Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

React.run VS React Native Desktop

Compare React.run VS React Native Desktop and see what are their differences

React.run logo React.run

Quick in-browser prototyping for React Components!

React Native Desktop logo React Native Desktop

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native
  • React.run Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-11
  • React Native Desktop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-30

React.run features and specs

  • Simplified Setup
    React.run provides a streamlined and efficient setup for starting new React projects, minimizing the initial configuration time.
  • Pre-configured Environment
    It comes with a pre-configured environment that includes essential tools and libraries, reducing the need for additional setup and compatibility checks.
  • Boost developer productivity
    By automating much of the setup process, React.run allows developers to focus more on coding and less on configuring their development environment.
  • Consistency
    Ensures a standardized environment across different projects, which can be particularly beneficial for teams and large-scale applications.
  • Community Support
    Being an officially supported tool, it benefits from strong community support and timely updates from the React team.

Possible disadvantages of React.run

  • Limited Flexibility
    The pre-configured setup may not suit all project requirements, and making customizations can sometimes be challenging or require additional steps.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers new to React.run might face a learning curve as they adapt to the specific configurations and conventions used by the tool.
  • Dependency on Tool
    Relying heavily on React.run can create dependency, making it harder to switch to different tools or configurations if needed in the future.
  • Updates and Compatibility
    Although it receives updates, there's always a risk that a new version might introduce breaking changes or compatibility issues with existing projects.
  • Potential Overhead
    The inclusion of tools and libraries that may not be necessary for all projects can potentially add overhead and bloat to the development environment.

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.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to React.run and React Native Desktop)
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
59 59%
41% 41
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Front-End Frameworks
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, React.run seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 187 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.run mentions (187)

  • You should know this before choosing Next.js
    [2] https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • CVE-2025-29927 – Next.js
    > What do you get out of Next.js over vanilla React? The biggest problem is that React itself recommends against using Vanilla React. https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app > If you want to build a new app or website with React, we recommend starting with a framework. This, frankly, is insane. The whole point of React was that it was this relatively lightweight UI library you could drop into pretty much any... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • How much traffic can a pre-rendered Next.js site handle?
    I think people reasonably expect, say, an aws lambda to be aws specific. That's a very different story to React, which is supposed to be a library for general application ui development, and the official react documentation recommending Next as the way to use it. https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Sunsetting Create React App
    Interestingly, the Creating a React App page (https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app) does not mention Remix. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • React v19 has been released
    The Getting Started docs recommend against using vanilla React and nudge you towards NextJS and similar frameworks because you're gonna end up needing that stuff eventually https://react.dev/learn/start-a-new-react-project So new projects have to actively not follow the recommended approach in the docs if they want to use vanilla React. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
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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.

What are some alternatives?

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

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Vite - Next Generation Frontend Tooling

React Boilerplate - Offline-first, highly scalable foundation for your next app

Next.js - A small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript apps

Deco IDE - Best IDE for building React Native apps