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Electron vs Next.js: What are the differences?
Introduction
This Markdown document highlights the key differences between Electron and Next.js, formatted for use in a website.
Deployment: Electron allows for the development of cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It enables developers to package web applications as standalone executables. On the other hand, Next.js is a framework for building server-rendered React applications. It focuses on server-side rendering and provides optimized performance for server-rendered pages. Unlike Electron, Next.js is primarily used for web development and is not intended for creating desktop applications.
Platform Support: Electron is designed to work on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, allowing developers to build applications that run on multiple platforms. It provides a consistent development experience across different operating systems. On the other hand, Next.js is platform-agnostic and can run on any server environment that supports Node.js. It is not tied to specific operating systems like Electron, making it more flexible in terms of server deployment options.
Application Type: Electron is ideal for creating standalone desktop applications that can take advantage of native capabilities provided by the underlying operating system. It provides access to system-level APIs and allows developers to build applications with features like file system access, system tray integration, and notifications. In contrast, Next.js is focused on building web applications that can be hosted on servers and accessed through web browsers. It does not provide direct access to native capabilities and is mainly used for creating web-based user interfaces.
Development Experience: Electron allows developers to build desktop applications using familiar web technologies, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It leverages existing web development skills and tools, making it accessible to a wide range of developers. Next.js, on the other hand, is specifically designed for React developers. It provides a streamlined development experience for building server-rendered React applications, with features like hot module replacement and automatic code splitting.
Performance: Electron applications are generally heavier compared to web applications built with Next.js. Electron wraps the web application components into a standalone runtime, which adds overhead in terms of memory usage and performance. Next.js, on the other hand, provides optimized performance for server-rendered pages by pre-rendering them on the server and sending them as HTML to the client. This approach reduces the initial load time and improves the overall performance of the application.
Community and Ecosystem: Electron has a thriving community and a rich ecosystem of plugins, libraries, and tools developed by the community. It has been around for several years and has a large user base. Next.js, although relatively newer, has also gained popularity and has a growing ecosystem. It benefits from the larger React community and has integration with popular React libraries and tools. Both Electron and Next.js have active developer communities, support forums, and resources for learning and troubleshooting.
In Summary, Electron is a framework for building cross-platform desktop applications, while Next.js is a framework for building server-rendered React applications. Electron focuses on desktop application development, provides access to system-level APIs, and has a larger footprint. Next.js is focused on web development, provides optimized performance for server-rendered pages, and is lightweight in comparison.
We’re a new startup so we need to be able to deliver quick changes as we find our product market fit. We’ve also got to ensure that we’re moving money safely, and keeping perfect records. The technologies we’ve chosen mix mature but well maintained frameworks like Django, with modern web-first and api-first front ends like GraphQL, NextJS, and Chakra. We use a little Golang sparingly in our backend to ensure that when we interact with financial services, we do so with statically compiled, strongly typed, and strictly limited and reviewed code.
You can read all about it in our linked blog post.
Next.js is probably the most enjoyable React framework our team could have picked. The development is an extremely smooth process, the file structure is beautiful and organized, and the speed is no joke. Our work with Next.js comes out much faster than if it was built on pure React or frameworks alike. We were previously developing all of our projects in Meteor before making the switch. We left Meteor due to the slow compiler and website speed. We deploy all of our Next.js projects on Vercel.
Hey guys,
My backend set up is Prisma / GraphQL-Yoga at the moment, and I love it. It's so intuitive to learn and is really neat on the frontend too, however, there were a few gotchas when I was learning! Especially around understanding how it all pieces together (the stack). There isn't a great deal of information out there on exactly how to put into production my set up, which is a backend set up on a Digital Ocean droplet with Prisma/GraphQL Yoga in a Docker Container using Next & Apollo Client on the frontend somewhere else. It's such a niche subject, so I bet only a few hundred people have got a website with this stack in production. Anyway, I wrote a blog post to help those who might need help understanding it. Here it is, hope it helps!
Pros of Electron
- Easy to make rich cross platform desktop applications69
- Open source53
- Great looking apps such as Slack and Visual Studio Code14
- Because it's cross platform8
- Use Node.js in the Main Process4
Pros of Next.js
- Automatic server rendering and code splitting49
- Built with React43
- Easy setup33
- TypeScript26
- Universal JavaScript24
- Zero setup22
- Static site generator21
- Simple deployment12
- Just JavaScript12
- Incremental static regeneration12
- Filesystem as an API10
- Frictionless development10
- Everything is a function9
- Well Documented9
- Has many examples and integrations8
- Testing8
- Isomorphic React applications7
- File based routing + hooks built in4
- Deployment2
- SEO1
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Cons of Electron
- Uses a lot of memory18
- User experience never as good as a native app8
- No proper documentation4
- Does not native4
- Each app needs to install a new chromium + nodejs1
- Wrong reference for dom inspection1
Cons of Next.js
- Structure is weak compared to Angular(2+)9
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What is Electron?
What is Next.js?
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Blog Posts
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