What would you use to build a small, cross-platform app with a GUI in 2024? Ideally, I want it to be usable on Mac, Windows, and Linux. I usually use Python but my experience has been that it’s really hard to distribute Python GUI apps. I have heard that Electron is good for this situation. Are there any new frameworks or platforms that you would recommend?
I haven't personally used it. However, I did watch a guy build from scratch his desktop client for his VPN using wails (<a href="https://wails.io/" rel="nofollow">https://wails.io/</a>) + Golang. It actually went pretty smoothly and quickly. And he did it for mac, windows, and linux. Here's a link to his project since it's open source: <a href="https://github.com/tunnels-is/nicelandvpn-desktop">https://github.com/tunnels-is/nicelandvpn-desktop</a><p>When I did build a production app with Electron (a few years ago granted) I ran into distribution difficulties as well. It's doable, but it was a pain. Specifically what was a pain was auto-update.
I just learned of Flet (<a href="https://flet.dev" rel="nofollow">https://flet.dev</a>) which seems interesting for Python. I may try this as well.
WxPython & WxWidgets are worth a look. I personally like that it uses the platform's native API rather than emulating the GUI and the license seems ok.