Electron Development: The Complete Guide to Getting Started

What is Electron?

Electron is an open-sourced framework for building Desktop GUI applications using web technologies. It’s developed and maintained by GitHub and uses the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js runtime to process and render HTML and CSS.

Electron is behind some of our favorite desktop applications such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Atom Text Editor, and Visual Studio Code.

What is an Electron Developer?

An Electron Developer is really just a software developer, either back-end or front-end, who is familiar with the Electron framework. They have experience with Node.js as well as HTML/CSS and writing backend logic using JavaScript. 

Companies Who Use Electron

• Atom
• Basecamp 3
• Discord
• Facebook Messenger
• GitHub Desktop
• Keybase
• GitKraken
• Figma
• Microsoft Teams
• MongoDB Compass
• Skype
• Slack
• Twitch
• Visual Studio Code
• WhatsApp
• Yammer

How to Hire an Electron Developer

With JavaScript being the dominant language on the web, how awesome would it be if our desktop applications were built using the same technologies? Electron makes that possible, which means that any JavaScript developer can pick up Electron pretty quickly. 

Unfortunately, not all software developers are interested in desktop development. This means that there won’t be many developers on the market that can confidently put this on their resume in comparison to web frameworks like React and Angular. 

There’s no need to be discouraged, there are most certainly plenty of developers out there with Electron expertise, you’ll just have to invest a little more time searching for them. 

With all of the freelance marketplaces and job boards available, you’d think it would be easy to find your rockstar and get started. How do you go about deciding if a developer joins your team? 

We have a great resource for you to check out that talks about how to hire developers. 

Why hire an Electron developer?

For those who wish to take the high road and hire Electron developers on their own, we’re still here to help. 

Hiring a developer on your own is a very focused and hands-on process that requires considerable knowledge about software development in general. 

The last thing you want to do is trust your hiring process to someone who isn’t technical. 

If you are a non-technical manager looking to learn a thing or two, we have a great resource here for you to learn more about the hiring process in detail. 

Otherwise, we’d recommend you contact Trio for consulting and developer allocation. 

What to look for in an Electron developer?

At a high level, Electron developers should be able to:

• Be proficient with JavaScript
• Use the Electron framework
• Understand Electron API
• Understand Node.js API
• Apply Object-Oriented Principles
• Build an app using MVC architecture
• Some testing experience with Selenium

How much do Electron (JavaScript) developers cost in the U.S?

The average salary for a Senior Electron developer is $120,046 per year in the United States, according to Ziprecruiter.com data. Here’s a chart that visualizes the salary ranges within the United States for a Senior Software Developer. 

How much do Electron (JavaScript) Developers cost in South America? 

Due to economic differences between the United States and South America as a whole, the cost of offshoring software development is significantly lower than hiring full-time with U.S talent. For Electron Developers in South America, the average salary is currently around $100,000 whereas a mid-level developer costs around $76,000. 

How much do Javascript Developers cost in Ukraine / Eastern Europe?

Eastern Europe shares very similar rates to South America, again due to the economic differences. When looking at salaries in Eastern Europe, data shows that a Senior Electron Developer costs around $100,000 on average. 

Hourly rates for Electron (JavaScript)t Developers

Another way to look at developer costs is through hourly rates. While salaries are good to understand for hiring developers for full-time and long-term, you might just need a developer for a period of 3-6 months or 6-12 months. In these types of situations, it’s best to calculate your costs based on the hourly rates of a developer. 

Below is a table that lists the various hourly rates of developers in different locations based on their job title. 

Stop Waiting, Start Developing

By working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance. 

To learn more, tell us about your project and we’ll get you started.