Tauri

Tauri is Electron done right. Build desktop (and now mobile) apps with web tech, but instead of bundling Chromium, Tauri uses the system's native webview. The result: 10x smaller binaries, 5x less RAM, and Rust-powered backend for security and performance.

Electron is the incumbent with the massive ecosystem — VS Code, Discord, Slack all use it. Flutter for desktop is the cross-platform alternative using Dart. Qt is the native C++ option for maximum performance. Wails is a similar Go-based approach.

If you're starting a new desktop app in 2026, Tauri should be your default. The v2 release added mobile support (iOS/Android), making it a true cross-platform framework. The Rust backend handles system APIs, file access, and heavy computation while your web frontend handles UI.

The catch: the system webview means inconsistent rendering across platforms — your app looks slightly different on macOS (WebKit) vs Windows (WebView2) vs Linux (WebKitGTK). Debugging cross-platform issues is harder than Electron where everyone gets the same Chromium. And the Rust learning curve is real if you need custom backend plugins.