Tauri vs Capacitor
Status
Both Tauri and Capacitor were evaluated and ultimately rejected in favor of fully native iOS and Android apps. This document preserves the evaluation.
Decision Chain
- Tauri v2 evaluated — rejected due to immature mobile support, missing camera/push/BLE plugins, weak documentation.
- Capacitor evaluated as alternative — mature mobile ecosystem, good plugin coverage. Was briefly the selected approach.
- Native apps selected — with AI-assisted development making dual-platform implementation efficient, the “write once” value proposition of WebView and cross-platform frameworks diminished. Native apps eliminate framework risk entirely and provide the best mobile experience.
See Cross-Platform Strategy for the full rationale.
Original Evaluation (May 2026)
| Capacitor (v8.0) | Tauri v2 (v2.11) | |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile maturity | Years of production use, ~1M weekly npm downloads | Community describes mobile as closer to alpha |
| Camera plugin | Official, battle-tested | No reliable official plugin |
| Push notifications | Official (FCM + APNs) | Community-only, known issues |
| Bluetooth (BLE) | Community plugin, actively maintained | Community plugin, iOS signing issues |
| SQLite | Community plugin with SQLCipher encryption | Native via Rust process |
| App size | 8-20 MB | ~3 MB |
| Background sync | Requires custom native plugin (Swift/Kotlin) | Built-in via Rust process |
| Documentation | Good for core, varies for community plugins | Consistently cited as weak |
Both were superseded by the decision to go fully native, which eliminates all plugin ecosystem concerns.