Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

WebAssembly

211
214
+ 1
0
WebGL

177
197
+ 1
0
Add tool

WebAssembly vs WebGL: What are the differences?

Introduction

WebAssembly and WebGL are two technologies that are commonly used in web development. While both technologies are used to enhance web applications, there are some key differences between them. In this article, we will explore these differences and provide a clear understanding of when to use either technology.

  1. Execution Context: WebAssembly is a binary instruction format that is executed by a virtual machine. It provides a low-level representation of code that is optimized for performance. On the other hand, WebGL is a JavaScript API that allows for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within a web browser. It provides a higher-level interface for working with graphics and is built on top of the underlying graphics hardware.

  2. Programming Language: WebAssembly can be written in various programming languages including C++, Rust, and AssemblyScript. It allows developers to leverage their existing codebases and compile them to a format that can run in the browser. In contrast, WebGL requires knowledge of JavaScript to create and manipulate 3D graphics. It provides a set of APIs that are specific to graphics programming and require a different skill set compared to WebAssembly.

  3. Performance: Due to its low-level nature, WebAssembly is designed to provide near-native performance. It achieves this by allowing direct execution of machine code, avoiding many of the performance overheads associated with JavaScript. On the other hand, WebGL relies on the JavaScript runtime to execute its code, which can introduce some performance penalties. While WebGL can still achieve good performance for most applications, WebAssembly is generally faster for computationally intensive tasks.

  4. Compatibility: WebAssembly is supported by all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. This means that WebAssembly can be used on a wide range of platforms, including desktop and mobile devices. WebGL, on the other hand, requires browser support for WebGL specifically. While most modern browsers do support WebGL, there are still some older or less popular browsers that may not fully support it. Therefore, if cross-platform compatibility is a priority, WebAssembly may be a better choice.

  5. Use Cases: WebAssembly is well-suited for tasks that require high-performance computations, such as video editing, gaming, and simulations. It allows developers to leverage existing code and libraries written in languages like C++ or Rust. On the other hand, WebGL is specifically designed for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within a web browser. It is commonly used in applications like game development, data visualization, and virtual reality experiences.

  6. Security: WebAssembly runs in a sandboxed environment, which means that it is isolated from the rest of the system and cannot access sensitive resources. This provides an additional layer of security compared to JavaScript, which has access to the entire DOM and can potentially execute malicious code. Additionally, WebAssembly bytecode can be validated before execution, reducing the risk of code injection attacks. WebGL, on the other hand, relies on the security measures provided by the JavaScript runtime and is subject to the same security considerations as regular JavaScript code.

In summary, WebAssembly and WebGL are two technologies that serve different purposes in web development. WebAssembly provides low-level performance and compatibility across platforms, making it ideal for computationally intensive tasks. WebGL, on the other hand, focuses on rendering interactive graphics within a web browser and requires knowledge of JavaScript.

Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Cons of WebAssembly
Cons of WebGL
  • 2
    Security issues
    Be the first to leave a con

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is WebAssembly?

    It is an open standard that defines a portable binary code format for executable programs, and a corresponding textual assembly language, as well as interfaces for facilitating interactions between such programs and their host environment.

    What is WebGL?

    It is integrated completely into all the web standards of the browser allowing GPU accelerated usage of physics and image processing and effects as part of the web page canvas. Its elements can be mixed with other HTML elements.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use WebAssembly?
    What companies use WebGL?
    See which teams inside your own company are using WebAssembly or WebGL.
    Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with WebAssembly?
    What tools integrate with WebGL?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    What are some alternatives to WebAssembly and WebGL?
    JavaScript
    JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
    Golang
    Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.
    Emscripten
    This allows applications and libraries originally designed to run as standard executables to be integrated into client side web applications.
    React
    Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.
    Java
    Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!
    See all alternatives