Nobody has done a comprehensive teardown of what desktop apps are actually built with — until now. We extracted dependency metadata from 2,440 macOS applications to answer the questions developers and tech leaders keep asking: What frameworks dominate? How big are apps really? Who still hasn't shipped Apple Silicon support?
This is the data, as of March 2026.
How many desktop apps use Electron?
Electron powers 19.3% of macOS desktop apps — 470 out of 2,440 tracked applications. That makes it the dominant cross-platform framework by a wide margin, but native development still rules.
| Runtime | Apps | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Native (Swift/Objective-C) | 1,728 | 70.8% |
| Electron | 470 | 19.3% |
| Qt | 189 | 7.7% |
| Tauri | 63 | 2.6% |
| Flutter | 24 | 1.0% |
| CEF (Chromium Embedded) | 17 | 0.7% |
| Java/JVM | 6 | 0.2% |
| .NET/Mono | 6 | 0.2% |
70.8% of macOS apps are native Swift or Objective-C. The "everything is Electron" meme doesn't hold — native development is alive and well on macOS.
The surprise is Qt at 7.7% — quietly powering more apps than Flutter, Tauri, CEF, Java, and .NET combined. Qt's strength is in specialized tools: video processing (CapCut), scientific software, 3D printing (CHITUBOX), and gaming (Dolphin emulator).
Tauri is the fastest-growing runtime at 63 apps, including GitButler, Hoppscotch, Spacedrive, and Cap. It didn't exist in meaningful numbers two years ago.
How big are desktop apps?
The median macOS app is 104.6 MB. But the average is 262.6 MB — heavy outliers pull the mean up significantly.
| Stat | Size |
|---|---|
| Median | 104.6 MB |
| Average | 262.6 MB |
| 10th percentile | 7.5 MB |
| 90th percentile | 621.8 MB |
| Smallest | 0.1 MB (jbrk) |
| Largest | 7,774 MB (Wolfram Engine) |
The runtime you choose determines your app's weight class:
| Runtime | Median Size | Average Size |
|---|---|---|
| CEF (Chromium Embedded) | 629 MB | 862 MB |
| .NET/Mono | 631 MB | 791 MB |
| Electron | 416 MB | 462 MB |
| Qt | 228 MB | 408 MB |
| Java/JVM | 303 MB | 373 MB |
| Flutter | 156 MB | 307 MB |
| Tauri | 49 MB | 102 MB |
| Native (Swift/ObjC) | 43 MB | 184 MB |
The median Electron app is 416 MB. The median native app is 43 MB — nearly 10x smaller. Tauri splits the difference at 49 MB, delivering cross-platform capability at native-like sizes.
The 20 largest macOS apps
| App | Size |
|---|---|
| Wolfram Engine | 7,774 MB |
| Ableton Live | 5,857 MB |
| JetBrains Rider | 5,845 MB |
| CLion | 5,799 MB |
| Cinebench | 4,378 MB |
| IntelliJ IDEA | 4,035 MB |
| QGIS | 3,434 MB |
| Affinity | 3,374 MB |
| GoLand | 3,328 MB |
| PyCharm | 3,252 MB |
| RustRover | 3,136 MB |
| Android Studio | 3,069 MB |
| DataSpell | 2,977 MB |
| QGIS-LTR | 2,918 MB |
| PhpStorm | 2,785 MB |
| RubyMine | 2,753 MB |
| WebStorm | 2,746 MB |
| JASP | 2,665 MB |
| Max (Cycling '74) | 2,651 MB |
| Coq Proof Assistant | 2,627 MB |
JetBrains dominates this list — their IDEs average 3.5 GB each.
Which apps support Apple Silicon?
85.8% of tracked macOS apps now run natively on Apple Silicon. But 327 apps remain Intel-only, four years after the M1 launch.
| Architecture | Apps | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Universal (arm64 + x86_64) | 1,466 | 60.1% |
| ARM64-only | 627 | 25.7% |
| Intel-only (x86_64) | 327 | 13.4% |
The Intel holdouts span every category:
| Category | Intel-Only Examples |
|---|---|
| Gaming | Steam, RetroArch, OpenEmu, RuneScape |
| Development | Android Studio (GPU Inspector), Prisma Studio |
| Creative | OpenShot, Aurora HDR, Natron |
| Productivity | LastPass, Kaleidoscope, TurboTax 2024 |
| Science | QGIS-LTR, CellProfiler, PsychoPy |
These apps run through Rosetta 2 translation, which impacts performance and battery life. With Apple expected to eventually drop Rosetta, their clock is ticking.
What UI frameworks do Electron apps use?
React dominates Electron's UI layer, but most Electron apps don't expose a detectable framework at all.
| Framework | Electron Apps |
|---|---|
| React | 109 (23.2%) |
| Vue.js | 27 (5.7%) |
| Preact | 5 |
| Angular | 4 |
| Svelte | 1 |
| Unknown/Other | 326 (69.4%) |
69% of Electron apps have no detectable frontend framework — they're likely using vanilla JS, or frameworks that tree-shake their identifiers away during bundling.
For state management, Redux leads but newer libraries are gaining ground:
| Library | Electron Apps |
|---|---|
| Redux | 41 |
| Zustand | 18 |
| TanStack Query | 17 |
| Jotai | 10 |
| MobX | 9 |
Do desktop apps monitor crashes?
88.5% of macOS apps ship with zero error monitoring. That's 2,160 apps with no automated way to know when users experience crashes.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Apps with error monitoring | 280 (11.5%) |
| Apps without error monitoring | 2,160 (88.5%) |
Even among Electron apps — where adding Sentry takes a single npm install — 74.3% ship without any crash reporting.
Among the 280 apps that do use error monitoring, Sentry is effectively a monopoly:
| SDK | Apps | Market Share |
|---|---|---|
| Sentry | 264 | 94.3% |
| Bugsnag | 13 | 4.6% |
| Datadog | 9 | 3.2% |
Notable Sentry users include Raycast, Discord, Warp, Fantastical, Tower, Signal, and Figma. The rare Datadog adopters — Arc, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot — are driven by existing enterprise relationships rather than desktop-specific fit.
How secure are macOS apps?
Code signing is nearly universal. Everything else is not.
| Security Feature | Apps | Adoption |
|---|---|---|
| Code signed | 2,375 | 97.3% |
| Has entitlements | 1,801 | 73.8% |
| App Sandbox | 416 | 17.0% |
| Privacy manifest | 287 | 11.8% |
83% of macOS apps run outside the App Sandbox. Electron apps are the worst offenders — only 1.9% are sandboxed, versus 22.1% of native apps.
The most commonly requested entitlements reveal what apps need access to:
| Entitlement | Apps | Share |
|---|---|---|
| JIT compilation | 846 | 34.7% |
| Disable library validation | 699 | 28.6% |
| Unsigned executable memory | 691 | 28.3% |
| Apple Events automation | 516 | 21.1% |
| Audio input (microphone) | 500 | 20.5% |
| Camera | 390 | 16.0% |
Despite Apple's privacy manifest requirement, only 11.8% of macOS desktop apps include one. And of those that do, zero declare tracking.
What macOS versions do apps target?
Nearly half of all macOS apps still support machines from 2016 or earlier.
| Minimum macOS Required | Apps | Share |
|---|---|---|
| macOS 10.x (Sierra–Catalina) | 1,161 | 47.6% |
| macOS 11 (Big Sur) | 358 | 14.7% |
| macOS 12 (Monterey) | 334 | 13.7% |
| macOS 13 (Ventura) | 166 | 6.8% |
| macOS 14 (Sonoma) | 123 | 5.0% |
| macOS 15 (Sequoia) | 50 | 2.0% |
Only 2% of apps require the latest macOS 15 Sequoia. Developers maintain backward compatibility for years — the median app supports machines 4+ years old.
AI SDKs are already in 50+ desktop apps
This is a category that didn't exist 18 months ago. As of March 2026, AI SDKs are embedded in over 50 desktop applications.
| SDK | Apps |
|---|---|
| OpenAI | ~32 |
| Anthropic | ~27 |
| Ollama | 3 |
| LiveKit | 2 |
OpenAI leads with ~32 apps, but Anthropic is close behind at ~27 — appearing in VS Code Insiders, Postman, CherryStudio, and MacWhisper. ChatGPT itself ships LiveKit's WebRTC framework for voice features.
Key takeaways
Native still dominates. 70.8% of macOS apps are native Swift/Objective-C. Electron is big at 19.3%, but it's not the majority.
Electron apps are 10x larger than native. Median 416 MB vs 43 MB. Tauri offers a middle path at 49 MB.
Apple Silicon migration is nearly complete. 85.8% native support, but 327 stragglers remain.
Most apps fly blind on crashes. 88.5% have no error monitoring. Sentry owns 94% of those that do.
The sandbox is mostly ignored. 83% of apps run outside it. Privacy manifests are even rarer at 11.8%.
AI is arriving fast. 50+ apps already ship OpenAI or Anthropic SDKs — up from near-zero in 2024.
Qt is the dark horse. At 7.7%, it's bigger than Flutter, Tauri, and CEF combined.
This analysis is based on Desktop Insights' dataset of 2,440 macOS applications, extracted and analyzed as of March 2026. We scan app bundles to identify every SDK, framework, and dependency — from Electron versions to crash reporters to AI SDKs. Learn how our extraction works.