macOS Performance Comparison: Flutter Desktop vs. Electron

Flutter and Electron are two frameworks for developing cross-platform desktop applications, each with its own strengths and challenges. Electron is a mature solution, widely used by large applications like Visual Studio Code and Slack, but it is often criticized for large executable sizes and heavy memory usage due to its dependence on Chromium. In contrast, Flutter, though still in beta for desktop applications, offers promising performance with a smaller footprint, leveraging the Dart language, which compiles to native machine code, offering features like hot reload and sound null safety. Both frameworks provide mechanisms to offload work from the main thread using isolates and worker threads, respectively. Performance tests show that Flutter generally uses fewer resources and starts up faster than Electron, though Electron's integration with WebAssembly can enhance specific tasks. Despite these differences, both frameworks present viable options for desktop application development, with the choice largely depending on the specific needs and expertise of the development team.