Overview

Node.js

Stacks193.4K

Followers164.5K

Votes8.5K

GitHub Stars114.1K

Forks33.7K

Electron

Stacks11.5K

Followers10.0K

Votes148

Electron vs Node.js: What are the differences?

Node.js is for server-side apps, while Electron is for cross-platform desktop apps using web technologies. Let's explore the key differences between them.

Event-driven architecture: Electron is a framework that allows developers to build desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It combines Chromium (the open-source project behind Google Chrome) and Node.js runtime. On the other hand, Node.js is a runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser. It is primarily used for server-side development and implements the event-driven, non-blocking I/O paradigm.
User Interface: Electron is specifically designed for creating cross-platform desktop applications with native-like user interfaces. It provides APIs to access the underlying operating system's native UI elements, enabling developers to create rich and interactive desktop applications. In contrast, Node.js does not have built-in support for creating user interfaces. It focuses on server-side functionality, networking, and file system operations.
Package Manager: Electron utilizes npm (Node Package Manager) to manage dependencies and packages. Developers can easily integrate third-party modules into their Electron applications using npm. In contrast, Node.js itself is built on top of npm, which is the default and the largest package manager ecosystem for JavaScript. It allows developers to easily install, share, and update reusable modules to enhance the functionality of their Node.js applications.
Development Workflow: Electron developers can leverage various web development tools and libraries to build and debug their applications. They can use popular code editors, frameworks, and testing tools that are commonly used in web development. Node.js developers also have access to a wide range of development tools and libraries, but they mainly focus on server-side technologies, database interactions, and APIs.
Deployment: Electron applications are packaged as standalone executables for different operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux) and distributed like traditional desktop applications. It allows developers to reach a wider audience and distribute their applications through app stores or direct downloads. Node.js applications, on the other hand, are typically deployed on servers or cloud platforms, where they can handle multiple concurrent connections and serve requests.
Usage Scenarios: Electron is ideal for building multi-platform desktop applications like chat clients, code editors, gaming apps, and productivity tools. It provides a powerful platform for creating visually appealing and feature-rich applications that can run on various operating systems. Node.js, on the other hand, is commonly used for server-side web development, building APIs, real-time applications, streaming services, and scalable network applications.

In summary, Electron is a framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, providing native UI capabilities, and utilizing npm for package management. Node.js, on the other hand, is a runtime environment for executing JavaScript code outside of a browser, primarily focused on server-side development, networking, and file system operations.

🔥 Trending in Frameworks on StackShare

Launchpike Frameworks

Launchpike

Try it View Docs Alternatives

Try

0

1

Advice on Node.js, Electron

abderrahmane

Mar 12, 2020

Needs advice

I am a front-end guy and in the last month I've been trynig to be learn backend in python. I think python is a great language to but when i start to learn django I didn't like it because everythong is already done for you, you dont need to do much make it works and I like coding thing that take me time. I've been thinking about switching to another programing language or just learn Node js and stick with it. I need to know if django is that easy.

136k views136k

Comments

Mohammad

Oct 28, 2019

Needs adviceon

Node.js

Laravel

PHP

I want to create a video sharing service like Youtube, which users can use to upload and watch videos. I prefer to use Vue.js for front-end. What do you suggest for the back-end? @{Node.js}|tool:1011| or @{Laravel}|tool:992| ( @{PHP}|tool:991| ) I need a good performance with high speed, and the most important thing is the ability to handle user's requests if the site's traffic increases. I want to create an algorithm that users who watch others videos earn points (randomly but in clear context) If you have anything else to improve, please let me know. For eg: If you prefer React to Vue.js. Thanks in advance

309k views309k

Comments

Zubair

Director at Aafiyah Technologies

Mar 12, 2020

Needs advice

Hi Team

I want your suggestions in order for me to decide which stack is suitable for the below-mentioned requirement.

Currently, I am considering building it in Wordpress (Starting with prebuilt plugins and develop on it)

But I am skeptical, so I am considering Laravel.

And recently I found one very good solution built in Angular, Node and MySQL

Here are the high-level goals I am trying to achieve:

The system has 3 modules

Multi-Vendor e-commerce Market Place
Peer to peer Selling of used items
Listing/ Directory kind of portal for the service industry

290k views290k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Node.js	Electron
Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.	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.
-	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 114.1K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 33.7K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 193.4K	Stacks 11.5K
Followers 164.5K	Followers 10.0K
Votes 8.5K	Votes 148
Pros & Cons
Pros 1439 Npm 1279 Javascript 1129 Great libraries 1012 High-performance 805 Open source Cons 46 Bound to a single CPU 45 New framework every day 40 Lots of terrible examples on the internet 33 Asynchronous programming is the worst 24 Callback	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

What are some alternatives to Node.js, Electron?

Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

Laravel

It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.

.NET

.NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.

ASP.NET Core

A free and open-source web framework, and higher performance than ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft and the community. It is a modular framework that runs on both the full .NET Framework, on Windows, and the cross-platform .NET Core.

Symfony

It is written with speed and flexibility in mind. It allows developers to build better and easy to maintain websites with PHP..

Spring

A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring configuration.

Android SDK

Android provides a rich application framework that allows you to build innovative apps and games for mobile devices in a Java language environment.

Phoenix Framework

Phoenix is a framework for building HTML5 apps, API backends and distributed systems. Written in Elixir, you get beautiful syntax, productive tooling and a fast runtime.