Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Electron

11.1K
9.8K
+ 1
148
Java

132K
99.8K
+ 1
3.7K
Add tool

Electron vs Java: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this Markdown code, the key differences between Electron and Java are presented. These differences are specific and aim to provide a clear understanding of the distinctions between these two technologies.

  1. Execution Environment: Electron is a framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It utilizes the Chromium rendering engine and Node.js runtime. On the other hand, Java is a general-purpose programming language that can be used to build a wide range of applications, including desktop, web, and mobile applications. Java applications are executed on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which provides platform independence.

  2. Language Usage: Electron primarily uses web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, allowing web developers to leverage their existing skills to build desktop applications. Java, on the other hand, is a programming language in itself and requires developers to write code specifically in Java. It does not rely on web technologies for application development.

  3. Platform Independence: Electron applications can be built and run on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, without significant changes to the codebase. This is achieved by utilizing a consistent runtime environment across platforms. Java also offers platform independence through the use of the JVM, allowing applications to run on various operating systems. However, Java applications may need some adjustments to ensure compatibility with different platforms.

  4. Performance and Memory Management: Electron applications rely on web technologies and have an inherent overhead due to the use of the Chromium rendering engine and Node.js runtime. This can lead to larger memory footprints and potential performance limitations compared to native desktop applications. Java, on the other hand, benefits from being a compiled language with efficient memory management, resulting in better performance and lower memory consumption.

  5. Development Ecosystem: Electron has a vibrant and active community of developers, providing extensive documentation, libraries, and tools specifically tailored for building Electron applications. Java also has a large and active community, with a mature ecosystem that offers a wide range of libraries and tools for various application domains.

  6. Resource Utilization: Since Electron applications utilize web technologies, they require a larger disk space footprint due to dependencies on the Chromium rendering engine and Node.js runtime. Java applications, being compiled to bytecode, generally have a smaller disk space footprint. Additionally, Electron applications may have higher resource utilization during runtime compared to Java applications, especially for memory and CPU usage.

In summary, the key differences between Electron and Java include the execution environment, language usage, platform independence, performance and memory management, development ecosystem, and resource utilization. These distinctions should be considered when choosing the appropriate technology for developing desktop applications.

Advice on Electron and Java
Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

I am new to programming and am a university student. While Computer Science is not my area of study, I am majoring in a subject that branches off computer science and health informatics, which deals with databases. I am currently in a programming fundamentals course at my university. My instructor mentioned that he develops in Java, but I have heard many good things about Python and JavaScript before taking his course; while we are only doing the fundamentals, I believe he is teaching us some in Java.

Since I am new to this, I'm not sure what I like more. I have also been self-teaching before this course but have not gotten deep into a particular language's fundamentals. I want to decide on a language and stick to it before I move to a new one after the first language is learned, but it is difficult deciding which language to start with. I want to develop medical software and medical mobile apps.

See more
Replies (10)
Dimelo Waterson
Recommends
on
JavaJava

There's a reason many universities start with Java- it has strict rules and lays out code in a straightforward (if excessively-boiler-plate-heavy) way. For a beginner, Java is an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of programming before taking off the training wheels and continuing in more flexible, less-syntactically-rigorous direction like Python or JavaScript.

Sticking to a language before moving on is a common goal. However, in reality you are going to transition as you find languages that better suit you or your organization's requirements. Start with Java, not because it is optimal for your end goals, but because it will teach you what you like and dislike about programming and because your instructor is more familiar with it. That will give you a valuable perspective and allow you to make a more informed decision later.

There are many ways to solve problems in different languages, but the "best" language pragmatically is the one that you feel most comfortable using. In that respect, programming is like woodworking- you want to let the tool do the work. If there is another language that is "better" objectively but more difficult or confusing to you, you will counteract the anticipated benefits by having to struggle to write code.

See more
Recommends
on
JavaJava

The only way to solve this problem while avoiding opinions and tastes is to objectively look at what you are trying to build.

Thus the most efficient part of your question is your last sentence: you want to build medical software and medical mobile apps.

In that case, the answer is definitely Java, as is for all "real" software projects.

Python is good for data science, in other words for statistics. Its other competitive advantage is that it is easy to learn for beginners, but that would be a bad reason to use it for a "real" software project.

JavaScript is a mess you don't want to get into. The major reason why it's popular is that many people learn it first, because its very basic features are easy to learn, although they don't get you far, and because it used to have exclusivity on the web. But in reality it will make your life a lot harder after a few weeks, without any benefit. I know I'll get criticisms for that, but I stand fully by this position.

See more
Taimoor Mirza
Associate Software Engineer at Intech Process Automation · | 4 upvotes · 190.2K views
Recommends
on
JavaJavaPythonPython

Since you're already taking a CS course which involves Java, I would recommend you to keep learning it. Java's statically typed & OO nature forces you to learn a lot of important yet common programming fundamentles. C++, C# and Java type languages also force you write code more carefully (you have to think about the data types on your own and even allocate/de-allocate memories [C++ pointers]). That's why colleges prefer it as go to language for teaching CS concepts.

On the other hand, JS, Python and other such languages are dynamic in nature and hence, easy to learn. But you can't learn certain concepts (polymorphism, abstract classes, diamond problem etc) using these languages. So it makes sense to stick with Java in your case.

See more
Recommends
on
PythonPython

try with python because easy ... its good for u when u are learning basic's and they have many library that help's u with mobile app and desktop application but it is not the best ... when u are learn programming will with python then start with js basic's and then (react native) or flutter and also u can use java for mobile development bur i recommend first choices ..and for Desktop application java is have an amazing library (java fx ) for this type of application's and C# is one of most powerful language's for software development . good luck

See more
Recommends
on
JavaJavaPythonPython

While I've seen many people recommend Java (and I agree with them), I think you can learn both. But it depends on how much time you got. I recommend you first learn Java. Then python will be easy to learn, and focus mainly on modules for graphs. The reason why I recommend to learn both is because python is much better and easier to code about statistical analysis. But again do this only if you have time to just learn them.

If your project doesn't have anything to do with statistics and data analysis (I'm pretty sure you do though), learn only java. Also if you are wondering why I never mentioned JavaScript (JS), it's because i really don't recommend it. JS is much harder to learn and requires a lot of lines of code to do simple things.

See more

My advice to anyone learning to program is to not obsess on the language.. You SHOULD learn all languages.. Same as learning human spoken languages - the more you learn, the more ways your mind can interpret a new problem set. Learning them at the same time isn't a big deal (just like growing up in a bilingual home). Your language and your software stack are guaranteed to change 3 times in your career. Don't assume you're going to choose the "right one". And you wont waste any time learning one you never wind up using.

As a person who works on linux and OSX desktops, I have a personal bias against working for companies and software stacks that require C# or Visual Studio. But this is not due to their technical merits, but instead the OS as a platform condusive to efficient CLI toolchains and container management. But aside from that, I can use vi/IntelliJ-suite to write most languages, so language isn't a real concern. If you're windows bound, pretty much everything is available to you (through VMs and docker).

Ideally you do at least SOME full stack development learning. This means you'll need javascript, and thus nodejs would be a good stack to learn. If you ultimately like gaming or 3D, you might need C# and certainly python.

Any AI (which is a hot employment topic for the forseeable future) would like python skillz.

I personally love Java (and Android's Kotlin varient) for it's very very well designed multi-threaded libraries. go and rust are newer and thus do a slightly better job at this, but due to the open-source nature of java and editors that auto-reveal function call source code, it's very easy to learn how vendors implemented MT code and various other algorithms. Python should be equally "open" to 3rd party library review (and thus again how they solve complex problems), though a lot of times, I see python resorting to compiled C-libraries (and thus the cost to crack open the code and or trace through the code becomes too burdensome to bother).

See more
Recommends
on
JavaJava

Since your instructor is using Java, i'd start with Java. If you want to get into mobile development, I'd check out flutter / dart. Good luck!

See more
Srikanth Gopalakrishnan
Founder at TheDatingClub · | 2 upvotes · 192.8K views
Recommends
on
JavaJavaPythonPython

Although java seems to be a good fit for you. It is a cumbersome language to get started out. It will be far easier for you to learn Python and stick with it long term. This is due to the fact you will be easily able to google things for python and you will spend less time learning the language, and more time using it to do what you want.

Making mobile apps is easier with Java due to the fact that google does not directly support app building with python. If this is your biggest priority stick with Java.

Javascript: This language is the best language to learn if you are making a website. However, for easy of use you can do all the database access stuff with python. And send back the data to your website. Javascript is also another cumbersome language in my opinion.

Each language has its use. If I were In your situation, I would choose the language that's easy to start with.

See more
Recommends
on
JavaJava

It would be great if you first go with Java. It could give you complete understanding of programming concepts. Such as data types. Later you can move to Python , which is great for data processing and Machin learning stuff.

See more

There is always trade off between them. If you want to make mobile app JavaScript is better. I suggest start the one you feel more close and learn all of them :) You are quite young you have enough time for them.

See more
Kamal Makroum
Needs advice
on
JavaJavaPythonPython
and
ReactReact

Hi everyone.

I am willing to build a used car sales platform, which will have a lot of stock/photos and will rely a lot on the back end functions and data generating. Java seems to be a good choice, but what other options can I consider that can also be easily scalable as well as a little faster to write?

Thank you

See more
Replies (2)
Recommends

Firstly, you must know that java and python are both amazing languages. But I recommend python mainly because of the variety of modules and packages available to do almost anything. If you are planning on adding graphs, you can use the matplotlib library and to add photos, use the pillow module. And just note that both of these aren't available by default, so you need to install them through pip.

See more
Ruslan Rayanov
Recommends

Hi, Kamal! I don't know if your question is still relevant. But I would like to introduce you to our solution, perhaps it will be useful for future projects. We have developed a web application constructor that can be used to create almost any website or application https://falconspace.site/. The entire development stack is reduced to SQL only. The platform is easy to configure and make subsequent changes if necessary.

See more
Needs advice
on
JavaJavaLuaLua
and
PythonPython

I am trying to make Roblox game which requires Lua. I quite don't want to go with Lua just because other tools just might let me do more projects later on. I heard that Python is most similar to Lua, but I am still not sure which tool to use. Java, I think it will help me with many stuff later on for websites, projects, and more!

See more
Replies (2)
Rafey Iqbal Rahman
Recommends
on
LuaLua
at

Since you are trying to make a Roblox game, you have no other option than to use Lua, since Roblox only allows coding in Lua. Yes, you've heard right, Python is identical and as easy as Lua, although Lua is easier than Python. Beginning from Lua and then escalating to Python is recommended. Java is only helpful when you are creating a heavy, big-budget, enterprise-level product, otherwise, Python would suffice.

See more
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

If you really hate lua check out roblox-ts, a tool that compiles typescript code into roblox lua. https://github.com/roblox-ts/roblox-ts

See more
Needs advice
on
JavaJavaPHPPHP
and
PythonPython

Hi everyone, I have just started to study web development, so I'm very new in this field. I would like to ask you which tools are most updated and good to use for getting a job in medium-big company. Front-end is basically not changing by time so much (as I understood by researching some info), so my question is about back-end tools. Which backend tools are most updated and requested by medium-big companies (I am searching for immediate job possibly)?

Thank you in advance Davit

See more
Replies (4)
Pierrick Martos
Engineering Manager at Akeneo · | 20 upvotes · 321.9K views
Recommends
on
PythonPython

Go with Python definetly. It's used everywhere by web developers for backend developments : API, website backend, workers... but also by data scientists (lot lot of resources, models and libraries in Python it's language #1). For the web parts, best web framework are in Python : https://stackshare.io/microframeworks (Flask #2 and Django #3). Java is good but trend is not great in terms of popularity amongs developers and tech leaders.

See more
Vijayakumar Rajagopal
Recommends
on
JavaJava

As per my experience java is most wanted for web development as of now. micro service is evolving . with frameworks like spring boot supports rapid development. Spring boot + Docker + kubernetes great combination.

See more
sharik zama
Software engineering Intern at EPAM Systems · | 5 upvotes · 321.1K views
Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

I would recommend learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (most important). JavaScript forms the backbone of web development. And, there are many popular and widely used frameworks like Angular and React that heavily rely on the knowledge of JavaScript. The number of job opportunities are much more when it comes to javascript.

See more
Chathuranga Bandara
Recommends
on
PythonPython

I would recommend Python as the programming language and as you are a new developer, Flask to start with. It gives you a solid understanding on the web patterns such as REST and will get you up and running in no time. However, I suggest you to read and study on front-end technologies like (React or Vue) and databases (SQL and NoSQL) and probably some NodeJS as well. First grasp the concepts (which Python is ideal for) then it does not really matter the language as such.

See more
Decisions about Electron and Java
Xi Huang
Developer at University of Toronto · | 11 upvotes · 231.1K views

We changed to Python instead of Java to have the back-end processing in the same language as our data analysis module. In addition, Python has a lot of libraries for data-processing. We intend to use Flask for our back-end web development. Flask is a simple, straight-forward framework for our purposes. Flask also has a large community which is beneficial to the development process.

See more
Noel Broda
Founder, CEO, CTO at NoFilter · | 5 upvotes · 231.4K views

1 code deploys for both: Android and iOS. There is a huge community behind React Native. And one of the best things is Expo. Expo uses React Native to make everything even more and more simple. Awesome technologies. Some other important thing is that while using React Native, you are reusing all JavaScript knowledge you have in your team. You can move easily a frontend dev to develop mobile applications.

A huge PRO of Expo, is that it includes a full building process. You run 1 line in the terminal, and 10 minutes after you have 2 builds done. Double check EAS Expo.

See more
Erik Ralston
Chief Architect at LiveTiles · | 14 upvotes · 551.3K views

C# and .Net were obvious choices for us at LiveTiles given our investment in the Microsoft ecosystem. It enabled us to harness of the .Net framework to build ASP.Net MVC, WebAPI, and Serverless applications very easily. Coupled with the high productivity of Visual Studio, it's the native tongue of Microsoft technology.

See more
Brent Maxwell

Node.js has been growing in popularity, and the ability to access the global pool of Javascript developers is great. There is a decreased amount of effort for people to work across the frontend and backend, and the language itself is easy and works well for many common use cases.

Go was the other serious candidate, but it just hasn't been implemented in as many Production systems yet, and the best Go engineers I've known have been hackers, whereas we're building a robust analytics platform that requires more caution. Type safety is easily added with TypeScript, and NPM is awesomely handy.

See more
Chose
GolangGolang
over
JavaJava

When developing a new blockchain, we as a team chose Go lang over Java and other candidates, due to Go being (a) natively suited to concurrency - there are primitives in the language itself (goroutines, channels) that really help with reasoning about concurrency (b) super fast - build time, running, testing are all much faster that Java, this gives a far superior developer experience (c) shorter and stricter than Java - code is much shorter (less verbose), and there is usually one good way to do things, and even the code formatter that is bundled with Go is very opinionated - over a short time this makes reading other people's code far smoother than having to deal with different styles.

You should be aware that Go presently (v1.13) lacks Generics.

See more
Alaeddin Alzeybek
Head of Engineering at Volt Lines · | 1 upvote · 213.6K views

From cross platform development point of view: Using kotlin multiplatform is more convenient than java for implementing cross platform code, since it can be converted to be used in iOS (swift) projects, and it can be easily learned if you already know swift. It still an experimental feature but it helped so far to unify a lot of the common code between our iOS and Android projects. And it is more future proof than java regarding support and maintain multiplatform converting.

See more

We needed to incorporate Big Data Framework for data stream analysis, specifically Apache Spark / Apache Storm. The three options of languages were most suitable for the job - Python, Java, Scala.

The winner was Python for the top of the class, high-performance data analysis libraries (NumPy, Pandas) written in C, quick learning curve, quick prototyping allowance, and a great connection with other future tools for machine learning as Tensorflow.

The whole code was shorter & more readable which made it easier to develop and maintain.

See more
Kyle Harrison
Web Application Developer at Fortinet · | 2 upvotes · 145.5K views

The decision behind choosing a server side technology is never an easy one. Every single language has it's pro's and con's around each.

For me, this decision came down to a couple simple points: 1. Node is a web tech first class citizen, designed around handling web events, in a web technology world 2. Asynchronous

The thing about Python and Java is that they TOO can handle these, and handle these very well. Java for instance powers most of Twitter and Netflix's architecture. Where Python is what's behind giants like Instagram and Patreon. Certainly, you can't go wrong. Heck, Ruby powered GitHub and GitLab, and those things see HUGE traffic.

But this project is a web technology first. And node feels right at home as it itself is a web technology. This decision was more about homogeneous synergy than most anything else. I need it to be screaming fast, asynchronous, and play extremely well with web standards.

Node fits the bill on every front.

See more
Nick Parsons
Building cool things on the internet 🛠️ at Stream · | 11 upvotes · 153.5K views

I work at Stream and I'm immensely proud of what our team is working on here at the company. Most recently, we announced our Android SDK accompanied by an extensive tutorial for Java and Kotlin. The tutorial covers just about everything you need to know when it comes to using our Android SDK for Stream Chat. The Android SDK touches many features offered by Stream Chat – more specifically, typing status, read state, file uploads, threads, reactions, editing messages, and commands. Head over to https://getstream.io/tutorials/android-chat/ and give it a whirl!

See more
Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of Electron
Pros of Java
  • 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
  • 599
    Great libraries
  • 445
    Widely used
  • 400
    Excellent tooling
  • 395
    Huge amount of documentation available
  • 334
    Large pool of developers available
  • 208
    Open source
  • 202
    Excellent performance
  • 157
    Great development
  • 150
    Used for android
  • 148
    Vast array of 3rd party libraries
  • 60
    Compiled Language
  • 52
    Used for Web
  • 46
    High Performance
  • 46
    Managed memory
  • 44
    Native threads
  • 43
    Statically typed
  • 35
    Easy to read
  • 33
    Great Community
  • 29
    Reliable platform
  • 24
    Sturdy garbage collection
  • 24
    JVM compatibility
  • 22
    Cross Platform Enterprise Integration
  • 20
    Universal platform
  • 20
    Good amount of APIs
  • 18
    Great Support
  • 14
    Great ecosystem
  • 11
    Backward compatible
  • 11
    Lots of boilerplate
  • 10
    Everywhere
  • 9
    Excellent SDK - JDK
  • 7
    It's Java
  • 7
    Cross-platform
  • 7
    Static typing
  • 6
    Mature language thus stable systems
  • 6
    Better than Ruby
  • 6
    Long term language
  • 6
    Portability
  • 5
    Clojure
  • 5
    Vast Collections Library
  • 5
    Used for Android development
  • 4
    Most developers favorite
  • 4
    Old tech
  • 3
    History
  • 3
    Great Structure
  • 3
    Stable platform, which many new languages depend on
  • 3
    Javadoc
  • 3
    Testable
  • 3
    Best martial for design
  • 2
    Type Safe
  • 2
    Faster than python
  • 0
    Job

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Electron
Cons of Java
  • 18
    Uses a lot of memory
  • 8
    User experience never as good as a native app
  • 4
    No proper documentation
  • 4
    Does not native
  • 1
    Each app needs to install a new chromium + nodejs
  • 1
    Wrong reference for dom inspection
  • 33
    Verbosity
  • 27
    NullpointerException
  • 17
    Nightmare to Write
  • 16
    Overcomplexity is praised in community culture
  • 12
    Boiler plate code
  • 8
    Classpath hell prior to Java 9
  • 6
    No REPL
  • 4
    No property
  • 3
    Code are too long
  • 2
    Non-intuitive generic implementation
  • 2
    There is not optional parameter
  • 2
    Floating-point errors
  • 1
    Java's too statically, stronglly, and strictly typed
  • 1
    Returning Wildcard Types
  • 1
    Terrbible compared to Python/Batch Perormence

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

What is Electron?

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.

What is Java?

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

What companies use Electron?
What companies use Java?
See which teams inside your own company are using Electron or Java.
Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

What tools integrate with Electron?
What tools integrate with Java?

Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

Blog Posts

Oct 24 2019 at 7:43PM

AppSignal

JavaScriptNode.jsJava+8
5
954
Aug 28 2019 at 3:10AM

Segment

PythonJavaAmazon S3+16
7
2556
Jul 16 2019 at 9:19PM

Bugsnag

JavaAndroid SDKBugsnag+3
3
426
What are some alternatives to Electron and Java?
Photon
The fastest way to build beautiful Electron apps using simple HTML and CSS. Underneath it all is Electron. Originally built for GitHub's Atom text editor, Electron is the easiest way to build cross-platform desktop applications.
React Native Desktop
Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.
React Native
React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.
React
Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.
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.
See all alternatives