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Ask HN: Looking for honest testimonials of Electron vs. Qt vs. GTK

Hi, Electron is the target of a lot of hate on developer's forums. Nonetheless a lot of app are created with it everyday and you won't make me believe that these developers are just 'stupid' (the words of people hating electron, not mines). This is why today I'm looking for honest testimonials of people having built apps with Electron and / or Qt and why they chose one rather than the other, if they have regrets or if there is some pitfalls. Best regards

scambier 6y ago
I'm currently building a note-taking app on my free time, with syntactic coloration. I had the choice to go with Electron and CodeMirror, or spend all my time learning new tools (and most likely give up after two weeks). I went with Electron. Haters gonna hate (often with valid arguments), but my todo list doesn't stagnate and I am (and feel) productive.
- sylvain_kerkour 6y ago
  Thank you for the feedback! This is also my impression, the developer experience of electron is just so great! On the other hand, looking at the Qt website I believe there is a misalignment between the need of the developers and what the Qt Company is pushing.
  - scambier 6y ago
    > the developer experience of electron is just so great! We're biased though. I'm sure Qt developers who love working with would be miserable with Electron. > On the other hand, looking at the Qt website I believe there is a misalignment between the need of the developers and what the Qt Company is pushing. Yeah I'm not sure who this marketing is aimed at. Developers turned managers? It's "too shiny" to keep me interested, but IMO too technical to interest product owners.
semireg 6y ago
I built an electron app using the react boilerplate to get started. My app uses a handful of native node modules that let me interface with Mac and windows environments in a fairly seamless way. My app is sold directly from my website using a custom licensing system I built using express, GraphQL and JWT. I also sell on the Mac App Store and Microsoft store. Tooling such as electron-builder make packaging and multi-channel distribution possible, but it’s still a lot of work. You can check out my app at https://label.live https://label.live. I’m happy to answer any questions about my experience.

scambier 6y ago

I'm currently building a note-taking app on my free time, with syntactic coloration. I had the choice to go with Electron and CodeMirror, or spend all my time learning new tools (and most likely give up after two weeks). I went with Electron. Haters gonna hate (often with valid arguments), but my todo list doesn't stagnate and I am (and feel) productive.

sylvain_kerkour 6y ago
Thank you for the feedback! This is also my impression, the developer experience of electron is just so great! On the other hand, looking at the Qt website I believe there is a misalignment between the need of the developers and what the Qt Company is pushing.
- scambier 6y ago
  > the developer experience of electron is just so great! We're biased though. I'm sure Qt developers who love working with would be miserable with Electron. > On the other hand, looking at the Qt website I believe there is a misalignment between the need of the developers and what the Qt Company is pushing. Yeah I'm not sure who this marketing is aimed at. Developers turned managers? It's "too shiny" to keep me interested, but IMO too technical to interest product owners.

semireg 6y ago

I built an electron app using the react boilerplate to get started. My app uses a handful of native node modules that let me interface with Mac and windows environments in a fairly seamless way. My app is sold directly from my website using a custom licensing system I built using express, GraphQL and JWT. I also sell on the Mac App Store and Microsoft store. Tooling such as electron-builder make packaging and multi-channel distribution possible, but it’s still a lot of work. You can check out my app at https://label.live https://label.live. I’m happy to answer any questions about my experience.