You can ship the node binary, then have the "app" open up in "chrome-less" mode (no browser bars, like with electron). It's supported in IE, and Chrome. Firefox

You can ship the node binary, then have the "app" open up in "chrome-less" mode (no browser bars, like with electron). It's supported in IE, and Chrome. Firefox also supports "chrome-less" but only for URL's that start with file:// meanwhile some browser features require https:// https:// and http://localhost/ http://localhost/ is not good enough. While it is possible to build a local web app, browsers could make it easier to do so. Also take a look at feature phones that run forked versions of FirefoxOS, it's a growing market. Where apps are basically packaged local web apps. There's also Chrome apps, but they have been deprecated (never build something on top of Google tech :P)