Is this Mac app native or Electron?

What the four readings mean

Native means the app draws its interface with AppKit or SwiftUI. In practice that tends to mean a smaller download, lower memory use, and system behaviour — text substitution, services, the standard shortcuts — working without the developer implementing each one.

Electron means the app ships its own copy of Chromium and runs a web application inside it. That is why an Electron app is typically well over a hundred megabytes when a comparable native app is under twenty, and why several of them running at once costs noticeable memory.

Catalyst means an iPad app brought across to macOS. Catalyst apps are real Mac apps, but they frequently keep iPad interface conventions, so a window can feel oversized and a right-click can do nothing.

Java means the app runs on a Java runtime, either bundled or expected to be installed. It is rare now outside developer tooling.

How we read it

From the application bundle itself, not from what anyone says about it. The reading comes from the frameworks the binary links against and the presence of an Electron framework inside the bundle, alongside the bundle's Info.plist. Every listing with a runtime links to the exact artifact that was opened and shows the date it was opened.

That means the reading is only as current as the version we opened. An app rewritten from Electron to native between checks will say Electron until the next check, and the date on the listing is how you tell.

What it does not mean

Native is not a quality claim, and this is the misreading worth heading off. Plenty of Electron apps are excellent, well-behaved and faster than a badly written native app. What the reading tells you is what the app is made of, which lets you predict download size and memory use — not whether you will like it.

The absence of an Electron reading is also not evidence of a native app. An app whose bundle we have not opened has no runtime listed at all, which is why every share on this site is stated over the number of bundles actually opened rather than the number of apps listed.