Electron vs Tauri
How does Electron compare to Tauri?
See the pros and cons of each framework, target platforms and more.
Electron
Tauri
About
Maintainer
OpenJS FoundationInitial Release
15 July 2013
Maintainer
Tauri FoundationInitial Release
June 19, 2022
Community
Languages
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- HTML
- CSS
- Rust
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- HTML
- CSS
Target Platforms
- Android
- Android Auto
- Android TV
- iOS
- ✓ Linux
- ✓ macOS
- tvOS
- watchOS
- Wear Os
- ✓ Windows
- ✓ Android
- Android Auto
- Android TV
- ✓ iOS
- ✓ Linux
- ✓ macOS
- tvOS
- watchOS
- Wear Os
- ✓ Windows
✅Strengths
- Cross-platform
Electron allows developers to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms. This saves development time and effort.
- Web Technologies
Developers can use web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build desktop apps with Electron, which they may already be familiar with. This can make development faster and more comfortable.
- Native APIs
Electron provides a bridge between the web technologies and the native APIs of the operating systems. This means that developers can access native functionality like the menu bar, tray and much more.
- Large Community
Electron has a large and active developer community, which means there is plenty of documentation, tutorials, and examples available to help developers build desktop apps.
- Cross-platform
Tauri allows developers to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms, including Mobile and Desktop. This saves development time and effort.
- Web Technologies
Developers can use web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build desktop apps with Tauri, which they may already be familiar with. This can make development faster and more comfortable.
- Native APIs
Tauri provides a bridge between the web technologies and the native APIs by using Rust. This means that developers can access native functionality like the menu bar, tray and much more.
- App Size
Tauri uses the webview component of the operating system during runtime, which means that apps built with Tauri are very small.
- Performance
Apps built with Tauri can be very performant due to use of Rust on the backend. Developers must be careful to avoid performance pitfalls in the frontend, however.
- Plugins
Tauri has a plugin system that allows developers to extend the functionality of their apps. There are many plugins available to help developers build apps faster.
🛑Weaknesses
- Performance
Apps built with Electron may not perform as well as those built natively due to the overhead introduced by the webview.
- App Size
Electron apps have Chromium and Node.js bundled with them which can make the resulting binary quite large.
- Limited Platforms
Electron can only target desktop environments like Windows, macOS and Linux.
- Emerging Community
Tauri is a relatively new framework, which means that there is not a lot of tutorials, and examples available to help developers apps.
- Learning Curve
Despite being popular, even for experienced developers can struggle to learn Rust. Developers can get away building Tauri apps without knowing Rust, but eventually they will need to learn Rust to build more complex features.