it is not really free. Can you develop for android with monocross for free, or u need to pay for some kind of extension (like monodroid). How does it work?

If it isn't free, are there any other alternatives? I don't mind paying for something that will help me code faster, but certainly not 1000$ per year.

Answer 1

(Xamarin.Android || Xamarin.iOS) != monocross

MonoCross is a framework that works on top of Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS to leverage the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern. MonoCross itself is not paid for, but if you want to use Xamarin.Android or Xamarin.iOS with more than 32KB of compiled code you will need to pay for a license for the products.

That being said, MonoCross is nice, but it seems that further development has been stopped and nothing new has happened to the framework for a long long time. Another nice framework called MvvmCross which is similar to MonoCross is also out there. The differences are that MvvmCross as it name suggests it uses the ModelView View Model (MVVM) pattern instead of MVC. It is also under rapid development and has an active community. Just like MonoCross it is free.

Both MonoCross and MvvmCross needs Xamarin.Android or Xamarin.iOS if you want to develop for the two mobile platforms.

However Xamarin.Android is not the only C# for Android project out there. There is also a project called dot42, however it is not as popular as the Xamarin products and not backed by a company with lots of resources. Hence your mileage may vary.