Monday, February 02, 2026

Desktop apps: Wails vs Electron vs...

Wails is a project that enables you to write desktop apps using Go and web technologies.
Consider it a lightweight and fast Electron alternative for Go.
You can easily build applications with the flexibility and power of Go,
combined with a rich, modern frontend.
  • Native Menus, Dialogs, Theming and Translucency
  • Windows, macOS and linux support
  • Built in templates for Svelte, React, Preact, Vue, Lit and Vanilla JS
  • Easily call Go methods from JavaScript
  • Automatic Go struct to TypeScript model generation
  • No CGO or external DLLs required on Windows
  • Live development mode using the power of Vite
  • Powerful CLI to easily Create, Build and Package applications
  • A rich runtime library
  • Applications built with Wails are Apple & Microsoft Store compliant

  • Go backend with full native access
  • Web frontend (so you get Monaco/CodeMirror for free)
  • Uses native webview (not bundled Chromium) - ~10-15MB final binary
  • SQLite trivial via Go's modernc.org/sqlite (pure Go, no CGO)
  • Startup is fast, memory is reasonable
  •  ðŸš€ Building Desktop Apps with Wails: A Go Developer's Perspective - DEV Community

    Wails as Electron Alternative - DEV Community

    Fyne vs Wails : r/golang

    Why Wails Wins at IPC for Go Desktop Apps (and How It Stacks Up Against Tauri & Electron) | by Tachera Sasi | Medium


    Wails: IPC That Feels Native

    Wails is all about Go on the backend + whatever JS framework you like on the frontend. What makes its IPC stand out is how automatic it feels. You bind your Go structs or methods, and Wails spits out JS/TS files for you — no JSON wrangling, no boilerplate glue code.



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