Tauri
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Tauri is Electron's fit cousin. It builds desktop apps with web tech but uses the OS's built-in webview instead of shipping an entire Chromium browser. The result? Tiny app sizes, low memory usage, and a Rust backend. Your 5MB Tauri app silently judges the 200MB Electron app next to it.
Real Talk
Tauri is a framework for building desktop applications using web frontends (any framework) with a Rust backend. It leverages the OS native webview (WebKit, WebView2) instead of bundling Chromium, resulting in binaries under 10MB and significantly lower resource usage than Electron.
When You'll Hear This
"Our Tauri app is 8MB, the Electron version was 180MB" / "Tauri v2 added mobile support for iOS and Android alongside desktop"
Related Terms
Capacitor
Capacitor wraps your web app in a native shell and gives it access to device features like the camera, GPS, and push notifications.
Electron
Electron bundles Chromium and Node.js to let you build desktop apps with web tech. VS Code, Slack, Discord — all Electron. The catch?
Progressive Web App
A PWA is a website that put on a trench coat and convinced your phone it's a real app.