Chromium

Developers often fail to update the Electron base regularly enough, leaving apps vulnerable to security flaws. Electron uses Chromium which requires constant patching like any web browser, but apps ship with outdated versions.

Electron apps don't integrate well with operating systems because they're essentially web browsers displaying local content. When Electron doesn't support specific OS features, apps using it also won't—for example, Discord lacks screen sharing on Wayland and doesn't support file portals on Flatpak.

Electron apps bundle most of Chromium's codebase, making even basic Hello World applications ~100MB and real-world apps like Discord over 700MB. This excessive resource usage creates performance problems on systems with limited RAM.

Electron applications consume significant power due to continuous background processes including the Chromium engine, leading to rapid battery depletion on laptops and mobile devices, causing user frustration and driving adoption of more efficient alternatives.

Users experience noticeable input lag when typing and general sluggishness in Electron apps due to the overhead of running Chromium and multiple processes. This affects user experience even for simple interactions like text input.

Developers must bundle Chromium to control stability, security, and reliability independently from OS WebViews that are tightly coupled to the operating system. However, this creates a tension between bundling bloat and maintaining control over platform stability.