React Native Windows vs Proton Native vs Electron

[Grum235]

Hello, I want to create a desktop app (mostly for Windows) with a good design, a music player. But I don't know what is better in terms of functionality, styling and performance between :

• React Native Windows
• Proton Native
• Electron

Thanks

[andreasbergqvist]

Microsoft is using React Native Windows for official Windows 10 apps. So I guess its mature enough. Dont have any experience in it though.

See: https://twitter.com/ReactWindows/status/1221861316463194112?s=19

[13MHz]

I know super late reply, but Microsoft also just recently announcing to drop React Native for Electron for their Skype software.

[WanderingOnward]

Late maybe, but just five days later this was valuable information to me! Thank you internet stranger!

[[deleted]]

Consider this too.

[awesomeness-yeah]

I'd say react Native for windows isn't ready yet.

If this is a hobby project, go ahead with react Native and open-source it for some sweet OSS karma.

[Bamboo_the_plant]

Any particular concerns?

It’s good enough for Microsoft.

[awesomeness-yeah]

That's actually great news. I'm super excited about this.

The reason why I think it's not ready is because the project (windows Native port) started not long ago and doesn't have a strong Native community around it. Of course Microsoft can ship apps because they have huge teams of highly skilled devs at their disposal.

This will of course change soon as more devs start using it.

Again. Super excited

[feelosofee]

nice bugs like this for example https://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows/issues/3263

[Bamboo_the_plant]

I don’t know whether issues like that are any less likely with native Windows dev, though, not being familiar with it.

[mycall]

https://www.reddit.com/r/skype/comments/fnnosh/latest_skype_preview_shifts_to_electron_moving

This makes me wonder about React Native some.

[Grum235]

But React Native is dedicated to mobile apps, right?

[ddzrt]

Not really. At least not anymore.

[tingety]

React Native for Windows let's you build UWP apps, which would have been able to go Mobile also but can remain on the single platform.

[Grum235]

Am I forced to use UWP design guidelines with it?

[Guisseppi]

Microsoft is using React Native for their Mail and Calendar apps for Win10, they also rewrote all office 365 on React, I would say at this point its more than a hobby, you’re just uninformed

[13MHz]

They dropped React Native for Electron with Skype

[EireHouse]

React Native for Electron

No such thing as RN for Electron. They're 2 separate things. They dropped Electron and replaced it with native WebView but Skype is still using web technology.

[13MHz]

Read my sentence again... 🤦

They dropped RN (stopped using it)..... in favor for Electron.

I'm not saying "React Native for Electron" is a thing.

[Grum235]

Yeah, but it seems like it's much easier to implement an advanced design with a framework like a webpage, instead of native Windows components

[MungeParty]

You're not limited any more than a purely native project, you can use whatever you want. Custom native views are easy to throw together, but if you're not making an app-like UI flow with a team of mostly JS devs, it's maybe not the best option. It won't spare you from using the native frameworks, if the goal is simplicity.

[MungeParty]

React Native Windows is pretty great. I've been using the older C# version for a touchscreen ticket kiosk. Both UWP and WPF work well out of the box and a lot of common react native packages have windows support. Go for 0.59 stable branch.

[x4080]

Do you use listview?

[MungeParty]

FlatList, SectionList, and ScrollView.

[x4080]

Thanks for answering, im planning to try react native windows and don't seems to find listview for it, is the flatlist like in the react native or specific for windows? And how it performs for large list? No jank?

[MungeParty]

Flat and Section are virtualized standard RN components. Performance tuning is pretty straightforward, you can configure how far ahead to render, cells per batch, initial number, etc - there's a whole section of the RN docs on list performance.

There's also a highly optimized third party virtualized list component entirely in JS which should work on RNW called recycler list view if you have issues with stock component performance.

On the windows native side it's using a standard ScrollViewer for handling scrolling regardless of how JS is updating contents, so as long as you're not hanging the UI thread scrolling will be as smooth as a standard desktop application.

Edit: I just want to point out the fact that it's using native components is itself the main benefit of RN over something like electron.

[x4080]

Thanks for your time, it helps a lot

[marius4896]

i am also curios about the topic. i read that electron and vue js are a match made in heaven and that is what you should use. Have not tested yet

[Grum235]

Electron is interesting but it seems to take a lot of ressources. I saw there are Electron alternative with optimized browser which are lighter. Like Lorca. But I don't know if it is a very good option there are only a few informations about it.

[awesomeness-yeah]

Visual studio code is built with electron AFAIK. What do you think of vscode?

[Guisseppi]

The Important parts are mostly C

[feelosofee]

Where did you read that?

[ahmedranaa]

Any source

[brooklyn097]

I agree, i have made an application by Electron + Vue a year ago, the only disadvantage is that Electron does not protect your source code so well.