Electron vs Proton Native vs React Desktop

Overview

Electron

Stacks11.6K

Followers10.0K

Votes148

React Desktop

Stacks15

Followers173

Votes0

GitHub Stars9.5K

Forks454

Proton Native

Stacks23

Followers182

Votes10

GitHub Stars10.9K

Forks359

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Advice on Electron, React Desktop, Proton Native

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

Electron	React Desktop	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.	react-desktop is a JavaScript library built ontop of Facebook's React library, which aims to bring a native desktop experience to the web, featuring many OS X El Capitan and Windows 10 components. react-desktop works perfectly with node-webkit and Electron.js, but can be used in any JavaScript powered project!	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 9.5K	GitHub Stars 10.9K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 454	GitHub Forks 359
Stacks 11.6K	Stacks 15	Stacks 23
Followers 10.0K	Followers 173	Followers 182
Votes 148	Votes 0	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 Each app needs to install a new chromium + nodejs	No community feedback yet	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 available	React	React

What are some alternatives to Electron, React Desktop, Proton Native?

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.

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.