Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

NW.js VS Flutter

Compare NW.js VS Flutter and see what are their differences

NW.js logo NW.js

nwjs

Flutter logo Flutter

Build beautiful native apps in record time 🚀
  • NW.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02
  • Flutter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-14

NW.js features and specs

  • Cross-Platform
    NW.js supports building applications that run on Windows, macOS, and Linux, enabling developers to write code once and deploy across multiple platforms.
  • Node.js Integration
    Provides deep integration with Node.js, allowing developers to leverage the vast Node.js ecosystem and modules within their applications.
  • Chromium Embedded
    Utilizes the Chromium engine to render the user interface, ensuring modern web standards compliance and high performance.
  • Full Access to Native APIs
    Offers access to all native system calls through Node.js, enabling developers to create rich desktop applications with full OS-level capabilities.
  • Single Process Model
    Allows developers to start with a simple single process model which is easy to debug and manage.

Possible disadvantages of NW.js

  • Large Application Size
    The bundling of Chromium with the application often results in larger file sizes compared to native applications.
  • Memory Consumption
    Applications may use more memory as they run instances of both Node.js and Chromium, potentially taxing system resources.
  • Performance Overhead
    There might be additional performance overhead compared to native applications due to the abstraction layers of Node.js and Chromium.
  • Limited Native UI Components
    Relies on web technologies for UI, which might not have the same look and feel as platform-native components.
  • Frequent Updates
    Keeping up with frequent updates from Chromium and Node.js can be challenging, requiring continuous maintenance to ensure compatibility and security.

Flutter features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Flutter allows you to create applications that run on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, web, and desktop, using a single codebase, thereby significantly reducing development time and effort.
  • Hot Reload
    The Hot Reload feature allows developers to see the results of their code changes almost instantly without a full restart, boosting productivity and making the debugging process more efficient.
  • Rich Set of Pre-Built Widgets
    Flutter offers a comprehensive collection of customizable widgets that follow modern design guidelines, allowing developers to build attractive and consistent UIs effortlessly.
  • Performance
    Flutter applications are compiled directly to native ARM code, which can result in superior performance comparable to native applications.
  • Strong Community Support
    As an open-source project, Flutter has a large and active community, providing abundant resources, third-party libraries, and plugins to accelerate development.

Possible disadvantages of Flutter

  • Large App Size
    Flutter apps tend to have a larger file size compared to native apps, which could be a concern for users with limited storage space or slow internet connections.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    While Flutter is growing rapidly, its ecosystem is not yet as mature as those of more established frameworks, meaning that certain third-party libraries, tools, and plugins might be lacking or underdeveloped.
  • Platform-Specific APIs
    Despite its cross-platform capabilities, Flutter may require the development of custom platform-specific code for certain functionalities, which could complicate the development process.
  • Learning Curve
    Flutter uses Dart, a programming language that is less commonly used compared to JavaScript, Java, or Swift, which may result in a steeper learning curve for new developers.
  • State Management Complexity
    Managing states effectively in large applications can be challenging in Flutter, potentially leading to convoluted code if not handled properly.

NW.js videos

NW.js vs Electron. Что выбрать для работы NW или Electron? JavaScript Desktop

Flutter videos

beginning of flutter youtube channel

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to NW.js and Flutter)
Development Tools
10 10%
90% 90
Rapid Application Development
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Cross-Platform Development

User comments

Share your experience with using NW.js and Flutter. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare NW.js and Flutter

NW.js Reviews

Electron Alternatives﹣5 Best JavaScript Frameworks for Desktop Apps
Although it’s the oldest Node.js-Chromium framework in the AppJS, Electron and NW.js trio, it’s not nearly as mature as its competition. Because it has lost its momentum, it may not be the best choice for new projects.
Source: brainhub.eu
Frameworks & Tools to Develop Cross-Platform Desktop Apps – Best of
Cons: Some hard work features that are available in Electron, such as auto-updater and crash-reporting, don’t comes built-in with NW.js. That said, building with NW.js requires more efforts and extra modules – unlike other solutions.

Flutter Reviews

Explore 9 Top Eclipse Alternatives for 2024
With Flutter 2’s release in 2021, developers now have full support to construct intuitive Windows apps, marking another milestone in Flutter’s inclusive cross-platform vision.
Source: aircada.com
Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
So, above are some of the Flutter alternatives you can consider for your upcoming projects. To make the right selection, you should analyze the characteristics of your applications, which will help you make the most appropriate selection. You can also get in touch with a Flutter development company to go with the right option.
Top 5 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform Development
Qt’s native capabilities contribute to its good app performance and size. Compared to Flutter, Flutter apps tend to be larger than native apps. However, the framework’s features and language are designed to boost Flutter app performance.
Source: www.miquido.com
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
Beyond official Flutter built by Google, Flutter Community is an open-source fork-adding capability and component. Flutter Community has specifically expanded device testing coverage beyond Google’s in-house capabilities. With contributors volunteering devices for testing worldwide, Flutter Community tracks compatibility across over 3000 device variants spanning multiple...
Top 10 Android Studio Alternatives For App Development
Flutter is a framework that is used by stack developers to build multi-platform apps from a single codebase. It is an open-source project which was developed by Google to build app UI.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Flutter seems to be a lot more popular than NW.js. While we know about 363 links to Flutter, we've tracked only 33 mentions of NW.js. 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.

NW.js mentions (33)

  • Linux 6.9 Set to Drop the Old NTFS File-System Driver
    > FUSE drivers are slow, but "wildly slow" is an overstatement. I can confirm this, I've played RPGMaker M{V,Z} games natively by swapping out the copy of NWJS¹ it shipped with and running it through a CIOPFS² mount. 1: https://nwjs.io/ 2: https://www.brain-dump.org/projects/ciopfs/ / https://github.com/martanne/ciopfs. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • How to play this on a Chromebook through Linux Itch.io
    Go to this page to download NW.js https://nwjs.io/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What would be the current recommended way to publishing an html5 game on steam?
    In addition to the other options here you could look at nw.js. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Console Commands, Kill Count And Saving System
    I don't think you can access it by default, but crosscode runs on [nw.js](https://nwjs.io). I know there is a way to get the chromium devtools to open, but I haven't been able to. Source: about 2 years ago
  • DuckieTV not launching
    Or browse the NWJS home page at https://nwjs.io/. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

Flutter mentions (363)

  • 🚀 iOS vs Android Development: Which One Should You Learn First? (The Truth No One Tells You!)
    🎯 Still confused? Start with Flutter, which lets you build both iOS & Android apps with one codebase! Check it out here. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Writing and Reading NFC in Flutter | Comprehensive Guide
    Flutter provides robust support for NFC through third-party packages, making implementation seamless. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Building cost-effective AI-driven MVPs with Flutter development services
    Flutter is a powerful, popular, and open-source platform known for its developer-friendly environment, wide ecosystem of libraries, extensions and other tools. A key feature of Flutter app development services is that it promotes the development of cross-platform applications without needing to build or write two or three different codebases. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Build a CRUD Application Using Flutter & Strapi
    In this tutorial, I'll show you how to build a full-featured mobile CRUD application with Flutter and Strapi 5. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • React v19 has been released
    I don't agree but if you're looking for something that renderers everything in a canvas it's called Flutter https://flutter.dev/, and strangely it's made by Google, even though Flutter's success means the end of scraping the web for search. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing NW.js and Flutter, you can also consider the following products

Electron - Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

NeutralinoJS - Neutralino is a lightweight application development framework.

import.io - Import. io helps its users find the internet data they need, organize and store it, and transform it into a format that provides them with the context they need.

Proton Native - A React environment for cross platform native desktop app

Ionic Framework - A front-end SDK to develop applications with HTML5 , CSS3 and JavaScript.