Desktop Frameworks

4 open source tools compared. Sorted by stars — scroll down for our analysis.

Tool	Stars	Velocity	Language	License	Score
Electron Build cross-platform desktop apps with JS/HTML/CSS	120.8k	+82/wk	C++	MIT License	82
Tauri Build desktop and mobile apps with web frontend	105.0k	+263/wk	Rust	Apache License 2.0	82
Wails Create beautiful applications using Go	33.6k	+102/wk	Go	MIT License	79
shell ‼️ No waybar here ‼️	8.7k	+135/wk	QML	GNU General Public License v3.0	70

Our Analysis

Electron120.8k★

Electron wraps Chromium and Node.js into desktop applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you build with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS you already know. Slack, VS Code, Discord, Figma's desktop app, Notion, all Electron. You build a web app, Electron makes it a native-feeling desktop app. MIT license, maintained by GitHub (Microsoft). The ecosystem is massive. Frameworks like Electron Forge and electron-builder handle packaging, signing, and auto-updates. If you know React/Vue/Svelte, you can ship a desktop app. Everything is free. No paid tier, no commercial license. The catch: every Electron app ships its own copy of Chromium. That "Hello World" app is 150MB+ and uses 200-300MB of RAM minimum. Users complain about this constantly. If you're building something lightweight, Tauri uses the system's built-in webview instead, resulting in 5-10MB apps that use a fraction of the memory. Electron is the pragmatic choice when you want the largest ecosystem and most battle-tested tooling. Tauri is the better choice when app size and resource usage matter. Choose your trade-off.

Tauri105.0k★

Tauri lets you wrap a web frontend (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) in a native desktop shell. Same idea as Electron (which VS Code uses), but Tauri apps are dramatically smaller because they use the OS's built-in web renderer instead of shipping a copy of Chrome. Apache 2.0 and MIT dual-licensed, Rust backend. A basic Tauri app is 3MB where the Electron equivalent is 150MB+. Backend logic runs in Rust for native performance and system access. Tauri v2 added mobile support (iOS and Android), making it cross-platform for desktop AND mobile. Completely free. CrabNebula (the company behind Tauri) offers paid cloud build and distribution services, but the framework itself costs nothing. Solo: perfect for shipping a desktop app with web tech. Small teams: great for internal tools. Growing teams: evaluate whether Rust is a skill your team has. Large: consider CrabNebula for build infrastructure at scale. The catch: you need Rust for the backend. If your team is pure JavaScript, that's a real barrier. The ecosystem is younger than Electron's: fewer plugins, fewer examples, and debugging the Rust-JS bridge gets tricky. And because each OS uses its own web renderer, you'll hit cross-platform rendering inconsistencies that Electron avoids by shipping its own browser.

Wails33.6k★

Wails builds desktop apps using Go and web tech, but uses the OS native webview instead of bundling Chromium. The result: small binaries (5-10MB vs Electron's 150MB+), low memory usage, and native OS integration. MIT license. Build for Windows, macOS, and Linux from one codebase. The frontend can use any framework: React, Vue, Svelte, plain HTML. Go handles the backend logic, exposed to the frontend via auto-generated TypeScript bindings. Hot reload during development, native menus, dialogs, and system tray support. Fully free. No paid tier, no hosted version. It's a framework you develop with. Solo developers: Wails is excellent if you know Go and want desktop apps without learning a native GUI toolkit. Small teams: the Go + web stack means most web developers can contribute to the frontend. Works at any team size. The catch: native webview means your app renders differently on each OS. Windows uses WebView2 (Chromium-based), macOS uses WebKit, Linux uses WebKitGTK. Cross-platform consistency is harder than Electron where everyone gets the same Chromium. Wails v3 is in development with breaking changes from v2. And the ecosystem of plugins and community packages is much smaller than Electron's. If you need absolute cross-platform pixel-perfect consistency, Electron or Tauri (Rust-based, same webview approach) are safer bets.

shell8.7k★

This is a full desktop shell built in QML for Hyprland (a Wayland compositor). No waybar, no polybar, no cobbling together five different tools. One unified shell that handles everything, with a This thing is exploding. GPL-3.0. The shell replaces your entire desktop interface: panel/bar, notification center, app launcher, lock screen, wallpaper engine, and system controls. Built in QML (Qt's declarative UI language) for buttery animations. Fully free. The creator has a Ko-fi for donations but there's no paid tier or premium features. The catch: this only works on Hyprland (a specific Wayland compositor on Linux). If you're on GNOME, KDE, Sway, or anything else, let alone macOS or Windows, this isn't for you. It's also a dotfiles project, meaning you're adopting someone else's configuration. Customizing it means understanding QML. And the 'no waybar' philosophy means you lose access to waybar's extensive module ecosystem.