What Are Electron Apps? The 5 Best Electron Apps

Making desktop programs compatible beyond platforms is a time-consuming and labor-intensive procedure, considering of the inherent differences in the fashion diverse operating systems work. That being the case, developers wanting to code for all three major desktop operating systems have to re-write large portions of their code-base when porting their apps from one Bone to another, making information technology a plush and laborious exercise. That's where Electron comes in. It's an amazing tool that makes information technology like shooting fish in a barrel for developers to make their desktop programs compatible across a wide array of operating systems, including Windows, macOS and Linux, and although it does take it'south downsides, the benefits far outweigh the negatives for the near part. With more developers starting to build their apps on Electron for cross-platform compatibility, let's take a look at what they are and why they're gaining in popularity. While at it, we'll besides take a look at some of the all-time Electron apps that y'all can download right now.

What are Electron Apps?

Known equally Atom Trounce in its earlier avatar, Electron is a powerful open source framework that allows developers to create native cantankerous-platform applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML and CSS using Node.js runtime as the back-terminate component and Chromium for the front-end . It was originally created past sometime Googler Cheng Zhao and is currently developed by GitHub equally one of its ain projects. Popular VoIP application Discord and open up source text editors Atom and MS Visual Studio Lawmaking are some of the best examples of desktop applications that are powered by Electron.

Benefits and Downsides of Using Electron to Build Desktop Applications

There are several benefits of using Electron instead of web resources to build an application, first and foremost amidst which is cross-platform compatibility. For developers looking to lower costs and reduce dependencies, Electron is a huge nugget equally they don't need to code across multiple browsers and operating systems. On the user-side, Electron applications have an uniform expect and feel regardless of the operating organisation, and it will go on to remain that way years from now.

On the flipside, every Electron app bundles an entire web runtime with it, fifty-fifty though a suitable runtime already exists on all major operating systems. That results in bloated build sizes and excess memory usage, because each of these apps run a separate instance of Chromium, hogging CPU and retentiveness resource even when they're merely idling in the groundwork. While Electron proponents debate that bundling a spider web runtime is necessary to provide an identical experience to each and every single user irrespective of the platform of their selection, critics merits that it is a avoidably wasteful and highly inefficient mode of doing things.

Applications Adult Using Electron

Modern cross-platform desktop applications built with JavaScript rely on either Electron or NW.js, and although both frameworks work in a similar fashion for the most role, Electron is proving to be the more popular selection amid developers right now. In that location are literally hundreds of desktop applications that use Electron, and the list continues to abound with time. That being the case, let'due south take a expect at the 5 all-time and most popular Electron apps that are bachelor for download correct now:

1. Discord

Discord is a free VoIP awarding that'south available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. The software was initially released in March 2015, and has already gained a cult following amid gamers with over 50 million registered users from around the world. The company has been adding new features and functionality to its desktop client constantly, and only recently released video calling and screen-sharing features to its entire user-base, subsequently having rolled them out equally a public beta to 5% of users a few weeks earlier.