Electrino - Lightweight Desktop Application Runtime

Introduction

Electrino is an experimental desktop application runtime designed for applications built with web technologies. Unlike Electron, Electrino cleverly leverages the system’s native web browser engine, aiming to be a lightweight alternative to Electron.

Core Advantages

🪶 Extreme Lightweight Design

Electrino’s most notable advantage is its extremely small application footprint. Compared to Electron’s runtime often exceeding hundreds of megabytes, Electrino significantly reduces application size.

Data Comparison

• Electron: "Hello World" app ≈ 115 MB
• Electrino: "Hello World" app only requires 167 kB

🖥️ Utilizes Native System Engines

Electrino does not bundle Chromium; instead, it directly calls the native web engine on the system—WebKit on macOS and System WebView on Windows 10—offering these benefits:

• Reduced disk space usage
• Lower memory consumption
• Faster application startup

Features

✅ Implemented Core APIs

Currently, Electrino supports the following key subsets of Electron APIs:

• app – Application lifecycle management
• BrowserWindow – Window creation and management
• ipcMain – Inter-process communication between main and renderer processes
• Tray – System tray icon
• nativeImage – Native image handling

🎯 Target Use Cases

Electrino is especially suitable for the following types of applications:

• Desktop utilities
• Menu bar applications
• Small background applications
• Lightweight applications that do not require full Node.js capabilities

⚠️ Current Limitations

• Limited platform support: Currently primarily supports macOS and Windows 10
• Limited API coverage: Only implements a small subset of Electron’s APIs
• Basic functionality: Not suitable for large productivity applications requiring full Node.js backend or complex native features

Usage Recommendations

When to Use Electrino:

• Your application is primarily built with web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
• Application size and startup speed are critical factors
• The application has relatively simple functionality and does not require extensive system-level APIs
• You aim to develop lightweight menu bar apps or desktop utilities

When to Stick with Electron:

• Your application requires full Node.js backend capabilities
• You need access to extensive system APIs and native modules
• You are building complex, large-scale productivity applications (e.g., editors, IDEs, communication tools)
• You require consistent cross-platform experience including Linux

Development Status & Roadmap

🚧 Experimental Project

Electrino is still in the experimental phase, actively being developed and improved. The project welcomes contributions and collaboration from the community.

Roadmap

• Analyze real Electron applications to identify the most frequently used API subsets
• Gradually expand API support
• Optimize performance and stability
• Extend platform support

Technology Stack

• Language: JavaScript
• Runtime: System-native web engine (macOS WebKit / Windows WebView)
• Protocol: IPC (Inter-Process Communication)

Contact & Contributions

Project Maintainers

• Pauli Olavi Ojala: @pauliooj, pauli@lacquer.fi
• Amila Welihinda: @amilajack, amilajack@gmail.com

How to Get Involved

If you have a small macOS application built with Electron and want to try using Electrino to “slim it down,” the maintainers encourage you to reach out and explore possibilities together.

License

This project is open-sourced under the MIT License.

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Summary: Electrino offers a promising alternative for lightweight desktop application development. While currently limited in functionality and still experimental, its extreme lightweight nature and use of native system engines make it an ideal choice for specific use cases. As the project matures and evolves, it has the potential to become a valuable complement to the Electron ecosystem.