Migrating from WPF

Avalonia shares many concepts with WPF, so your existing knowledge transfers directly. Most controls, layout panels, data binding, and MVVM patterns work the same way or have a clear equivalent. The main areas where the two frameworks diverge are styling, data templates, the property system, and event naming.

Already have a large WPF codebase?

If your goal is to run an existing WPF application on macOS, Linux, or the web, a full rewrite may not be necessary. XPF runs WPF applications cross-platform with minimal code changes, so you can ship to new platforms while keeping the codebase you already have.

Key differences

Styling is the biggest conceptual shift. Avalonia replaces WPF's resource-dictionary styles and triggers with a CSS-like system using selectors, style classes, and pseudo-classes. See Styling for a full walkthrough.

Data templates work similarly, but are stored in a DataTemplates collection rather than in resources, and support interface and derived-type matching. See Data Templates.

The property system uses strongly-typed generics (StyledProperty, DirectProperty, AttachedProperty) instead of a single DependencyProperty class. See Properties.

Events follow the same routed event model, but use pointer-based names (PointerPressed instead of MouseLeftButtonDown) and handle tunnelling through routing strategy flags rather than separate Preview* events. See Events.

Controls are largely the same. A few have different names or require separate NuGet packages. See Controls.

Layout panels (Grid, StackPanel, DockPanel, etc.) are the same, with small additions like Spacing on StackPanel and shorthand ColumnDefinitions syntax. See Layout.

Where to start

If you want a quick side-by-side lookup, start with the Cheat Sheet. It covers XAML namespaces, property system, styling, data binding, controls, events, commands, templates, threading, animations, graphics, and file structure in compact tables.

For deeper explanations of each topic, use the guides linked above.

See also

• WPF to Avalonia Cheat Sheet: Quick side-by-side reference.
• Styling: CSS-like styling system migration guide.
• Controls: Control name mappings.
• Properties: Property system differences.