Tauri 2.0 - Perhaps the best choice for AI applications
Updated on:July-13th-2025
Recommendation
Tauri 2.0 may be your best choice for building lightweight AI applications.
Core content:
1. Comparison of cross-platform framework features between Tauri and Electron
2. Advantages of Tauri in size, memory usage, and security
3. Rust language learning curve and development experience
Yang Fangxian
Founder of 53AI/Most Valuable Expert of Tencent Cloud (TVP)
Recently I spent some time using Tauri+SvelteKit to make a small desktop AI software. The technology selection was mainly based on what I am familiar with. For details, please see my Spring Festival ramblings .In addition to the native development technology of the operating system, desktop applications are currently more likely to choose cross-platform solutions. After all, it is quite costly to invest dedicated personnel to develop each client. The mainstream cross-platform application development frameworks are as follows: | | |
|---|
| | Large (tens to hundreds of MB) |
| | |
| Rust + front-end framework | |
| | |
| | |
| High (strict permission control) | |
| Calling Rust code directly | |
| Windows/macOS/Linux/Android/iOS | |
| Emerging (the ecosystem is developing rapidly) | |
| Lightweight, high-performance applications | Complex, large applications |
The first point in this table has already impressed me greatly. Just imagine a small tool software that is hundreds of megabytes in size. I just can't accept it!However, we can't just talk about the good aspects of framework selection, let's talk about the relatively bad aspects:The entire Tauri framework is based on Rust, and is built on top of various mainstream front-end frameworks (even supporting .NET). Although my application doesn't require writing Rust code, relying on my experience of writing thousands of lines of Rust code, I still put everything like database access and network calls on the Rust side.In addition, Rust's compilation is indeed slow. If you change a rust file during the development process, it will be automatically recompiled. My Mac is not that smooth.Rust may be a stumbling block for many programmers. After all, there are many programmers who give up after getting started. When you feel like giving up, force yourself to persevere.2. Tauri 2.x community activityTauri is a latecomer compared to Electron, and its author's original intention should be to solve the problem of Electron's bloatedness. The latest version of Tauri is 2.2.5. Since 2.0, Tauri has supported the development of Android and iOS applications. You can even support Windows/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS systems in one project (it may also support Hongmeng system in the future).Because it is relatively new, the various open source projects developed by Tauri that can be searched in the community are still mainly based on 1.x. The two have changed a lot, which is also a point of complaint in the community, especially in the permission part, which is too detailed. And I think the official documentation of Tauri 2.x can only be regarded as passing, not rich enough.Another point is that if you go to various AI platforms to ask questions about Tauri 2.x, you often cannot get accurate information. Sometimes you are fooled by 1.x information. At this time, you need to go back to the official website document and read it carefully.About 15,000 words are omitted hereThe merits outweigh the flaws. Looking at my own little tool, the release version is only 4.7M in size under Windows and more than 7M under Mac. It can be transmitted quickly over the network and runs very fast. The above problems are no longer a problem.Finally, my software has more than 2,000 lines of Rust code, and most of the code is still processing UI logic on the front end. If you really resist Rust, you can write the backend logic in JavaScript/TypeScript without writing a single line of Rust code.So what I want to recommend to everyone is that if you want to do some AI applications, mainly on the desktop (I haven’t tried the mobile side yet), I strongly recommend that you try Tauri, it’s the only choice!The following figure shows the core architecture of TauriEvent-based processing modelTauri provides a very convenient scaffolding command line tool, which can be used across platforms in 5 minutes.
