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Electron vs React Desktop: What are the differences?
Introduction
Electron and React Desktop are both popular frameworks for building desktop applications. While both frameworks are used for building cross-platform desktop applications, there are several key differences between them.
Architecture: Electron is a framework that combines Chromium and Node.js, allowing developers to build desktop applications with web technologies. It provides a runtime environment that runs a separate instance of Chromium and Node.js for each application window. React Desktop, on the other hand, is a UI toolkit built on top of React, providing a set of components specifically designed for desktop applications. It follows a component-based architecture.
Language: Electron primarily uses JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for building applications. It provides a familiar web development environment for developers. React Desktop, as the name suggests, is built on top of React and primarily uses JavaScript and JSX for building applications. It leverages the power of React to build highly interactive and reusable UI components.
Performance: Electron applications can be resource-intensive due to the separate instances of Chromium and Node.js running for each application window. This can affect the overall performance of the application, especially when running multiple windows simultaneously. React Desktop, being a UI toolkit built on top of React, benefits from React's virtual DOM and efficient rendering mechanism, resulting in better performance and optimized resource usage.
Development Workflow: Electron provides a powerful set of tools and a mature ecosystem for developing desktop applications. It allows developers to build, package, and distribute applications with ease. React Desktop, on the other hand, leverages the existing React development workflow and ecosystem. It provides a seamless integration with tools like webpack, Babel, and npm, making it easier for developers already familiar with React to start building desktop applications.
Platform Support: Electron supports a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. It provides a consistent development experience across different operating systems. React Desktop, being a UI toolkit built on top of React, can potentially be used on any platform supported by React. However, the level of platform support may depend on the specific UI components and libraries used in the application.
Application Size: Electron applications tend to have larger file sizes compared to native desktop applications. This is because Electron packages the entire Chromium runtime along with the application code. React Desktop, being a UI toolkit built on top of React, allows developers to build smaller and more lightweight applications by selectively using only the necessary React components.
In summary, Electron is a framework that combines Chromium and Node.js to build desktop applications with web technologies, while React Desktop is a UI toolkit built on top of React for building desktop applications with a component-based architecture. Electron has a slightly higher performance overhead and larger file sizes compared to React Desktop, but it provides a mature development workflow and extensive platform support. React Desktop, on the other hand, benefits from React's efficient rendering mechanism and provides a lightweight and familiar development experience.
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 React Desktop
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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