Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Electron VS Umbrella JS

Compare Electron VS Umbrella JS and see what are their differences

Electron logo Electron

Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

Umbrella JS logo Umbrella JS

Tiny library for DOM manipulation, events and AJAX
  • Electron Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-01
  • Umbrella JS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17

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.

Umbrella JS features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Umbrella JS is very small in size, making it a fast and efficient library for quick loading and performance optimization on the web.
  • Modern API
    It provides a simple, modern, and jQuery-like API, making it easy for developers familiar with jQuery to adopt.
  • Flexibility
    Umbrella JS is flexible and can be used alongside other libraries due to its small footprint and modular design.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    The library supports modern browsers, ensuring scripts work consistently across different platforms.

Possible disadvantages of Umbrella JS

  • Limited Features
    Compared to larger libraries like jQuery, Umbrella JS offers a limited set of features, which may not cover all use cases.
  • Smaller Community
    Being less popular than jQuery and other big libraries, Umbrella JS has a smaller community, potentially leading to fewer third-party plugins and community support.
  • Documentation
    The documentation, while adequate, is not as extensive as that for more established libraries, which may lead to a steeper learning curve for complex implementations.
  • Limited IE Support
    Umbrella JS is designed for modern browsers and does not support older versions of Internet Explorer, which might be a limitation for projects requiring backward compatibility.

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.

Electron videos

💻 Why You Should Build Desktop Software With Electron

More videos:

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

Umbrella JS videos

No Umbrella JS videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Electron and Umbrella JS)
Development Tools
88 88%
12% 12
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Rapid Application Development
Cross-Platform Development

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 Umbrella JS

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 Apps 
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 don’t have to spend unnecessary time on the packaging,...
Electron Alternatives﹣5 Best JavaScript Frameworks for Desktop Apps
If you’re a JavaScript developer, you’re going to need to learn a few relatively simple things on how Electron works and it’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 – 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. It’s battle-tested and comes with a beautiful cross-platform UI toolkit for creating rich user interfaces.

Umbrella JS Reviews

We have no reviews of Umbrella JS yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Electron should be more popular than Umbrella JS. It has been mentiond 14 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 1 year 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, we’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 / over 1 year 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 2 years ago
  • Electron: Build Desktop Applications Using Plain Javascript
    Electron is a cross-platform shell — a user interface for accessing operating system services both via command line (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI). - Source: dev.to / over 2 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 2 years ago
View more

Umbrella JS mentions (6)

  • Cash: A small jQuery alternative for modern browsers
    I am using another one Umbrella JS https://umbrellajs.com. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • TinyJS – Shorten JavaScript QuerySelect with $ and $$
    I also created almost 10 years ago Umbrella JS, which is like jQuery but with more array-like arguments in the functions (and 1/10th of the size): https://umbrellajs.com/ https://www.bennadel.com/blog/4184-replacing-jquery-110kb-with-umbrella-js-8kb.htm. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Gov.uk drops jQuery from their front end
    Yes, and if you continue long enough you end up with one of the many jQuery alternatives, like mine: https://umbrellajs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: Should I even bother with React?
    If you're learning React just to get a job, you're doing it wrong, since recruiters are always changing their requirements. They will add `proficient in Svelte` just to annoy you, (after having learning React) and now you're no longer relevant to them. That's why I say: stick to the baseline of HTML, CSS, & JS. Learn to write vanilla JS for common things, maybe learn UmbrellaJS[0] for syntactic sugar and... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Make Front End Shit Again
    I still use jQuery but https://umbrellajs.com too. And native DOM API as well. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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.

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

Flutter - Build beautiful native apps in record time 🚀

Zepto.js - Zepto is a minimalist JavaScript library for modern browsers with a largely jQuery-compatible API.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

DHTMLX - JavaScript Library for cross-platform web and mobile app development with HTML5 JavaScript widgets. Easy integration with popular JavaScript Frameworks.