Tauri - Desktop Apps Without the Electron Bloat

Tauri is basically what happens when someone got fed up with shipping 100MB+ Electron apps for a fucking calculator. It's a framework that lets you build desktop and mobile apps with web tech, but instead of bundling Chrome like Electron does, it uses whatever webview your OS already has - WebView2 on Windows, WebKit on macOS, and WebKitGTK on Linux.

Tauri 2.0 went stable on October 2, 2024, adding mobile support for iOS and Android. Now you can ship to 5 platforms with one codebase, assuming you don't mind debugging Safari's weird rendering on each one.

The trade-off? Your app is tiny (2.5MB vs 85MB in real benchmarks), but you're stuck with Safari's WebKit on Mac and Edge's WebView2 on Windows. This works great until you need some Chrome-specific API that Safari doesn't support, then you remember why Electron exists. Check Can I use but for WebView support, not Chrome support.

When Tauri Breaks Your Day

Migrating from Electron? Here's the shit you'll actually deal with:

Your React app that worked perfectly? Good news: it still works. Bad news: that fancy File System Access API you're using only works in Chrome. Safari's WebKit laughs at your modern web APIs. I spent 4 hours debugging a drag-and-drop file upload that worked fine in Electron before realizing WebKit just... doesn't do that API. Check MDN compatibility tables before you get too excited.

The Rust backend is genuinely fast, but compilation times will make you question your life choices. Touch one line in your Rust code and wait 3 minutes for a rebuild. Hot reload works great for your frontend - just don't touch the backend. I learned this the hard way during a demo where I "quickly" fixed a typo and made everyone wait 5 minutes. Use cargo check for faster feedback during development.

Mobile Development Hell

Tauri 2.0 added mobile support in October 2024, which sounds great until you actually try it. The mobile setup process requires configuring Xcode (8GB+), Android Studio (3GB+), and a bunch of platform-specific toolchains that break if you look at them wrong. The GitHub repo has 96,400+ stars now, but check those mobile-related issues before getting excited.

iOS uses WKWebView, which has its own special way of breaking your CSS - viewport handling is different, and some CSS properties behave differently than in Safari. I found this out when our perfect desktop layout turned into complete shit on iPhone 14 - text overlapping, buttons cut off, the whole mess. Even better, iOS 14.3 has a WebView bug that makes our entire sidebar disappear - still not fixed by Apple two years later.

Android uses WebView, which varies wildly between devices and Android versions. A Samsung Galaxy running Android 12 with WebView 95 will render your app completely differently than a Pixel running Android 14 with WebView 118. We tested on 12 different Android devices last month and got 12 different layouts. Your app looks different on every phone, and debugging requires actual devices because emulators lie about platform behavior. Samsung's WebView 95 renders CSS Grid like someone threw the spec in a blender. Android WebView versions are like fucking snowflakes - every device is different, and they're all special in their own broken way.

The Security Thing Everyone Talks About

Tauri's security model is genuinely better than Electron's "here's full Node.js access" approach. The permission system actually works - you define what your app can access, and that's it.

This is great until you need to do something that requires permission you forgot to enable. Then you're digging through capability files trying to figure out why your file system access isn't working. The security audit found actual issues they fixed, which is more than most frameworks can say.

Plugin Ecosystem: Hit or Miss

The official plugins cover the basics: filesystem, HTTP requests, notifications, dialog boxes, and system shell access. But if you need something specific, you're either writing custom Rust code or hoping someone else already solved your problem. Check the awesome-tauri list for community plugins.

Compare this to Electron where you can npm install literally anything from the massive npm ecosystem. Tauri's plugin system is more secure but way more limited. Need to access some weird hardware API? Hope you like writing Rust bindings or using system commands.

When Tauri Actually Makes Sense

Use Tauri when:

• File size actually matters to your users
• You're building CRUD apps that don't need bleeding-edge web APIs
• Your team can handle Rust compilation and mobile platform quirks
• Security is more important than convenience

Don't use Tauri when:

• You need Chrome DevTools extensions
• Your app relies on Node.js modules
• You want to ship fast and debug mobile WebView issues later
• Your frontend uses APIs that Safari doesn't support

The GitHub repo has 96,400+ stars, but check the issues before committing. The Discord is active, but you'll spend time there debugging platform-specific rendering disasters.

Getting Started

Running npx create-tauri-app@latest actually works and gives you a working app in minutes. Shocking, I know - how many times have you run a create-whatever-app command and had it immediately shit the bed? The templates for React, Vue, Svelte, Angular, and vanilla JS are decent starting points. You can also use Vite, Next.js, or any other modern build tool.

The gotcha? The template generates a shit-ton of configuration files you don't understand yet. tauri.conf.json controls everything, and you'll be editing it constantly. At least it has decent autocomplete if your editor supports JSON schemas. Check the configuration examples for reference.

Since 2.0, create-tauri-app also scaffolds mobile development templates. You can now run sh <(curl https://create.tauri.app/sh) and get iOS/Android setup too. The mobile setup still requires installing Xcode and Android Studio, but at least the project structure is there.

Cross-Platform Building: Pain Varies by Platform

Windows: Code signing is mandatory for distribution. Get ready to pay for certificates or deal with SmartScreen warnings that make your users think you're malware. Building on GitHub Actions? Hope you enjoy wrestling with Windows runners that randomly fail with cryptic errors like NSIS: Unable to find VCRUNTIME140_1.dll at 2am.

macOS: Notarization is required for distribution outside the App Store. This means Apple Developer accounts, certificates, and a build process that can take 10+ minutes even for tiny changes. Building on different platforms sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Use osxcross if you're feeling brave.

Linux: Multiple package formats (AppImage, DEB packages, RPM packages, Snap packages) mean more testing. AppImage just works, but Flatpak distribution requires jumping through hoops with manifests and sandboxing.

Mobile Development Pain

Setting up mobile development requires installing Xcode (8GB+), Android Studio (3GB+), and a bunch of platform-specific toolchains. On M1 Macs, Android emulators run like shit. On Windows, iOS development doesn't exist.

iOS builds require a Mac. Period. No cross-compilation workarounds exist. Android builds work everywhere but debugging on actual devices is way more reliable than emulators.

The mobile WebView situation is messy. iOS WKWebView doesn't support some web APIs that desktop Safari does. Android WebView versions vary wildly - your app looks different on every device.

Pro tip: Pin your WebView versions or prepare for mystery layout breakage when users update. iOS simulator lies about WebView behavior compared to actual devices - what works in the simulator breaks on real iPhones. The Android emulator has a different WebView than any real phone, making it useless for testing. Building for macOS from Linux works until it doesn't, then you're fucked.

Hot Reload: Frontend Good, Backend Hell

HMR for your React/Vue code works perfectly on desktop and mobile now. Change a component, see it update instantly on your phone or emulator.

Touch anything in the Rust backend and wait for a full recompilation. On a decent machine, this takes 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on your dependencies. On an older laptop, go get coffee. I timed it once - 7 minutes for a single character typo fix on a 2019 MacBook Pro. Mobile builds take even longer because they need cross-compilation for ARM targets.

Rust compilation takes longer than making coffee, taking a shower, and questioning your life choices. I've seen developers organize their entire day around build times - check email during the 3-minute rebuild, take bathroom breaks when touching backend code, plan meetings around mobile cross-compilation cycles.

The Plugin Ecosystem Reality

The official plugins cover basics like filesystem access, HTTP requests, system notifications, database access, and window management. Most work fine, but they're basically wrappers around Rust crates like reqwest, tokio, and serde.

Need something custom? Writing Tauri plugins means learning Rust, even if you're just calling existing system APIs. Compare this to Electron where you npm install anything from the Node.js ecosystem and it probably works. Check the plugin development guide and Rust book if you're new to Rust.

The community plugin ecosystem is tiny compared to npm's registry. If someone hasn't solved your exact problem, you're writing Rust. Browse crates.io for inspiration and existing solutions.

Debugging: Mixed Results

Frontend debugging uses browser DevTools, which mostly works. The limitation: you're debugging in whatever WebView your OS provides, not Chrome. Safari's debugging tools are... different.

Rust backend debugging requires proper IDE setup. VS Code with the Rust extension works well, but stepping through async code is still painful. Error messages from the IPC layer between frontend and backend can be cryptic.

When It Actually Works Well

Tauri shines for:

• CRUD applications that don't need bleeding-edge web APIs
• System utilities where small size matters
• Apps that mostly display data and don't do complex graphics
• Development tools where the target audience can handle occasional WebView quirks

It's frustrating for:

• Complex multimedia applications
• Apps requiring Chrome-specific APIs
• Anything that needs rapid iteration (those Rust build times add up)
• Teams without Rust experience who need to customize backend functionality

The Discord community is helpful, but you'll spend time there. The GitHub issues are actively maintained, but mobile and cross-platform issues are common topics.

Reality Check: Tauri works great for simple desktop apps and gets you impressive bundle sizes. Mobile support in 2.0 is functional but expect longer development cycles and more debugging sessions. If you can handle Rust compilation times and WebView differences, you'll ship apps that don't embarrass you with their file sizes.