57.9k views57.9k
CommentsElectron vs MacGap vs Photon
Overview
Share your Stack
Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.
CLI (Node.js)
Manual
Advice on MacGap, Electron, Photon
Detailed Comparison
MacGap provides HTML/JS/CSS developers an Xcode project for developing native OS X App. These Apps run in OS X's WebView and take advantage of WebKit technologies. MacGap exposes a JavaScript API for OS X integration, such as displaying native notifications or writing data to a file. MacGap is extremely lightweight and nimble; a blank application weighs less than 1MB. | 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. | The fastest way to build beautiful Electron apps using simple HTML and CSS. Underneath it all is Electron. Originally built for GitHub's Atom text editor, Electron is the easiest way to build cross-platform desktop applications. |
open-source;tiny compiled app sizes;Mac App Store compatible;access to many Mac OS X-specific features | 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 | ||
GitHub Stars 3.5K | GitHub Stars - | GitHub Stars 10.1K |
GitHub Forks 208 | GitHub Forks - | GitHub Forks 573 |
Stacks 7 | Stacks 11.6K | Stacks 32 |
Followers 44 | Followers 10.0K | Followers 89 |
Votes 3 | Votes 148 | Votes 0 |
Pros & Cons | ||
Pros
Cons
| Pros
Cons
| No community feedback yet |
What are some alternatives to MacGap, Electron, Photon?
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
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
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
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.
React Native Desktop
Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.
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
Create native desktop applications through a React syntax, on all platforms.
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
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
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.
