Blazor Hybrid vs .NET MAUI vs WPF: web, desktop or both for a business app?

Many companies have an important WPF or WinForms application on every desk. It works, but it only runs on Windows, every change means a new installation, and sooner or later someone asks: should it become a web application? And what about the warehouse, the field team and the tablets?

For a long time the answer was a painful choice between desktop and web. Blazor Hybrid removes much of that choice: the same screens can run inside a desktop application, on a tablet or phone, and in the browser.

What Blazor Hybrid is, in plain words

In a Blazor Hybrid application, Blazor components run inside a real desktop or mobile application. They run natively in .NET, not in the browser and not on WebAssembly, and they are only displayed through an embedded web view. That gives them full access to the device: local files, printers, scanners, serial ports, the camera.

The component that makes this possible, BlazorWebView, exists for three platforms:

• .NET MAUI: Windows, macOS, Android and iOS from one project
• WPF: inside an existing WPF application
• Windows Forms: inside an existing WinForms application

The options side by side

Option	Runs on	Good for	Watch out for
Stay on WPF or WinForms	Windows desktop	A stable application that rarely changes	Ageing technology, Windows only, harder to hire for
Blazor inside the existing WPF or WinForms app	Windows desktop	Gradual modernisation: new screens in Blazor	Two UI technologies side by side for a while
.NET MAUI Blazor Hybrid	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS	One UI for desktop, tablet and phone, with device access	Building for iOS requires a Mac, apps are distributed through installers or stores
Blazor web application	Any browser	Most business applications: no installation, instant updates	No direct access to local hardware
Electron	Desktop	Teams that work in JavaScript	A second language and stack, larger applications

The most interesting path: Blazor inside the WPF application you already have

For a company with a large WPF or WinForms application, the most valuable feature is not MAUI but this: BlazorWebView can be placed inside the existing application, next to the old screens. New and reworked screens are built in Blazor, while the rest of the application stays as it is.

<blazor:BlazorWebView HostPage="wwwroot\index.html" Services="{DynamicResource services}">
    <blazor:BlazorWebView.RootComponents>
        <blazor:RootComponent Selector="#app" ComponentType="{x:Type shared:OrderScreen}" />
    </blazor:BlazorWebView.RootComponents>
</blazor:BlazorWebView>

OrderScreen lives in a Razor class library shared with the web application. When the time comes, the same screen runs in the browser without being rewritten. Screen by screen, the desktop application quietly becomes a web application, and users never lose a working tool in between.

Shared screens, different devices

The trick is that shared components do not talk to hardware directly, but to an interface. Each platform provides its own implementation:

public interface IBarcodeScanner
{
    Task<string?> ScanAsync();
}

The shared order screen asks IBarcodeScanner for a code. In the warehouse desktop application, the implementation reads a USB scanner. On a phone, it uses the camera. In the browser, the user types the code. The screen is the same everywhere, and only the implementation behind the interface changes.

When Blazor Hybrid makes sense

• The application needs local hardware: scanners, label printers, scales, serial devices, local files.
• Users work without a reliable connection: warehouses, the field, production halls.
• You want one set of screens for desktop, tablet and web, instead of three applications.
• You have a large WPF or WinForms application and want to modernise it gradually rather than rewrite it.

When it does not

• If everything the application does can run in a browser, a plain Blazor web application is simpler: no installation, and every user always has the latest version.
• If the application is graphically heavy, with complex drawing or 3D, native WPF or a specialised framework is the better tool.
• If you are building a polished consumer app for the app stores, fully native mobile development is usually the safer choice.

The honest downsides

• Installation and updates. A desktop or mobile application has to be installed and updated on every device, while a web application is updated once on the server.
• The web view is platform dependent. On Windows, BlazorWebView uses WebView2, and styles can render slightly differently across platforms, so test on the devices your users actually have.
• iOS needs a Mac. Building and publishing for iOS requires a Mac build host, even when the rest of the team works on Windows.

Five questions before you decide

1. Does the application need hardware or files on the user’s machine?
2. Do users work without a reliable connection?
3. Which devices do they use: only Windows PCs, or also tablets and phones?
4. Do you already have a large WPF or WinForms application worth keeping during the transition?
5. How do you deliver updates today, and how often do you want to?

If the answers are “no hardware, good connection, PCs only”, build a Blazor web application. If hardware, offline work or several devices come into play, Blazor Hybrid is worth a serious look.

How a desktop application moves to the web step by step is covered in the article on moving WinForms and WPF to the web, and which mode web screens should use in Blazor Server vs WebAssembly vs Auto.

How we work

ProCoding is a .NET studio from Split, Croatia, and we have been shipping Blazor to production since 2020. We help you choose between web, desktop and hybrid, set up the shared component library, and move WPF and WinForms applications screen by screen without taking a working tool away from users. More about our Blazor work, and the first step is a free 30-minute call.

Sources

• ASP.NET Core Blazor Hybrid, Microsoft Learn
• Build a WPF Blazor app, Microsoft Learn
• Build a Windows Forms Blazor app, Microsoft Learn
• Build a .NET MAUI Blazor Hybrid app with a Blazor Web App, Microsoft Learn
• Reuse Razor components in ASP.NET Core Blazor Hybrid apps, Microsoft Learn