Electron vs React Native: Which Framework is Best for Your App Development?

Published on January 15th, 2025

Many startups and mid-sized companies dream about building an app that works on multiple platforms, such as Android, iOS, and AndroidOS. Having a cross-platform app is no longer an option, it’s a mandatory requirement for businesses to drive success. However, it’s challenging to decide which framework is better.

Some go for Electron while others prefer React Native app development. Both have advantages and disadvantages when selecting the ideal framework. React Native is a highly renowned and scalable framework for building mobile apps. In contrast, Electron is famous for its effortless integration with web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create high-end desktop apps.

In this blog, let’s explore these two efficient frameworks in depth. We will highlight the key differences, pros, and cons between Electron and React Native app development to help you make an informed decision for your next big mobile app development project. But first, let’s briefly understand React Native and Electron.js.

What are React Native App Development & Electron.js?

As per Statista’s research, one out of three developers have expertise in developing cross-platform mobile apps. The remaining use native technologies and frameworks. Moreover, Android mobile apps contribute to around 86% of the global mobile app market share, whereas iOS apps account for around 14%. These stats are important when considering the right app development tool or framework.

React Native App Development is an open-source, user interface framework used with native technologies to develop software and apps. The platforms usually include Android, iOS, AndroidTV, Mac, and tvOS. In this framework, the common languages used are Python, JavaScript, C, and C++.

On the flip side, Electron.js is a framework used to create cross-platform desktop apps, particularly for Google and Apple, leveraging languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is powered by GitHub for the Atom Code editor. This means that the applications built using Electron.js are web-based applications. The best part about this framework is that, unlike React Native App development, Electron.js doesn’t require any previous training or knowledge of tools.

Tabular Difference Between Electron.js & React Native App Development

Understanding the core differences between Electron.js and React Native is essential for choosing the right framework to meet your project’s specific requirements.

Detailed Difference Between Electron.js & React Native App Development

Electron.js and react native are both robust techniques for developing powerful cross-platform apps. However, their use cases are a lot different. While electron.js is compatible with building cross-platform desktop apps, reactive native app development focuses on creating cross-platform app development.

Let’s thoroughly understand the benefits and disadvantages of each.

Benefits of React Native App Development

One of the most well-considered merits of using the React Native framework is its use of ease. It allows developers to build mobile apps more flexibly, without compromising the overall UI/UX. Some other benefits include:

Live Reload Feature

Ever heard about hot reloading? It’s a feature that allows applications to keep running and adding new file versions in real time. It enables developers to make necessary adjustments to the app’s UI without losing its current state. Moreover, it refreshes the app by automatically reloading it after the update. This helps save time without any manual intervention.

Ready-Made Library Use Cases

Building an excellent user interface is not a need, it’s a much bigger thing nowadays in app development. Imagine advertising a dull, boring business app in the market with no appealing effects — do you think your desired audience will waste time using it?

With React Native’s ready-made libraries, including Expo, Shoutem, and ShareJS, you can build an app with stunning features and smooth UI/UX.

Easy Third-Party Integration

Plugins are essential for every app to work effectively. React Native framework provides support to plenty of third-party plugins, including JavaScript libraries and Native modules to enhance the overall functionality of the app. 

Budget-Friendly & Powerful Framework

React Native uses a single-core API and CSS-inspired flexbox layout system. These features offer a unified application programming interface for both Android and iOS. It further allows the production of platform-specific code from a shared codebase and accelerates the overall development process. This makes React Native an ideal choice for developers to build MVPs rapidly and cost-effectively.

Application Stability

The data binding feature in React Native makes applications more stable. This powerful framework allows apps to be more durable and reliable in the long run. The child component doesn’t affect the parent component in any way.

In case you need to update permitted native elements in React Native or want to make any changes, you can do them hassle-free without compromising the functionality of any individual component. That’s how stable the applications are on React Native.

Open Source

React Native is an open-source framework, free for Android, iOS, and Windows. It enables developers to freely use its libraries in API integrations without compromising the app’s functionality.

Demerits of React Native App Development

Every coin has two sides. Even after understanding the advantages of React Native, it has some flaws. Let’s discuss them:

Issues in Debugging

Since React Native apps are developed using Java, JavaScript, and C++, it may sometimes raise an issue in debugging. If a developer doesn’t know any of these programming languages, it will be hard for them to debug the code.

It’s mainly because the React Native framework goes to and fro between native modules thread and JavaScript. Due to this, the app developers are forced to use debugging tools like Flipper in the system for additional support.

Security Issues

React Native’s security feature is quite fragile and this may impact the application’s robustness. Therefore, while building an app using React Native, be sure to consider factors, such as SSL pinning, secure data storage, pinning, and proper handling of environmental variables. Apart from this, developers building the app must have a solid understanding of Android and iOS native platforms to minimize security risks. So, if your business application includes financial data or any sensitive information, React Native might not be the ideal choice.

Difficult to Master

App developers unfamiliar with React Native or any other app development framework might find it difficult to unleash the full potential of React Native. You must have a solid understanding of JavaScript and third-party plugin integration.

Moreover, initializing React Native for advanced or high-tech devices often takes more time compared to other frameworks, which may overwhelm inexperienced developers. As a result, it’s better suited for teams with prior experience in cross-platform development or those willing to invest time in mastering its complexities.

Benefits of Electron.js

For cross-platform desktop applications, such as Single Page Applications (SPA), Electron.js is perfect. Here are some benefits of using this framework:

High Data Handling Capacity

Electron.js comes with an exclusive “desktop mode” feature which allows developers to fetch data locally just by switching to the desk mode. However, if data is stored on a cloud platform, developers must ensure that the platform is safe before accessing it.

Convenient Access

By using JavaScript or any other plugin, developers can easily access hardware-level APIs. This framework provides everything that you need to develop a secure desktop application, even the migration. If you have an app on some other framework, you can easily migrate it to Electron.js.

Code Reusability

Developers use Electron.js for creating both desktop and web applications by utilizing a single codebase. You don’t require another codebase for a different platform, such as React, Angular.js, or Vue. It’s highly compatible with all of them.

Compatibility with UI/UX Tools

Electron.js empowers developers with a wide range of UI/UX tools that enhance desktop applications across all platforms while ensuring visually appealing designs. Additionally, its efficiency in streamlining the development process allows businesses to build applications faster and more cost-effectively, helping them stay within budget without compromising on quality.

Demerits of Electron.js

You might think that Electron.js can be a good framework for your app, and it is — based on your requirements. However, there are a few drawbacks to using Electron.js. Let’s discuss

Resource-Intensive

Apps built using Electron.js consume plenty of system resources, battery, and RAM. Due to this, you cannot optimize the system with regular optimization because it’s too energy-consuming. In such scenarios, building native applications for each platform is a more feasible option. 

Large App Size

Apps developed using the Electron.js framework have their own Chromium versions. And Chromium is already considered quite heavy software (as heavy as an OS), consisting of a myriad of code lines. So, even if your app is for cross-platform use, it will have a large size and occupy a lot of space on the hard drive. Not everyone is OKAY with that kind of thing.

Limited Customization

Customizing cross-platform applications built with Electron.js can be challenging. Developers often need to invest significant time to implement unique features for each platform, which can extend the development timeline and increase costs.

Final Thoughts

Whether you need an app using React Native or Electron.js, both platforms can help you build an app that will stand the test of time. Both frameworks have their pros and cons. If React Native can build high-end mobile apps, it can’t beat Electron in creating more scalable web apps. If someone is using Electron.js, that might not be a great choice for your app and vice versa. Don’t listen to anyone while choosing the right one for yourself. Make the decision based on your project’s requirements.

If you need guidance or are ready to initiate your business app development journey, feel free to partner with iTechnoLabs, your leading app development company in Canada. Successfully launch your mobile or desktop app today!