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🔍 Electron App Detector

A fun, visually appealing script to detect Electron-based applications on your Mac.

Quick Start

One-line install and run:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-saas-directory/awesome-native-macosx-apps/main/find-electron-apps-macos.sh | bash

What It Does

  • 🔎 Scans /Applications folder for Electron apps
  • ⚡ Identifies apps built with Electron framework
  • 📊 Shows app names, sizes, and versions
  • 🎨 Beautiful, colorful terminal output
  • 💡 Provides recommendations for native alternatives
  • 📈 Calculates resource impact

Example Output

╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  ⚡  Electron App Detector for macOS                       ║
║     Find which apps are secretly Electron-based            ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

🔍 Scanning /Applications...

[▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Done!

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

⚠️  Found 5 Electron app(s) out of 47 total apps

⚡ Electron Apps Detected:

App Name                                 Size         Version
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Slack                                    165M         4.35.0
Discord                                  156M         0.0.290
Visual Studio Code                       387M         1.85.0
Postman                                  312M         10.20.0
Notion                                   198M         2.2.3

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

📦 Resource Impact:

⚠️  High Electron count detected!
   Each Electron app runs a full Chromium browser

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

🚀 Want native alternatives?
   Check out: https://github.com/open-saas-directory/awesome-native-macosx-apps

✓ Native apps are:
   • Faster and more responsive
   • Use less RAM and battery
   • Better macOS integration
   • Smaller app size

💡 Fun Fact:
   Electron apps can use 100-300MB RAM even when idle
   Native apps often use less than 50MB

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Manual Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/open-saas-directory/awesome-native-macosx-apps.git
cd awesome-native-macosx-apps

Make executable:

chmod +x find-electron-apps-macos.sh

Run:

./find-electron-apps-macos.sh

How It Works

The script detects Electron apps by checking for:

  1. Electron Framework - Electron Framework.framework in app bundle
  2. Electron Binary - Electron binary in MacOS folder

Why This Matters

Electron apps:

  • Run a full Chromium browser for each app
  • Use 100-300MB RAM even when idle
  • Drain battery faster
  • Take longer to launch
  • Use more disk space

Native apps:

  • Use 50MB or less RAM
  • Better battery life (2-3x longer)
  • Instant launch
  • Better macOS integration
  • Smaller file sizes

Native Alternatives

Found Electron apps? Check our curated list of native alternatives.

Requirements

  • Bash shell (default on macOS)
  • Apps installed in /Applications

Troubleshooting

"Permission denied" error:

chmod +x find-electron-apps-macos.sh

Script not finding apps:

  • Ensure apps are in /Applications folder
  • Some apps in ~/Applications won't be scanned (by design)

False negatives:

  • Some apps may hide Electron framework cleverly
  • The script uses multiple detection methods to minimize this

Contributing

Found a bug or have a suggestion? Open an issue or PR!

License

MIT License - See repository for details

Made with ❤️ for the macOS community

Check out the full awesome-native-macosx-apps list!