Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

React Native Desktop VS Flet

Compare React Native Desktop VS Flet and see what are their differences

React Native Desktop logo React Native Desktop

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native

Flet logo Flet

Build internal web apps quickly in the language you already know.
  • React Native Desktop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-30
  • Flet Flet Studio
    Flet Studio //
    2026-06-23

React Native Desktop features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Code Sharing
    React Native Desktop allows for code sharing between mobile and desktop platforms, reducing development time and effort. This promotes a unified codebase across iOS, Android, and macOS platforms.
  • React Ecosystem
    Developers can leverage the extensive ecosystem of React and React Native, including libraries, tools, and community support, thus simplifying development and benefiting from existing solutions.
  • Hot Reloading
    React Native Desktop supports hot reloading, which allows developers to see changes immediately without rebuilding the whole application. This greatly enhances development speed and productivity.
  • Native Performance
    React Native Desktop aims to deliver a performance close to native applications on macOS, allowing for smooth user experience and efficient utilization of the system's resources.

Possible disadvantages of React Native Desktop

  • Immature Project
    React Native Desktop is still a relatively young project compared to its mobile counterpart. It may lack some stability, advanced features, and support that are available in more mature frameworks.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers familiar with only web development might find it challenging to adapt to React Native's paradigms and native coding patterns required for desktop applications.
  • Limited macOS-Specific Components
    There might be fewer out-of-the-box components and libraries tailored for macOS when compared to those available for mobile, requiring more custom implementation work.
  • No Official Support
    As an open-source project, React Native Desktop doesn't have official support from Facebook or a large organization, which might lead to slower updates and a greater reliance on community contributions.

Flet features and specs

  • Single code base for any device
    Your app will equally look great on iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, macOS and web.
  • Build an entire app in Python
    Build a cross-platform app without knowledge of Dart, Swift, Kotlin, HTML or JavaScript - only Python!
  • 150+ built-in controls and services
    Beautiful UI widgets with Material and Cupertino design: layout, navigation, dialogs, charts - Flet uses Flutter to render UI.
  • 50+ Python packages for iOS and Android
    Numpy, pandas, pydantic, cryptography, opencv, pillow and other popular libraries.
  • Full web support
    Flet apps run natively in modern browsers using WebAssembly and Pyodide, with no server required. Prefer server-side? Deploy as a Python web app with real-time UI updates.
  • Built-in packaging
    Build standalone executables or bundles for iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, macOS and web. Instantly deploy to App Store and Google Play.
  • Test on iOS and Android
    Test your project on your own mobile device with Flet App. See your app updates as you make changes.
  • Extensible
    Easily wrap any of thousands of Flutter packages to use with Flet or build new controls in pure Python using built-in UI primitives.
  • Accessible
    Flet is built with Flutter which has solid accessibility foundations on Android, iOS, web, and desktop.
  • Community and Documentation
    Extensive, well-maintained documentation and an active global community of developers.
  • Flet Studio
    An online development environment featuring a gallery of runnable, editable, and shareable examples that helps developers learn, prototype, and collaborate directly in the browser.

Analysis of React Native Desktop

Overall verdict

  • React Native Desktop can be a good choice if you are already invested in the React Native ecosystem and are looking for a way to expand your application's reach to desktop platforms without starting from scratch. It benefits from the familiar JavaScript and React syntax, as well as a large community of developers who contribute to its growth. However, depending on the project's specific needs and the level of maturity expected, it might lack some features or optimizations available in native desktop application frameworks.

Why this product is good

  • React Native Desktop is designed to allow developers to use React Native for creating desktop applications. It leverages the existing React Native ecosystem, which means that developers familiar with React Native can transition to desktop app development more easily. By allowing code sharing between mobile and desktop platforms, it can significantly reduce the development time and effort required to maintain consistency across platforms.

Recommended for

    This framework is recommended for JavaScript developers who are already comfortable with React Native and want to leverage their existing skills to develop cross-platform applications that include desktop environments. It is suitable for projects that require rapid prototyping and consistent user experiences across mobile and desktop devices.

React Native Desktop videos

No React Native Desktop videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Flet videos

Flet Tutorials

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Flet + Python: Build a Cross-Platform App (Desktop | Mobile | Web) in 30 Minutes
  • Tutorial - Flet Tutorials

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to React Native Desktop and Flet)
Developer Tools
74 74%
26% 26
Application And Data
0 0%
100% 100
Tech
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
60 60%
40% 40

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing React Native Desktop and Flet.

What makes your product unique?

Flet's answer:

Flet enables developers to build web, desktop, and mobile applications from a single Python codebase without requiring frontend frameworks, while offering a rich set of built-in UI controls, instant deployment, and an integrated online playground with runnable examples.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Flet's answer:

Python developers, data scientists, educators, startups, and software teams looking to build modern cross-platform applications quickly without needing frontend development expertise.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Flet's answer:

Python, Flutter, Dart, FastAPI, WebSockets, and modern web technologies. Flet combines Python on the backend with Flutterโ€™s rendering engine to deliver cross-platform applications for web, desktop, and mobile from a single codebase.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Flet's answer:

Flet has an exceptionally low learning curve, allowing developers to build real web, desktop, and mobile applications with Python and see results in minutes. A single codebase runs across all major platforms, with built-in packaging and deployment support, helping developers move from idea to production faster and with less complexity than traditional cross-platform frameworks.

User comments

Share your experience with using React Native Desktop and Flet. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Flet seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 43 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.

React Native Desktop mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of React Native Desktop yet. Tracking of React Native Desktop recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Flet mentions (43)

  • The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility
    > a locked down GUI that is efficient to use and designed to display the data that the commandline tools produce [...] You can have all that. There are various data presentation tools out there (one I can think of right now is Streamlit as I tried it out a few months ago, but I'm not really a data person, Python is just my primary language). For a more general GUI framework that's pretty easy to use and still full... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Add Authentication and SSO to Your Flet App
    Creating cross-platform applications has become much easier with frameworks like Flet. Flet allows developers to build modern web, desktop, and mobile apps using Python. Its simplicity and flexibility help developers focus on creating great user experiences without having to worry about platform-specific complexities. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • MicroPythonOS graphical operating system delivers Android-like user experience
    Interesting. Would want to see this going on actual Android. Especially since I have a few Python GUI projects going which I intend to use on Android (but currently using flet). https://flet.dev. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • FletX: Bring Reactive Power to Your Python UI with GetX-Like Simplicity
    Meet FletX โ€” a lightweight framework built on top of Flet that brings reactivity and clean architecture to Python GUI apps. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • From Codecademy to Programming: My First Python Flet App For Managing Shopping List
    As part of my final project for the "Fundamentals of Programming" in Codecademy Computer Science course, I wanted to build something practical that could also help me reinforce my understanding of programming fundamentals. With that in mind, I created a simple but fully functional shopping list app using Fletโ€”a Python framework for building beautiful UIs without needing to dive into web development. This app... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing React Native Desktop and Flet, you can also consider the following products

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

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 .

Deco IDE - Best IDE for building React Native apps

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

Expo - The fastest way to build an iOS and Android app ๐Ÿ“ฑ

BeeWare - Write your apps in Python and release them on iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Web, and tvOS...