Electron vs electrino

Overview

Electron

Stacks11.6K

Followers10.0K

Votes148

electrino

Stacks4

Followers16

Votes2

GitHub Stars4.4K

Forks99

Electron vs electrino: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this article, we will be discussing the key differences between Electron and Electrino. Both Electron and Electrino are frameworks used to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, there are crucial differences that set them apart from each other.

Runtime Environment: Electron is built upon the Chromium browser engine, which means it runs an instance of Chromium for each application. On the other hand, Electrino uses the native macOS WebView as its runtime environment, resulting in better performance and reduced memory consumption.
Application Size: Electron applications tend to have larger file sizes due to the bundled Chromium runtime. It can be several 10s of megabytes in size, making it less suitable for lightweight or resource-restricted environments. Electrino, on the other hand, leverages the existing macOS WebView and does not bundle a complete browser engine, resulting in much smaller application sizes.
Compatibility: Electron is designed to be cross-platform and supports building applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Electrino, on the other hand, is specifically tailored for macOS and is not compatible with Windows or Linux. This limits the portability and reach of Electrino applications.
External Dependencies: Electron requires the installation of external dependencies such as Node.js and Chromium to run the applications. This can create dependency conflicts and versioning issues. Electrino, on the other hand, does not require any external dependencies and runs directly on the macOS system WebView.
Development Environment: Electron provides a rich set of developer tools and a comprehensive ecosystem for building and debugging applications. Electrino, although being lightweight, lacks some of the development tools and ecosystem present in Electron, making it slightly less developer-friendly.
Community and Support: Electron has a larger community and more active support forums, which means finding solutions to common issues and getting help is relatively easier. Electrino, being a newer and lesser-known framework, has a smaller community and limited support resources.

In summary, Electron is a powerful and feature-rich framework for building cross-platform desktop applications, while Electrino is a lightweight alternative specifically tailored for macOS. Electrino offers better performance, smaller application sizes, and no external dependencies but is limited to macOS only and lacks some developer tools and community support available in Electron.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs

CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on Electron, electrino

Semih

Software Engineering Manager

Oct 1, 2020

Needs adviceon

JavaScript

HTML5

.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	electrino
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.	A desktop runtime for apps built on web technologies, using the system's own web browser engine. It implements a minuscule portion of the APIs available in Electron, but the output app size is much smaller.
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
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 4.4K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 99
Stacks 11.6K	Stacks 4
Followers 10.0K	Followers 16
Votes 148	Votes 2
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	Pros 1 Minimum portion of the APIs available in Electron 1 Little size application file

What are some alternatives to Electron, electrino?

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

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

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

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

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.

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

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

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

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

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.

Related Comparisons

Electron vs electrino: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Runtime Environment: Electron is built upon the Chromium browser engine, which means it runs an instance of Chromium for each application. On the other hand, Electrino uses the native macOS WebView as its runtime environment, resulting in better performance and reduced memory consumption.
Application Size: Electron applications tend to have larger file sizes due to the bundled Chromium runtime. It can be several 10s of megabytes in size, making it less suitable for lightweight or resource-restricted environments. Electrino, on the other hand, leverages the existing macOS WebView and does not bundle a complete browser engine, resulting in much smaller application sizes.
Compatibility: Electron is designed to be cross-platform and supports building applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Electrino, on the other hand, is specifically tailored for macOS and is not compatible with Windows or Linux. This limits the portability and reach of Electrino applications.
External Dependencies: Electron requires the installation of external dependencies such as Node.js and Chromium to run the applications. This can create dependency conflicts and versioning issues. Electrino, on the other hand, does not require any external dependencies and runs directly on the macOS system WebView.
Development Environment: Electron provides a rich set of developer tools and a comprehensive ecosystem for building and debugging applications. Electrino, although being lightweight, lacks some of the development tools and ecosystem present in Electron, making it slightly less developer-friendly.
Community and Support: Electron has a larger community and more active support forums, which means finding solutions to common issues and getting help is relatively easier. Electrino, being a newer and lesser-known framework, has a smaller community and limited support resources.

Electron vs electrino

Overview