Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PySide VS BeeWare

Compare PySide VS BeeWare and see what are their differences

PySide logo PySide

Qt for Python - Qt Wiki

BeeWare logo BeeWare

Write your apps in Python and release them on iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Web, and tvOS...
  • PySide Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27
  • BeeWare Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-13

PySide features and specs

  • Official Support
    PySide is officially supported by the Qt Company, ensuring regular updates and a reliable source of information for developers.
  • Cross-Platform
    PySide allows developers to create applications that run on various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, with little to no code modification.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    PySide is backed by extensive and well-maintained documentation, making it easier for developers to find solutions and learn the framework effectively.
  • Open Source
    PySide is available under the LGPL license, allowing developers to use it in open-source and commercial projects without licensing fees.
  • Bindings for QT Libraries
    Provides Python bindings to the Qt libraries, which are highly reputable for their performance and extensive functionality in GUI development.

Possible disadvantages of PySide

  • Potential Licensing Issues
    While PySide is LGPL licensed, understanding its requirements for dynamic linking and distribution can be complex for some projects.
  • Memory Consumption
    Applications developed using PySide can sometimes consume more memory compared to other lightweight frameworks, impacting performance in resource-constrained environments.
  • Complexity for Beginners
    The vast array of features and options available in PySide might be overwhelming for beginners, requiring a steep learning curve to master.
  • Community Size
    PySide's community is smaller compared to other Python GUI frameworks like Tkinter or PyQt, possibly leading to fewer third-party resources and community support.
  • Size of Deployment
    Qt libraries can be large, resulting in increased application size, which can be problematic for users with limited bandwidth or storage.

BeeWare features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    BeeWare allows developers to write applications in Python and deploy them across multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web, without needing to change the codebase.
  • Python Language
    Since BeeWare uses Python, it benefits from Python's simplicity, readability, and large community support, making it an attractive choice for developers already familiar with the language.
  • Native User Interfaces
    BeeWare aims to provide a native look and feel for applications, ensuring that apps look and behave as expected on each platform, which can enhance user experience.
  • Open Source Community
    BeeWare is an open-source project, encouraging community contributions and collaboration, which can lead to continuous improvements and a diverse pool of resources and support.

Possible disadvantages of BeeWare

  • Maturity and Stability
    BeeWare is still considered less mature compared to other cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter, which means it might face stability issues or lack some advanced features.
  • Limited Documentation
    Compared to more established frameworks, BeeWare may have more limited documentation and fewer learning resources, potentially posing challenges for new developers.
  • Performance Concerns
    Applications built with BeeWare might not match the performance of apps built natively or with other optimized frameworks, particularly for complex or resource-intensive applications.
  • Community Size
    Although growing, BeeWare's community is smaller than other major frameworks, possibly leading to fewer third-party libraries, extensions, and slower issue resolution.

PySide videos

python tutorials - A More Practical PySide Example

More videos:

  • Review - Pyside2 Introduction & Installation | Qt For Python | Python GUI Development | Pyside2 Vs PyQt5

BeeWare videos

Russell Keith-Magee - Building a cross-platform native app with BeeWare - PyCon 2018

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PySide and BeeWare)
Development Tools
41 41%
59% 59
Rapid Application Development
Developer Tools
27 27%
73% 73
Game Engine
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

PySide Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
It’s a great option for creating simple and easy-to-use graphical user interfaces in Python and allows you to add a GUI to your already working scripts pretty easily. PySimpleGUI wraps the power of 4 different GUI libraries, PySide, Tkinter, wxPython, and Remi.
Source: kinsta.com
Which Python GUI library should you use? Comparing the Python GUI libraries available in 2023
Before the Qt Company (under Nokia) released the officially supported PySide library in 2009, Riverbank Computing had released PyQt in 1998. The main difference between these two libraries is in licensing. The free-to-use version of PyQt is licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) v3 but PySide is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This means...
Top 10 Python GUI Frameworks for Developers
PySide2 is built by the same company that gave us the widely popular application development framework Qt. Upon looking closely, you’ll come across the term “Qt for Python Project”, which is nothing but the task of porting PySide to support Qt5, whereas the framework itself is now being called PySide2.

BeeWare Reviews

The best Python frameworks for mobile development and how to use them
Less Supported Features: Google and Apple will always promote their native tooling first over alternatives. Users of non-native frameworks will be limited by whatever the most recent version of (for example) Kivy/BeeWare have implemented. You will need to be on top of the current issue list and the limitations of the current version in order to resolve any issues you’re...
Top 8 Python Tools For App Development
About: BeeWare is a collection of tools and libraries for developing and distributing native applications in Python. The suite of tools and libraries works together to help a developer write cross-platform native GUI Python applications.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, BeeWare seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 29 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.

PySide mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of PySide yet. Tracking of PySide recommendations started around Mar 2021.

BeeWare mentions (29)

  • Plain – a web framework for building products with Python
    There are some things available, and people are working on it. Coincidentally, one of those people is Russell Keith-Magee of Django fame, who founded the BeeWare project. https://beeware.org/ https://beeware.org/about/team/freakboy3742/ https://kivy.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Best framework to build a GUI app in Python for windows and macOS?
    I think the best one right now for python is "beeware": https://beeware.org/ You also have Kivy which is prety good: https://kivy.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Tkinter Designer: Quickly Turn Figma Design to Python Tkinter GUI
    Neat! I can see this being a useful way to build quick demos from a Figma design. If I follow correctly, it's building the whole UI from images from the Figma file, so isn't using any native OS styling. Thats fine for demos and some simple apps. It would interesting if it was possible to combine this with BeeWhare [0] for mobile UIs, none native style much more forgiving on mobile. 0: https://beeware.org. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Python GUIs
    A interesting option I haven’t seen mentioned here is Beeware, which describes the project with this summary: “Write your apps in Python and release them on iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Web, and tvOS using rich, native user interfaces. Multiple apps, one codebase, with a fully native user experience on every platform.” Source: . - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Is there a way to use turn a project into a single executable file that doesn't require anyone to do anything like install Python before using it?
    There's one other option though: BeeWare, a project supported by Anaconda. I've not used it yet, but it looks promising and the docs are solid. It claims to support shipping your app as a binary for Linux, Mac, Windows, and Android. Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing PySide and BeeWare, you can also consider the following products

PyQt - Riverbank | Software | PyQt | What is PyQt?

Kivy - Open source Python framework for rapid development of applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps. Installation on WindowsInstallation on Windows. Installation; What are wheels .

PySimpleGUI - A simple to use GUI that can create custom GUIs

GTK - GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.

Tkinter - Tkinter is a Python wrapper for Tcl/Tk that offers classes to create various graphical user interfaces.

wxWidgets - wxWidgets: Cross-Platform GUI Library