Dart vs Electron

Overview

Dart

Stacks4.3K

Followers3.8K

Votes452

Electron

Stacks11.6K

Followers10.0K

Votes148

Dart vs Electron: What are the differences?

Key Differences Between Dart and Electron

Dart and Electron are two popular technologies used for building cross-platform applications. While both serve a similar purpose, they have some key differences.

Language: Dart is a programming language developed by Google, while Electron is a framework built on top of web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Dart is a statically-typed language, whereas Electron uses JavaScript for building applications.
Platform Support: Dart compiles to native code, so it can run on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Electron, on the other hand, uses Chromium as a runtime, and applications built with Electron can be run on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Performance: Dart is known for its fast performance due to its just-in-time (JIT) compilation and ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation options. Electron, however, is often criticized for its performance as it uses a web runtime and can be resource-intensive.
UI Development: With Dart, developers can use the Flutter framework to build native-like user interfaces. Flutter provides a rich set of pre-built UI components and allows for building highly customizable UIs. Electron uses web technologies, so the user interface is built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which gives developers more flexibility and enables them to leverage the vast ecosystem of web libraries and frameworks.
Native Access: Dart provides a way to access native platform APIs through the use of platform channels, allowing developers to integrate with platform-specific features and functionality. Electron, being based on web technologies, does not have direct access to native APIs, although it provides mechanisms like Node.js integration to bridge this gap.
Deployment: Dart applications can be compiled to standalone executables or packaged as app bundles for deployment on different platforms. Electron applications, on the other hand, are packaged as platform-specific installers or distributable bundles, making them easier to distribute and install across different operating systems.

In summary, Dart and Electron differ in terms of the programming language used, platform support, performance, UI development approach, access to native APIs, and deployment options. These differences make them suitable for different use cases and development scenarios.

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Advice on Dart, Electron

Muhamed

Apr 28, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

JavaScript

Django

I am currently learning web development with Python and JavaScript course by CS50 Harvard university. It covers python, Flask, Django, SQL, Travis CI, javascript,HTML ,CSS and more. I am very interested in Flutter app development. Can I know what is the difference between learning these above-mentioned frameworks vs learning flutter directly? I am planning to learn flutter so that I can do both web development and app development. Are there any perks of learning these frameworks before flutter?

737k views737k

Comments

Zuriel

Jun 7, 2020

Needs advice

Can anyone help me decide what's best for app development or even android Oreo development? I'm in a state dilemma at the moment. I want to do Android programming, not necessarily web development. I have heard a lot of people recommend one of these, and it seems that both the tools can do the job. Which language would you choose?

291k views291k

Comments

Semih

Software Engineering Manager

Oct 1, 2020

Needs adviceon

JavaScript

HTML5

.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

Dart	Electron
Dart is a cohesive, scalable platform for building apps that run on the web (where you can use Polymer) or on servers (such as with Google Cloud Platform). Use the Dart language, libraries, and tools to write anything from simple scripts to full-featured apps.	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.
Dart’s comprehensive libraries give you lots of choices;Compilation to JavaScript lets you deploy Dart apps now;Pub package manager;Dev Server	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 4.3K	Stacks 11.6K
Followers 3.8K	Followers 10.0K
Votes 452	Votes 148
Pros & Cons
Pros 60 Backed by Google 54 Flutter 39 Twice the speed of Javascript 35 Great tools 30 Scalable Cons 3 Locked in - JS or TS interop is very hard to accomplish 3 Lack of ORM 0 A	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 Each app needs to install a new chromium + nodejs

What are some alternatives to Dart, Electron?

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.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

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!

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.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Related Comparisons

Dart vs Electron: What are the differences?

Key Differences Between Dart and Electron

Dart and Electron are two popular technologies used for building cross-platform applications. While both serve a similar purpose, they have some key differences.

Language: Dart is a programming language developed by Google, while Electron is a framework built on top of web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Dart is a statically-typed language, whereas Electron uses JavaScript for building applications.
Platform Support: Dart compiles to native code, so it can run on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Electron, on the other hand, uses Chromium as a runtime, and applications built with Electron can be run on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Performance: Dart is known for its fast performance due to its just-in-time (JIT) compilation and ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation options. Electron, however, is often criticized for its performance as it uses a web runtime and can be resource-intensive.
UI Development: With Dart, developers can use the Flutter framework to build native-like user interfaces. Flutter provides a rich set of pre-built UI components and allows for building highly customizable UIs. Electron uses web technologies, so the user interface is built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which gives developers more flexibility and enables them to leverage the vast ecosystem of web libraries and frameworks.
Native Access: Dart provides a way to access native platform APIs through the use of platform channels, allowing developers to integrate with platform-specific features and functionality. Electron, being based on web technologies, does not have direct access to native APIs, although it provides mechanisms like Node.js integration to bridge this gap.
Deployment: Dart applications can be compiled to standalone executables or packaged as app bundles for deployment on different platforms. Electron applications, on the other hand, are packaged as platform-specific installers or distributable bundles, making them easier to distribute and install across different operating systems.

Dart vs Electron

Overview

Dart vs Electron: What are the differences?