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  1. Stackups
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  4. Cross Platform Desktop Development
  5. Electron vs Nativefier vs Proton Native

Electron vs Nativefier vs Proton Native

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Electron
Electron
Stacks11.6K
Followers10.0K
Votes148
Nativefier
Nativefier
Stacks29
Followers95
Votes2
Proton Native
Proton Native
Stacks23
Followers182
Votes10
GitHub Stars10.9K
Forks359

Electron vs Nativefier vs Proton Native: What are the differences?


<Write Introduction here>

1. **Installation**: Electron requires installation of Node.js to run, whereas Nativefier and Proton Native are both frameworks that allow conversion of web applications into standalone desktop applications without requiring Node.js or any additional runtimes.
2. **Development Language**: Electron uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build desktop applications, while Nativefier and Proton Native use web technologies along with frameworks like React and Vue to create native-like applications.
3. **Bundle Size**: Electron applications have larger bundle sizes due to including the entire Chromium engine, whereas Nativefier and Proton Native generate smaller executable files by leveraging the native platform's capabilities.
4. **UI Components**: Electron provides a customizable set of UI components like buttons, menus, and dialogs, while Nativefier uses the browser's native components and Proton Native leverages platform-native UI components, resulting in a more seamless user experience.
5. **Performance**: Electron may have slightly lower performance compared to native applications due to running in a separate process, while Nativefier and Proton Native applications perform better as they are closer to the native code execution on the target platform.
6. **Cross-Platform Development**: Electron, Nativefier, and Proton Native all support cross-platform development, but Electron may require additional configurations for platform-specific functionality, while Nativefier and Proton Native streamline the process with built-in support for platform-specific features.

In Summary, Electron, Nativefier, and Proton Native offer different approaches to building desktop applications, with differences in installation requirements, development languages, bundle sizes, UI components, performance, and cross-platform development capabilities.

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Advice on Electron, Nativefier, Proton Native

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
Nativefier
Nativefier
Proton Native
Proton Native

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.

Nativefier is a command line tool that allows you to easily create a desktop application for any web site with succinct and minimal configuration. Apps are wrapped by Electron in an OS executable (.app, .exe, etc.) for use on Windows, OSX and Linux.

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

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
-
Same syntax as React Native; Works with existing React libraries such as Redux; Cross platform; Native components (no more Electron)
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
10.9K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
359
Stacks
11.6K
Stacks
29
Stacks
23
Followers
10.0K
Followers
95
Followers
182
Votes
148
Votes
2
Votes
10
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
    No proper documentation
  • 4
    Does not native
  • 1
    Wrong reference for dom inspection
Pros
  • 2
    Has a better Javascript support, and is much faster
Pros
  • 3
    Very fast
  • 3
    Full cross plataform
  • 2
    Lightweight
  • 1
    React style
  • 1
    Is native
Cons
  • 1
    Low community for the moment
Integrations
No integrations availableNo integrations available
React
React

What are some alternatives to Electron, Nativefier, Proton Native?

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.

React Native Desktop

React Native Desktop

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.

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.

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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