Built a desktop app with Tauri 2.0 - impressions after 6 months

Used Tauri to build Lokus, a note-taking app. Thought I'd share my experience since Tauri 2.0 is still relatively new.

Background:
Previously built desktop apps with Electron. Hated the bloat. Tried Tauri for this project.

The Good:

• Bundle size: 10MB vs 100MB+ with Electron
• Memory usage: ~50MB vs ~200MB
• Startup time: sub-1 second consistently
• Native feel on each platform
• Rust backend = actual performance for heavy operations (search, graph layout)
• Hot reload works great

The Challenging:

• Debugging Rust<->JS bridge can be painful
• Smaller ecosystem than Electron
• Some platform-specific quirks (especially Linux)
• IPC serialization needs careful planning
• Documentation is good but not as extensive as Electron

Performance wins:

• Full-text search across 10k files: ~50ms (would be 500ms+ in pure JS)
• Graph layout calculations in Web Worker + Rust: 60fps with 1000+ nodes
• File operations are instant (no Node.js overhead)

Architecture:

React Frontend <-> Tauri IPC <-> Rust Backend
                                   ├─ File System
                                   ├─ Search Engine
                                   ├─ Plugin Manager
                                   └─ MCP Server

Would I use Tauri again?
Absolutely. The performance gains are worth the learning curve. Especially for apps that do heavy computation.

Caveats:

• If your app is simple CRUD, Electron might be easier
• If you need extensive native integrations, Tauri 2.0 shines
• If bundle size matters, Tauri is a no-brainer

Code is open source if you want to see a real-world example: https://github.com/lokus-ai/lokus

Happy to answer questions about the Rust/Tauri experience!