ToDesktop Builder

Web app to desktop app in minutes

👋 Hey Product Hunt!

Today we are launching ToDesktop Builder. This is our biggest launch yet. Here are some of the highlights.

⚡ 200x faster builds with our Desktop app ToDesktop Builder is now a desktop app. Yes, very meta. We didn't just do this for fun though. You can now build an app in just a few seconds. It's literally 200x faster than before.

🧑‍💻 Code Optional You can add multiple windows, multiple trays, and completely customisable app/tray/click menus from our NoCode builder. We've also added lots more app and window configuration options. You can create a desktop app without writing a single line of code.

🚀 Typescript/Javascript API You can use code to take your desktop app to the next level. Just `npm install` our client API on your web app's codebase and suddenly you have access to native functionality like system notifications, the app menu or badges for your app icon.

🔌 Native Plugins Plugins are a great way to introduce native functionalities into your desktop app. The goal is that eventually, you will be able to create any desktop app using plugins. Here's a tutorial that uses ToDesktop Builder plugins to create an awesome todo app. The app lets you create todos by selecting text on any app and then use a global hotkey to create a todo from that text.

📂 Offline file support In response to popular demand, we've added offline file support to ToDesktop. With offline files support, you can drag and drop files into ToDesktop Builder and use the `todesktop-fs://` protocol to read from bundled files in your app.

💸 Free to build your app locally. You only pay for distribution. With previous versions of ToDesktop you needed a credit card to build your app. Now you can just hit the "Run" button and ToDesktop Builder will build a fully functional version of your app for free. You don't pay us a penny until you want to create a build of your app that you can distribute to your customers.

📚 Documentation, tutorials and recipes Check out our new docs site. Everything you need to get started is at https://www.todesktop.com/docs/

🔥 Oh and... I won't go into detail but here are some of the other things that you get out-of-the-box: Super-fast update/download CDN, Code-signing, Auto-updates, Analytics, and we support Mac, Windows and Linux.

👨‍🎨 How are people using ToDesktop Builder? — @rickpastoor built a menu bar app that shows the next meetings. — @trafnar built a ChatGPT-powered AI chat tool that you can trigger with a global hotkey. — @thekitze took menubar icons to the next level with his habit tracking app. — @linuz90 built the best Twitter writing experience with Typefully. — @peer_rich used macOs vibrancy effects to a juicy desktop app for Cal.com's desktop app — @brian_lovin built a desktop app for Campsite that sends users native notifications whenever people comment in your conversations or react to your posts

Epic Product Love how it removes all the "Electron" headache and gives super powerful APIs/plugins for native features!

ToDesktop powers most of my favorite tools. Happy to be both a user as a dev, and user as end-customer.

Congrats @davej