💻 React + Wails Template: Build Native Desktop Apps with Go and Web Tech

Alex — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 18:57:16 +0000

Hey folks! 👋

I recently built and open-sourced a Wails + React starter template to make it easier for developers to build native-feeling desktop apps using Go on the backend and React on the frontend.

🔗 GitHub Repo: https://github.com/AlexSKuznetsov/wails-template-react

Why Wails?
If you haven’t heard of Wails, think of it like Electron — but for Go developers. It lets you write your backend in Go and your UI in any modern JS framework (React, Svelte, Vue, etc.), then bundle everything into a desktop app.

But unlike Electron, Wails doesn’t ship a full Chromium instance, making your app:

⚡️ Smaller

🚀 Faster to load

🧩 Fully native-looking

Why Desktop Apps?
Cloud is great, but in my opinion, we’re overusing it for things that could easily live locally — especially for small internal tools or simple automation projects.

Here’s what most small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) don’t need:

❌ A hosted frontend

❌ A scalable backend

❌ A managed cloud database

❌ Complex infrastructure

Instead, most desktop apps can run just fine with:

🧱 A single .exe binary

🗃️ A local SQLite DB

⚙️ A config file

That’s it.

About the Template
This template includes:

✅ A working Wails v2 setup

⚛️ React (with Vite)

🧪 Basic routing and file structure

It’s meant to get you productive quickly — especially if you’re already comfortable with Go and React.

Give It a Try
If you’re curious about building desktop apps with Go, check it out:
👉 https://github.com/AlexSKuznetsov/wails-template-react

Would love feedback, suggestions, or contributions. And if you’re using Wails in production or hobby projects, I’d love to hear about it!

DEV Community: Alex

💻 React + Wails Template: Build Native Desktop Apps with Go and Web Tech