Electron vs React: What are the differences?
Introduction
This is a comparison between Electron and React, two popular technologies used for web development. Electron is a framework that allows developers to build desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. On the other hand, React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, mainly for web applications.
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Development Purpose: Electron is primarily used for developing desktop applications, whereas React is designed for creating user interfaces in web applications.
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Platform: Electron allows developers to build applications that can run on multiple operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. React, on the other hand, is a library that focuses on creating web interfaces that can run in web browsers.
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Rendering: Electron uses Chromium as its rendering engine, which is the same engine used by Google Chrome. This allows Electron applications to have powerful rendering capabilities. React uses its own virtual DOM (document object model) implementation for efficient updating and rendering of user interfaces.
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Single-page vs Multi-page: React is commonly used for building single-page applications where the content is dynamically updated without refreshing the entire page. Electron, however, is used for building multi-page applications, where multiple windows or screens are involved.
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Deployment: Electron applications need to be bundled and distributed as standalone executables for each target operating system. React applications, on the other hand, are typically deployed as static files on a web server and accessed through web browsers.
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Performance: Electron applications are known to consume more system resources compared to React applications, as Electron runs a separate instance of Chromium for each application window. React, being a lightweight library, provides faster rendering and updates in web applications.
In summary, Electron is utilized for developing desktop applications that can run on multiple operating systems, leveraging the power of Chromium for rendering. React, on the other hand, is a JavaScript library primarily used for building user interfaces in web applications, providing efficient updating and rendering through its virtual DOM implementation.