Native from Vercel Labs shrinks desktop apps to 18MB — here's how it compares to Electron

I built the same simple app in both Native and Electron for comparison. The numbers are dramatic.

The comparison

I built a basic desktop app (window, menu, file dialog, webview) in both Native and Electron.

Electron:

• Installer: 145 MB
• RAM at idle: 380 MB
• Startup time: 4 seconds
• CPU at idle: 12%

Native:

• Installer: 18 MB
• RAM at idle: 95 MB
• Startup time: 1.2 seconds
• CPU at idle: 2%

That's 8x smaller, 4x less memory, 3x faster startup, 6x less CPU. The trade-off: Native uses your system's WebView, which means cross-platform behavior is less consistent.

How it works

Native is a Vercel Labs toolkit for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies. Like Electron, it uses web rendering for the UI. Unlike Electron, it uses your system's WebView (Edge on Windows, WebKit on macOS) instead of bundling a full Chromium.

The 6.5K stars and the Vercel Labs backing mean this is research-grade tooling, not a weekend hack.

When to choose Native

Use Native if: you want a lightweight desktop app (10-50 MB instead of 100+ MB), you prefer web technologies over Rust, you are building a new project where bundle size matters, you trust Vercel Labs as a maintainer.

Skip if: you need the largest ecosystem (use Electron), you prefer Rust (use Tauri), you need cross-platform pixel-perfect UI, you are building a complex app that needs many integrations.

The verdict

For most production apps, Electron or Tauri are safer choices. The 6.5K stars will likely grow as more developers discover the tool, but the community is currently small.

For new projects where bundle size matters and web-tech experience is more available than Rust, Native is worth trying.

Full review: https://saas.pet/reviews/native-review