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  1. Stackups
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  4. Front End Frameworks
  5. Electron vs Material UI

Electron vs Material UI

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Material-UI
Material-UI
Stacks2.7K
Followers3.7K
Votes445
Electron
Electron
Stacks11.6K
Followers10.0K
Votes148

Electron vs Material UI: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Electron and Material UI. Both Electron and Material UI are popular technologies used in web development, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Let's explore the differences in more detail.

  1. Electron: Electron is a framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It combines the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js runtime to create applications that can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. Electron provides a native-like experience for desktop applications, including access to native APIs, system tray integration, and hardware peripherals.

  2. Material UI: Material UI is a user interface (UI) library that implements the Material Design guidelines developed by Google. It provides a set of reusable React components that follow Material Design principles, allowing developers to create visually appealing and consistent UIs. Material UI offers a wide range of customizable components, including buttons, inputs, dialogs, and navigation elements, that can be easily styled and integrated into React-based projects.

  3. Difference 1: Purpose: Electron is primarily used for building desktop applications, while Material UI is specifically focused on providing UI components for web development projects. Electron allows developers to create standalone desktop applications that can run independently of a web browser, whereas Material UI helps in designing responsive and visually appealing user interfaces for web applications.

  4. Difference 2: Technology Stack: Electron utilizes web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create desktop applications, leveraging the Chromium rendering engine and Node.js runtime. On the other hand, Material UI is built on top of React, a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, and allows developers to create UI components using React's virtual DOM and component-based architecture.

  5. Difference 3: Target Platforms: Electron applications can be built for multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a consistent experience across different platforms. In contrast, Material UI is primarily focused on web development and is not limited to specific operating systems, as web applications can run on any browser that supports the necessary technologies.

  6. Difference 4: Level of Abstraction: Electron provides a lower-level framework that gives developers more control over the desktop environment, allowing direct access to native APIs and system resources. On the other hand, Material UI abstracts many UI-related details by providing pre-built components and styling options, making it easier for developers to create consistent and visually appealing UIs without worrying about low-level implementation details.

  7. Difference 5: Development Environment: Electron applications are typically developed using web development tools and workflows, with the ability to use frameworks and libraries commonly used in web development. Material UI, being a UI library for React, is integrated into React projects and can be used alongside other React-specific tools and libraries.

  8. Difference 6: Learning Curve: Electron requires familiarity with web technologies, as well as understanding desktop application development concepts, such as packaging and distributing applications. Material UI, on the other hand, assumes prior knowledge of React and its related concepts, making it easier for developers already familiar with React to adopt and use Material UI in their projects.

In summary, Electron is a framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, while Material UI is a UI library that helps in designing visually appealing and consistent user interfaces for web applications using React. Electron focuses on desktop application development with direct access to native APIs, while Material UI abstracts UI-related details and provides pre-built components for easier web UI development.

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Advice on Material-UI, Electron

Xinyi
Xinyi

Software Developer at DCSIL

Oct 9, 2020

Decided

As our team will be building a web application, HTML5 and CSS3 are one of the standardized combinations to implement the structure and the styling of a webpage. Material-UI comes with all sorts of predesigned web components such as buttons and dropdowns that will save us tons of development time. Since it is a component library designed for React, it suits our needs. However, we do acknowledge that predesigned components may sometimes cause pains especially when it comes to custom styling. To make our life even easier, we also adopted Tailwind CSS. It is a CSS framework providing low-level utility classes that will act as building blocks when we create custom designs.

359k views359k
Comments
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
Abigail
Abigail

Dec 10, 2019

Decided

Fonts and typography are fun. Material Design is a framework (developed by Google) that basically geeks out on how to assemble your typographical elements together into a design language. If you're into fonts and typography, it's fantastic. It provides a theming engine, reusable components, and can pull different user interfaces together under a common design paradigm. I'd highly recommend looking into Borries Schwesinger's book "The Form Book" if you're going to be working with Material UI or are otherwise new to component design.

https://www.amazon.com/Form-Book-Creating-Printed-Online/dp/0500515085

767k views767k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Material-UI
Material-UI
Electron
Electron

Material UI is a library of React UI components that implements Google's Material Design.

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.

Tables; Forms; Snackbars; Buttons; Theming
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
2.7K
Stacks
11.6K
Followers
3.7K
Followers
10.0K
Votes
445
Votes
148
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 141
    React
  • 82
    Material Design
  • 60
    Ui components
  • 30
    CSS framework
  • 26
    Component
Cons
  • 36
    Hard to learn. Bad documentation
  • 29
    Hard to customize
  • 22
    Hard to understand Docs
  • 9
    Bad performance
  • 7
    Extra library needed for date/time pickers
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
Integrations
React
React
Emotion
Emotion
Next.js
Next.js
styled-components
styled-components
Node.js
Node.js
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Material-UI, Electron?

Bootstrap

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

Foundation

Foundation

Foundation is the most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world. You can quickly prototype and build sites or apps that work on any kind of device with Foundation, which includes layout constructs (like a fully responsive grid), elements and best practices.

Semantic UI

Semantic UI

Semantic empowers designers and developers by creating a shared vocabulary for UI.

Materialize

Materialize

A CSS Framework based on material design.

Material Design for Angular

Material Design for Angular

Material Design is a specification for a unified system of visual, motion, and interaction design that adapts across different devices. Our goal is to deliver a lean, lightweight set of AngularJS-native UI elements that implement the material design system for use in Angular SPAs.

Blazor

Blazor

Blazor is a .NET web framework that runs in any browser. You author Blazor apps using C#/Razor and HTML.

Quasar Framework

Quasar Framework

Build responsive Single Page Apps, SSR Apps, PWAs, Hybrid Mobile Apps and Electron Apps, all using the same codebase!, powered with Vue.

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js presets all the configuration needed to make your development of a Vue.js application enjoyable. You can use Nuxt.js for SSR, SPA, Static Generated, PWA and more.

UIkIt

UIkIt

UIkit gives you a comprehensive collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components which is simple to use, easy to customize and extendable.

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind is different from frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Bulma in that it's not a UI kit. It doesn't have a default theme, and there are no build-in UI components. It comes with a menu of predesigned widgets to build your site with, but doesn't impose design decisions that are difficult to undo.

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