Tauri vs Electron
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Both turn a web frontend into a desktop app. Tauri renders in the operating system's own webview with a Rust backend; Electron ships its own Chromium and Node.js inside every app.
Verdict
Default to Tauri for new, lightweight tools; choose Electron when rendering consistency or an all-JavaScript team outweighs the size cost. Many well-known desktop apps, including VS Code, run on Electron.
Pick Tauri when
- Download size and memory use matter, especially for utilities
- You also want iOS and Android builds from the same project
- The team is comfortable writing some Rust
Pick Electron when
- You need identical rendering everywhere or depend on Chromium-only APIs
- The team wants to stay in JavaScript end to end
- You're wrapping an existing web app or web game for desktop stores
Related playbooks
What actually differs
TauriElectron
RenderingTauri: System webview: WebView2 (Windows), WKWebView (macOS), WebKitGTK (Linux)Electron: Bundled Chromium — the same engine on every OS
BackendTauri: Rust, called from the frontend as commandsElectron: Node.js, with full npm access
App sizeTauri: Small — no browser bundledElectron: Large — every app ships Chromium
ConsistencyTauri: Varies slightly per OS webview; test on each targetElectron: Pixel-identical across platforms
MobileTauri: iOS and Android since Tauri 2Electron: Desktop only
PermissionsTauri: Capabilities explicitly allow what the frontend can callElectron: Main process has full Node access; you lock it down yourself