Good Bye Electron, Hello Rust + Tauri! - Andreas Lillebø Holm - NDC TechTown 2025

Andreas Lillebø Holm explores how Tauri uses Rust to build lightweight, secure, and high-performance cross-platform desktop applications as an alternative to Electron.

This talk was recorded at NDC TechTown in Kongsberg, Norway. #ndctechtown #ndcconferences #developer #softwaredeveloper Attend the next NDC conference near you: ndcconferences.com ndctechtown.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel and learn every day: / @NDC Follow our Social Media! facebook.com/ndcconferences twitter.com/NDC_Conferences instagram.com/ndc_conferences/ #rust #architecture #security As the limitations of Electron become increasingly evident—especially in performance, security, and resource efficiency—developers are turning to more modern solutions. Tauri, built on the solid foundation of Rust, has emerged as a powerful alternative for building cross-platform desktop applications. In this talk, we’ll dive into how Rust enables Tauri’s lightweight and secure architecture, replacing the heavy Electron runtime with a lean, native backend. We’ll explore Tauri’s design philosophy, where Rust handles system-level operations such as file access, process management, and secure communication, while your favorite frontend frameworks (like React or Svelte) power the user interface. At Squarehead, our adoption of Tauri was driven by its Rust-based advantages: tight memory control, fast execution, and seamless cross-platform capabilities. We’ll share how we leverage Rust’s concurrency and safety features to run performant “sidecar” processes and manage native integrations, all from within Tauri. By the end of this session, you’ll understand not just how Tauri works—but why Rust is a game-changer for front-end developers seeking performance and reliability without giving up modern web tooling.