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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Desktop Development
  5. Electron vs React Native Desktop

Electron vs React Native Desktop

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Electron
Electron
Stacks11.6K
Followers10.0K
Votes148
React Native Desktop
React Native Desktop
Stacks15
Followers203
Votes11

Electron vs React Native Desktop: What are the differences?

Introduction

Markdown code is a formatting language that converts plain text files into HTML, making it suitable for use on websites. In this task, we will format the provided information about the key differences between Electron and React Native Desktop as Markdown code to be used on a website.

Key Differences between Electron and React Native Desktop

  1. Language and Framework: Electron is built using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and uses Chromium to render web applications as desktop applications. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, is an extension of React Native that allows developers to build desktop applications using React components.

  2. Platform Compatibility: Electron is compatible with multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. It provides a consistent development experience across different platforms. In contrast, React Native Desktop focuses primarily on macOS and Windows and may require additional setup to work on other platforms.

  3. User Interface: Electron allows developers to build desktop applications with a customizable user interface using web technologies. It provides a full-fledged desktop-like experience with access to system-level APIs. React Native Desktop leverages React Native's components and UI elements, providing a consistent experience across different platforms but with a more mobile-centric design.

  4. Performance: Electron applications can be resource-intensive due to the overhead of running a Chromium browser instance for each application. React Native Desktop, by utilizing native components and UI elements, can provide better performance compared to Electron, especially for computationally intensive tasks.

  5. Development Workflow: Electron applications are typically developed using web development tools and libraries, allowing developers to leverage existing web development knowledge. React Native Desktop, being an extension of React Native, allows developers to share code and components between mobile and desktop applications, streamlining the development workflow.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Electron has a larger community and a well-established ecosystem of plugins, libraries, and tools. It benefits from being widely used for building cross-platform desktop applications. React Native Desktop, being a newer extension, has a smaller community and a more limited ecosystem. However, it can tap into the existing React Native ecosystem, which is already popular in mobile app development.

In summary, Electron and React Native Desktop differ in terms of the language and framework used, platform compatibility, user interface design, performance, development workflow, and community/ecosystem support.

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Advice on Electron, React Native Desktop

Semih
Semih

Software Engineering Manager

Oct 1, 2020

Needs adviceonJavaScriptJavaScriptHTML5HTML5.NET.NET

Hi,

We are planning to develop a brand new UX for an already existing desktop software. The previous version is developed on C#.NET with Winforms & WPF. Our plan is to use JavaScript/HTML5 based frontend technologies for the new software. For some components, we are highly dependent on .NET/ .NET Core because the JS-based versions are not mature enough.

What would you choose for a desktop-based Engineering Software that supports multi-OS and has rich UI capabilities considering the .NET dependencies?

Thanks in advance,

Semih

57.9k views57.9k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Electron
Electron
React Native Desktop
React Native Desktop

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.

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.

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
Stacks
11.6K
Stacks
15
Followers
10.0K
Followers
203
Votes
148
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
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
    Does not native
  • 4
    No proper documentation
  • 1
    Wrong reference for dom inspection
Pros
  • 3
    Pretty awesome
  • 2
    Memory usage reduced
  • 2
    Does not include any browser
  • 2
    Is native app
  • 1
    Open source
Cons
  • 0
    Memory usage reduced
Integrations
No integrations available
React Native
React Native

What are some alternatives to Electron, React Native Desktop?

Sciter

Sciter

It brings a stack of web technologies to desktop UI development. Web designers, and developers, can reuse their experience and expertise in creating modern looking desktop applications.

wxWidgets

wxWidgets

It is a C++ library that lets developers create applications for Windows, macOS, Linux and other platforms with a single code base. It has popular language bindings for Python, Perl, Ruby and many other languages, and unlike other cross-platform toolkits, it gives applications a truly native look and feel because it uses the platform's native API rather than emulating the GUI. It's also extensive, free, open-source and mature.

Qt5

Qt5

It is a full development framework with tools designed to streamline the creation of applications and user interfaces for desktop, embedded, and mobile platforms.

JavaFX

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.

JUCE

JUCE

It is a C++ framework for low-latency applications, with cross-platform GUI libraries to get your apps running on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.

Proton Native

Proton Native

Create native desktop applications through a React syntax, on all platforms.

NodeGUI

NodeGUI

It is an open source library for building cross-platform native desktop applications with JavaScript and CSS like styling. It is based on Qt5 and NOT chromium, hence it is memory and cpu efficient.

pygame

pygame

It is a cross-platform set of Python modules designed for writing video games. It includes computer graphics and sound libraries designed to be used with the Python programming language.

SDL

SDL

It is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D.

Element

Element

Element is a Vue 2.0 based component library for developers, designers and product managers, with a set of design resources.

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