React Desktop vs React Native Desktop

Overview

React Desktop

Stacks15

Followers173

Votes0

GitHub Stars9.5K

Forks454

React Native Desktop

Stacks15

Followers203

Votes11

React Desktop vs React Native Desktop: What are the differences?

Introduction

React Desktop and React Native Desktop are frameworks that allow developers to build desktop applications using React. While both frameworks share similarities, there are key differences that set them apart. In this article, we will explore six important differences between React Desktop and React Native Desktop.

Compilation and Execution Environment: React Desktop is designed to run on Electron, a framework that allows for building cross-platform desktop apps using web technologies. It provides a Chromium-based rendering engine and Node.js runtime, allowing for the use of DOM APIs and Node.js modules. On the other hand, React Native Desktop is designed to run on top of React Native, which provides a bridge to native components and APIs. It uses platform-native rendering engines and does not have direct access to DOM APIs or Node.js modules.
UI Components: React Desktop primarily uses UI components that resemble traditional desktop application interfaces. It provides components like windows, menus, toolbars, and file dialogs that are familiar to desktop users. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, provides UI components that follow the design patterns and styles of mobile applications. These components include buttons, text inputs, scroll views, and navigation drawers that are commonly found in mobile interfaces.
Styling and Theming: React Desktop allows for extensive styling and theming of its UI components using CSS. It supports standard CSS properties and selectors, allowing developers to apply custom styles to individual components. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, uses a combination of CSS and React Native's styling system. It provides a subset of CSS properties and introduces a styled-components library for styling components using JavaScript.
Platform-specific APIs: React Native Desktop provides access to a wide range of platform-specific APIs through its bridge to native components. These APIs allow developers to interact with system functions, hardware features, and third-party libraries. React Desktop, on the other hand, relies on web-based APIs and the Node.js runtime to interact with the underlying operating system. It can access file systems, network APIs, and other web-related features that are available in Electron.
Development Workflow: React Desktop follows a development workflow that is similar to web development. Developers can use familiar tools like code editors, package managers, and debugging tools to build and test their applications. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, requires additional setup for running and debugging applications on specific platforms. Developers need to install platform-specific development tools and libraries to build, run, and test their applications.
Performance and Efficiency: React Desktop applications, being powered by Electron, have a larger footprint compared to React Native Desktop applications. Electron-based applications require more system resources and have a higher memory usage, which can impact performance on lower-spec machines. React Native Desktop applications, on the other hand, have better performance and efficiency since they leverage platform-native rendering engines and APIs, resulting in a more lightweight and optimized experience.

In Summary, React Desktop and React Native Desktop differ in their compilation and execution environment, UI components, styling and theming approach, access to platform-specific APIs, development workflow, and performance/efficiency.

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Advice on React Desktop, React Native Desktop

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

React Desktop	React Native Desktop
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!	Build OS X desktop apps using React Native.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 9.5K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 454	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 15	Stacks 15
Followers 173	Followers 203
Votes 0	Votes 11
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 3 Pretty awesome 2 Is native app 2 Memory usage reduced 2 Does not include any browser 1 Open source Cons 0 Memory usage reduced
Integrations
React	React Native

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

Electron

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.

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.

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.

Related Comparisons

React Desktop vs React Native Desktop: What are the differences?

Introduction

Compilation and Execution Environment: React Desktop is designed to run on Electron, a framework that allows for building cross-platform desktop apps using web technologies. It provides a Chromium-based rendering engine and Node.js runtime, allowing for the use of DOM APIs and Node.js modules. On the other hand, React Native Desktop is designed to run on top of React Native, which provides a bridge to native components and APIs. It uses platform-native rendering engines and does not have direct access to DOM APIs or Node.js modules.
UI Components: React Desktop primarily uses UI components that resemble traditional desktop application interfaces. It provides components like windows, menus, toolbars, and file dialogs that are familiar to desktop users. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, provides UI components that follow the design patterns and styles of mobile applications. These components include buttons, text inputs, scroll views, and navigation drawers that are commonly found in mobile interfaces.
Styling and Theming: React Desktop allows for extensive styling and theming of its UI components using CSS. It supports standard CSS properties and selectors, allowing developers to apply custom styles to individual components. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, uses a combination of CSS and React Native's styling system. It provides a subset of CSS properties and introduces a styled-components library for styling components using JavaScript.
Platform-specific APIs: React Native Desktop provides access to a wide range of platform-specific APIs through its bridge to native components. These APIs allow developers to interact with system functions, hardware features, and third-party libraries. React Desktop, on the other hand, relies on web-based APIs and the Node.js runtime to interact with the underlying operating system. It can access file systems, network APIs, and other web-related features that are available in Electron.
Development Workflow: React Desktop follows a development workflow that is similar to web development. Developers can use familiar tools like code editors, package managers, and debugging tools to build and test their applications. React Native Desktop, on the other hand, requires additional setup for running and debugging applications on specific platforms. Developers need to install platform-specific development tools and libraries to build, run, and test their applications.
Performance and Efficiency: React Desktop applications, being powered by Electron, have a larger footprint compared to React Native Desktop applications. Electron-based applications require more system resources and have a higher memory usage, which can impact performance on lower-spec machines. React Native Desktop applications, on the other hand, have better performance and efficiency since they leverage platform-native rendering engines and APIs, resulting in a more lightweight and optimized experience.

React Desktop vs React Native Desktop

Overview

React Desktop vs React Native Desktop: What are the differences?