Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Electron VS Opera

Compare Electron VS Opera and see what are their differences

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Electron logo Electron

Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

Opera logo Opera

Opera is a browser with innovative features, speed and security.
  • Electron Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-01
  • Opera Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-20

Electron features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Electron allows developers to create applications that run on Windows, macOS, and Linux using a single codebase, making it easier to reach a broader audience.
  • Web Technologies
    Developers can utilize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (including popular frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue) to build Electron apps, enabling a more accessible development process for web developers.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    Electron benefits from the vast ecosystem of Node.js, granting access to a multitude of packages and modules, and simplifying the inclusion of various functionalities in applications.
  • Auto-Update Mechanism
    Electron has built-in support for auto-updating applications, which saves developers time and effort in managing updates and improves the user experience by keeping the application up-to-date seamlessly.
  • Active Community
    An active community and extensive documentation provide a wealth of resources for developers, from tutorials to plugins, making it easier to find support and improve productivity.

Possible disadvantages of Electron

  • Large File Size
    Because Electron packages both the application code and a version of Chromium, applications tend to be significantly larger in file size compared to native counterparts.
  • High Memory Consumption
    Electron apps can consume more memory because each window runs its instance of Chromium, which can lead to inefficient resource usage, especially on systems with limited memory.
  • Performance
    Due to its reliance on web technologies and Chromium, Electron applications may not perform as well as optimally coded native apps, particularly in resource-intensive scenarios.
  • Security Concerns
    Electron's use of web technologies and features like Node.js integration increases the attack surface, requiring careful handling of security practices to prevent vulnerabilities such as injection attacks.
  • Complexity in Debugging
    Debugging Electron applications can be more complex due to the blend of backend (Node.js) and frontend (browser-like) code, requiring developers to be proficient in multiple debugging tools and techniques.

Opera features and specs

  • Speed
    Opera is known for its fast browsing experience due to its optimized browsing engine and efficient resource management.
  • Built-in VPN
    Opera includes a free, unlimited VPN service, providing users with increased privacy and security by masking their IP addresses.
  • Battery Saver
    The browser features a battery saver mode that extends the battery life of laptops by reducing the browser's power consumption.
  • Ad Blocker
    Opera has an integrated ad blocker that enhances browsing speed and user experience by blocking intrusive ads.
  • Customizable Interface
    Users can personalize their browsing experience with a variety of themes and workspace options to suit their preferences.
  • Opera Turbo
    This feature compresses data to make web pages load faster, especially useful for those with slower internet connections.
  • Sidebar Integration
    Opera's sidebar allows quick access to social media, messaging apps, and other tools, enhancing multitasking and productivity.

Possible disadvantages of Opera

  • Market Share
    Opera has a smaller user base compared to other major browsers like Chrome and Firefox, which can lead to less community support and fewer extensions.
  • Extension Support
    Though Opera supports Chrome extensions, the overall availability and variety of native Opera extensions are limited compared to its competitors.
  • Sync Issues
    Some users have reported occasional problems with syncing data across devices, which can be inconvenient for those who rely on seamless access to their bookmarks and settings.
  • Compatibility
    Certain websites and web applications may not be fully optimized for Opera, potentially leading to compatibility issues.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Despite its built-in VPN, some users are cautious about Opera's privacy policies, especially given its ownership by a Chinese consortium.

Analysis of Electron

Overall verdict

  • Electron is generally considered a good choice for creating cross-platform desktop applications, especially when rapid development and leveraging web technologies are priorities. However, it may not be suitable for applications where performance and resource efficiency are critical, as Electron apps tend to be resource-heavy compared to native applications.

Why this product is good

  • Electron is a popular framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. One of its main advantages is that it enables the use of existing web development skills to create apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Electron also benefits from a large community and a rich ecosystem of tools and libraries, making development quicker and more flexible.

Recommended for

    Electron is recommended for developers or teams that already have experience with web technologies and need to create desktop applications quickly across multiple platforms. It's especially useful for applications that require a high degree of flexibility and customization in the UI, or for products that benefit from sharing a codebase with a web application. Startups and small to medium-sized businesses that prioritize development speed and cost efficiency may find Electron particularly attractive.

Analysis of Opera

Overall verdict

  • Opera is a solid choice for users looking for a fast and feature-rich browsing experience. Its unique offerings, such as the VPN and built-in ad blocker, set it apart from other browsers. However, for users heavily invested in the Google ecosystem, Chrome might still be preferable.

Why this product is good

  • Opera is a web browser known for its speed, innovative features, and user-friendly interface. It includes an integrated ad blocker, a free VPN for enhanced security, and a battery saver mode for extended mobile browsing. Additionally, Opera is based on the Chromium engine, providing compatibility with most web standards and extensions.

Recommended for

  • Users who prioritize speed and memory efficiency.
  • Those looking for integrated privacy features like VPN and ad blocking.
  • Individuals who prefer customization options offered by a variety of extensions and themes.
  • Users who frequently switch between desktop and mobile browsing and want a seamless experience.

Electron videos

๐Ÿ’ป Why You Should Build Desktop Software With Electron

More videos:

  • Review - What is Electron: The Hard Parts Made Easy
  • Review - Electron Matrix Review Video

Opera videos

Opera VPN Review: Walkthrough, Speed Test (and ๐Ÿšฉ#1 Weakness ๐Ÿšฉ)

More videos:

  • Review - Opera Browser | Review
  • Review - Opera GX Browser - Is It Any Good?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Electron and Opera)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Web Browsers
0 0%
100% 100
Rapid Application Development
Security & Privacy
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Electron and Opera

Electron Reviews

Electron.js Alternatives For Cross-Platform Development
All of this changed when Electron.js came into the picture. The framework allowed developers to create a unique cross-platform desktop application without any hurdles. However, it uses up quite a bit of resource making it harder for developers to create lightweight applications. With this blog, we will look into suitable alternatives for Electron.js.
Source: www.atatus.com
12 Best Frameworks and Toolkits to Build Desktop Applications
If you are looking for an alternative to the Electronjs desktop application development framework, Neutralinojs is a viable option. A few applications may become bulky with Electron, but Neutralinojs can help avoid such problems.
Source: geekflare.com
10 Best Tools to Develop Cross-Platform Desktop Appsย 
Electron.js is compatible with a variety of frameworks, libraries, access to hardware-level APIs and chromium engine, and Node.js support. Electron Fiddle feature is great for experimentation as it allows developers to play around with concepts and templates. Simplification is at the center of Electron because developers donโ€™t have to spend unnecessary time on the packaging,...
Electron Alternatives๏นฃ5 Best JavaScript Frameworks for Desktop Apps
If youโ€™re a JavaScript developer, youโ€™re going to need to learn a few relatively simple things on how Electron works and itโ€™s API. You will most probably be able to set up your first Electron desktop application in just a few days.
Source: brainhub.eu
Frameworks & Tools to Develop Cross-Platform Desktop Apps โ€“ Best of
Enyo is an open-source JavaScript framework, like Electron, that allows developers to create native-quality apps for desktop, mobile, and TV. Enyo can run across all the relatively modern and standard web-based environments. Itโ€™s battle-tested and comes with a beautiful cross-platform UI toolkit for creating rich user interfaces.

Opera Reviews

Brave Alternative - 8 Privacy-Focused and Reliable Options
Both Opera and Brave support a wide range of extensions, but with Opera, youโ€™ll require fewer third-party extensions as most features are in-built.
Source: mspoweruser.com
List of 10 Best Ad Blockers in 2024
Opera VPN: Opera VPN is a premium ad blocker that also includes a VPN service. It costs $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year.
Top browsers: features, comparison and stats (2022)
Opera is the fifth most popular web browser; it currently holds 2.4% of the web browser market share. It was released in 1995 by Opera. So, it is one of the oldest web browsers which is still actively developed. The Opera web browser is based on Chromium, Googleโ€™s free and open source software project.
6 Best Browser Alternatives to Google Chrome
Because it is built on Chromium, Opera supports Chrome extensions, so the transition away from Google should be a smooth one. I particularly love Operaโ€™s battery saver feature, which promises to improve battery life by up to 35%. When it comes to the user experience, Opera is a pretty straightforward browser with a clean user interface featuring a handy sidebar and some...
Source: gizmodo.com
The best web browsers for 2022
Opera also features a built-in โ€œStashโ€ for saving pages to read later. Thereโ€™s no need to sign up for a Pocket or Evernote account to save a page for later reading. Similarly, Opera features a speed-dial menu that puts all your most frequently visited pages in one place. Google Chrome also does this, but only on a blank new tab. Finally, Opera has a built-in unlimited VPN...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Opera should be more popular than Electron. It has been mentiond 23 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Electron mentions (14)

  • Design Systems with Web Components
    So we talked a lot about the Atomic Design Principle, but you could just use that in any system and start creating. You could have Angular components, React Components, and Vue Components. But if you notice these don't easily work Everwhere. So the solution is to use Web Components because the modern browser can already understand these, and any Front-End framework can then utilize these components. You can use... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Building Apps with Tauri and Elixir
    For the longest time, building desktop apps was a daunting task to web developers. That is, until technologies like Electron made creating these apps more approachable to a wider audience. Today, weโ€™ve got a wide array of native applications built with solutions like Electron, Tauri, Capacitor, and many more. While these are great solutions, sometimes configuration can be tricky and the applications we create can... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • SvelteKit + Electron: Create your desktop web app
    I make a new Adapter for SvelteKit apps that prerenders your entire site as a collection of static files for use with Electron. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Electron: Build Desktop Applications Using Plain Javascript
    Electron is a cross-platform shell โ€” a user interface for accessing operating system services both via command line (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI). - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Circuit To Turn On Desktop PC
    Electron (https://electronjs.org/) is a framework for developing cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. This is the technology behind many popular apps like Slack, Discord and Visual Studio Code. Join for discussions around Electron! Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Opera mentions (23)

  • Can anyone tell what is this?
    This is not opera.com it's "api2 dot com" so it's a malware site posing as an opera one by including opera in its name. I had a popup like this. It opened every time I opened the browser. Turned out it was coming from a video downloader extension. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Is there a way to download the official browser through a torrent or a mirror link?
    The opera.com domain is banned where I live but I still want to download the browser without a VPN (because those are also banned). Is there a torrent link or an alternative/mirror link where I can download the latest Opera One release? Thanks! Source: about 3 years ago
  • Opera Adblocker pinging opera.com?
    Apparently it "urgently needed to be removed off the network" (bullshit, you could've blocked opera.com, dumbass) I don't see why its so bad to have one kid with an unmanaged browser, like seeing "your browser is managed by your organisation" sucks enough. They disabled basically everything good about Chrome, for a time, they locked down the performance tab so we couldn't even use battery saver. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Opera Adblocker pinging opera.com?
    One day, I got called to my Deputy Principal's (Dep. For short) office because my laptop was doing wacky shit to the network. He informs me that my laptop had sent 64k pings to opera.com. It was about the 2nd term, we receive new laptops every couple of years. He first told me about my searches for a VPN, which I guess is on me. But when he brings up the 64k pings, he tells me whatever the app is doing it has to... Source: about 3 years ago
  • How big is the chance of getting malware while downloading roms?
    I use uBlock Origin on Chrome but it is available for Opera GX as well. You install it by finding uBlock Origin in addons section of opera.com and then clicking the "Add to Opera" button. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Electron and Opera, you can also consider the following products

Flutter - Build beautiful native apps in record time ๐Ÿš€

Brave - Fast and secure, ad and tracker blocking browser.

Qt - Powerful, flexible and easy to use, Qt will help you not only meet your tight deadline, but also reduce the maintainable code by an astonishing percentage.

Google Chrome - Google Chrome is a fast, secure, and free web browser, built for the modern web. Give it a try on your desktop today.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Mozilla Firefox - Get the browsers that put your privacy first โ€” and always have