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  1. Stackups
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  4. Cross Platform Desktop Development
  5. Eel vs Electron

Eel vs Electron

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Electron
Electron
Stacks11.6K
Followers10.0K
Votes148
Eel
Eel
Stacks6
Followers83
Votes0

Eel vs Electron: What are the differences?

Introduction

Eel and Electron are both web frameworks that allow developers to build desktop applications using web technologies. While they share a similar goal, there are several key differences between these two frameworks.

  1. Language Support: Eel is primarily designed for Python developers, allowing them to create desktop applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. On the other hand, Electron supports multiple programming languages, including JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and any other language that can compile to JavaScript.

  2. Application Size: Electron-based applications tend to have a larger file size compared to Eel-based applications. This is because Electron packages a full web browser runtime along with the application, while Eel relies on an existing browser engine on the user's machine.

  3. Execution Environment: Eel runs a minimal web server in the background, which communicates with the frontend of the application. This enables Eel to make use of Python libraries and logic on the backend. In contrast, Electron applications run entirely in a Chromium-based web browser environment.

  4. Development Workflow: Eel aims to provide a seamless experience for Python developers by allowing them to use their existing knowledge of web technologies. It offers a simplified development workflow by allowing direct communication between Python and JavaScript. Electron, on the other hand, has a more complex development workflow as it requires separate frontend and backend processes and communication through inter-process communication (IPC).

  5. Platform Support: Electron provides broader platform support, allowing developers to build applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Eel, on the other hand, has limited support and is primarily focused on Windows and Linux.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Electron has a larger and more mature community compared to Eel. It has been widely adopted and has a vast ecosystem of plugins, libraries, and extensive documentation. While Eel has a growing community, it may not have the same level of support and resources as Electron.

In summary, Eel is a Python-centric framework with a smaller file size, minimal server requirements, and a simplified development workflow. Electron, on the other hand, supports multiple programming languages, has broader platform support, and benefits from a larger community and ecosystem.

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Advice on Electron, Eel

Semih
Semih

Software Engineering Manager

Oct 1, 2020

Needs adviceonJavaScriptJavaScriptHTML5HTML5.NET.NET

Hi,

We are planning to develop a brand new UX for an already existing desktop software. The previous version is developed on C#.NET with Winforms & WPF. Our plan is to use JavaScript/HTML5 based frontend technologies for the new software. For some components, we are highly dependent on .NET/ .NET Core because the JS-based versions are not mature enough.

What would you choose for a desktop-based Engineering Software that supports multi-OS and has rich UI capabilities considering the .NET dependencies?

Thanks in advance,

Semih

57.9k views57.9k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Electron
Electron
Eel
Eel

With Electron, creating a desktop application for your company or idea is easy. Initially developed for GitHub's Atom editor, Electron has since been used to create applications by companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Slack, and Docker. The Electron framework lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It is based on io.js and Chromium and is used in the Atom editor.

Python3 library for making simple Electron-like offline HTML/JS GUI apps, with full access to Python capabilities and libraries. It hosts a local webserver, then lets you annotate functions in Python so that they can be called from Javascript, and vice versa.

Use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with Chromium and Node.js to build your app.;Electron is open source; maintained by GitHub and an active community.;Electron apps build and run on Mac, Windows, and Linux.;Automatic updates;Crash reporting;Windows installers;Debugging & profiling;Native menus & notifications
-
Statistics
Stacks
11.6K
Stacks
6
Followers
10.0K
Followers
83
Votes
148
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 69
    Easy to make rich cross platform desktop applications
  • 53
    Open source
  • 14
    Great looking apps such as Slack and Visual Studio Code
  • 8
    Because it's cross platform
  • 4
    Use Node.js in the Main Process
Cons
  • 19
    Uses a lot of memory
  • 8
    User experience never as good as a native app
  • 4
    No proper documentation
  • 4
    Does not native
  • 1
    Wrong reference for dom inspection
No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available
Python
Python

What are some alternatives to Electron, Eel?

Sciter

Sciter

It brings a stack of web technologies to desktop UI development. Web designers, and developers, can reuse their experience and expertise in creating modern looking desktop applications.

wxWidgets

wxWidgets

It is a C++ library that lets developers create applications for Windows, macOS, Linux and other platforms with a single code base. It has popular language bindings for Python, Perl, Ruby and many other languages, and unlike other cross-platform toolkits, it gives applications a truly native look and feel because it uses the platform's native API rather than emulating the GUI. It's also extensive, free, open-source and mature.

Qt5

Qt5

It is a full development framework with tools designed to streamline the creation of applications and user interfaces for desktop, embedded, and mobile platforms.

JavaFX

JavaFX

It is a set of graphics and media packages that enables developers to design, create, test, debug, and deploy rich client applications that operate consistently across diverse platforms.

React Native Desktop

React Native Desktop

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.

JUCE

JUCE

It is a C++ framework for low-latency applications, with cross-platform GUI libraries to get your apps running on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.

Proton Native

Proton Native

Create native desktop applications through a React syntax, on all platforms.

NodeGUI

NodeGUI

It is an open source library for building cross-platform native desktop applications with JavaScript and CSS like styling. It is based on Qt5 and NOT chromium, hence it is memory and cpu efficient.

pygame

pygame

It is a cross-platform set of Python modules designed for writing video games. It includes computer graphics and sound libraries designed to be used with the Python programming language.

SDL

SDL

It is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D.

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