Wails

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.