ToDesktop
p/todesktop
Convert your web app to a desktop app in 2 minutes
Michael Seibel
ToDesktop Builder β€” Web app to desktop app in minutes
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πŸ”§ Take your web app codebase and transform it into a cross-platform desktop app with native functionality.

πŸ–±οΈ With our drag-and-drop UI, you can easily customize your app's design. Code is optional.

πŸš€ One-click publish your desktop app to your customers.

Replies
Dave Jeffery
πŸ‘‹ 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. πŸ§‘β€πŸ’» 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. πŸš€ 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. πŸ”Œ 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. πŸ“‚ 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. πŸ’Έ 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. πŸ“š Documentation, tutorials and recipes Check out our new docs site. Everything you need to get started is at https://www.todesktop.com/docs/ πŸ”₯ 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. πŸ‘¨β€πŸŽ¨ How are people using ToDesktop Builder? β€” @rickpastoor built a menu bar app that shows the next meetings. β€” @trafnar built a ChatGPT-powered AI chat tool that you can trigger with a global hotkey. β€” @thekitze took menubar icons to the next level with his habit tracking app. β€” @linuz90 built the best Twitter writing experience with Typefully. β€” @peer_rich used macOs vibrancy effects to a juicy desktop app for Cal.com's desktop app β€” @brian_lovin built a desktop app for Campsite that sends users native notifications whenever people comment in your conversations or react to your posts
Michael Jelly
solves so many of the gnarly steps I had to go through to go from web-app to native app! My next app I’ll be using it, congrats Dave! @rickpastoor @trafnar @thekitze @linuz90 @peer_rich @brian_lovin @davej
Chris Messina
Can I use this to build a site-specific wrapper for other web apps that I use? (i.e. I don't own those websites, but want to access them via my Mac dock).
Dave Jeffery
@chrismessina Hey Chris, great question. We're not targeting this use case but you can do that for absolutely free if you want to. It's a bit of a hack so let me explain how: 1. Download ToDesktop Builder from our website. 2. Create an app using ToDesktop Builder. You probably want a "Simple Window" app. 3. Customise it if you would like to customise it. 4. Hit the run button 5. When the app is running then right-click on the dock icon. Choose "Options" β†’ "Show in Finder" 6. You can now drag that application into your Applications directory and treat it like a normal app. Note: If you send this app to a friend or another computer then it won't work because the app hasn't been signed or notarized. If you want to distribute the app then you'll have to press the "Release" button on ToDesktop Builder and you would need to pay for this service.
Chris Messina
@davej awesome, thanks! I think I'll do this for Perplexity.ai! :)
R. Fancsiki
I would like to try building our web app to desktop, but I am a bit concerned how will links be handled. Does ToDesktop Builder provide integration with the OS to handle links to old web app to open in the desktop app instead of the browser?
Stas Kulesh
Awesome progress man!
Dave Jeffery
@stas_kulesh Thanks Stas. That's high praise coming from you! 😊
Daniel Dinh
Epic team and product. Even me as a non technical founder was able to create a desktop app for our web app pretty fast. That was a big flex. 🀩
Dave Jeffery
@beinglong Awesome Daniel. Just remember, with great power comes great... apps. πŸ’ͺ
Tom Johnson
Congrats on the launch! Has been a huge help with pushing a great experience with Basedash. Having a desktop app on Windows and Mac would have been out of reach for the capacity of our team, but with Todesktop, it's barely any additional effort on our end to maintain. The team is also fast to ship updates and responsive when we have questions, like with launching external windows for more complicated auth flows. I wish every web app would use this.
Dave Jeffery
@tomjohndesign Thank you, Tom. Awesome to have you as a customer. The new Basedash website is stunning btw, great job!
ChloΓ© Yang
looks great! Is there any tools that can do things vice versa? like turning desktop app to web app, lol
Patrick Corrigan
Hi Dave, congrats on your launch. This is AWESOME! I'm really excited about native plugins. Can't wait to see what is coming in the future πŸŽ‰
Dave Jeffery
@patrick_corrigan2 Afterplay would make a really great desktop app. Could do some nifty features like picture-picture. Play Pokemon while you reply to your email!
Arnob Mukherjee
Congratulations @davej , Great to see the launch, will need to try it out today πŸ™Œ
Dave Jeffery
@iamarnob6543 Thanks Arnob. If you have any feedback then we'll have to collect it on Olvy πŸ˜‰
johnny makes ⚑️
huge congrats on the launch! I've been using ToDesktop Builder for quite some time and it's really brilliant – makes desktop app creation a breeze, and incredibly fast – you can run and test your app almost immediately. love seeing how far TD's come!
Dave Jeffery
@johnny_makes Thank you Johnny. So proud to have Fabric as a customer. High-five from across the internet πŸ™Œ
Pirijan
I’ve been a todesktop customer for over 2 years. I use it to provide maintainance-free Linux, windows, and mac clients for @kinopioclub . Congrats on the release, looking forward to trying this out!
Dave Jeffery
Thanks @pketh. I love @kinopioclub, it's such a beautifully crafted app.
Michael Fitzgerald
Congrats on the launch @davej You've just made an awesome product even better πŸš€ For anyone building an electron app, this is a no-brainer!
Dave Jeffery
@mkeftz You were literally our very first customer Michael. Thanks for all your help. πŸ™
Robert James Gabriel
ToDesktop Builder is a developer's dream come true. With its user-friendly interface, extensive customization options, multi-platform support, and advanced features, it has become an indispensable tool in my toolkit. It deserves a solid 5-star rating for empowering developers like me to create stunning desktop apps.
Dave Jeffery
@robertjgabriel Whoop, thanks for the kind words Robert. πŸ™
Johan Steneros
This is awesome. Will give it a go for Bravemark.
Dave Calnan
Desktop app to be able to run stuff yourself quickly is such a cool improvement to an already great product. Fair play @davej!
Dave Jeffery
@davecalnan Thanks for the kind words Dave! Took a while to get here but really proud of this.
Brian Lovin
We're big fans! Love ToDesktop at Campsite β€” the tool is dead simple, easy to spin up, easy to customize, and the team's customer support has been outstanding the entire time we've been using the tool.
Peer Richelsen
We use ToDesktop for our Cal.com Desktop App and its been great! Try it here: cal.com/download
Dave Jeffery
@peer_rich you are a gent (and a master of memes). πŸ™
Ritik Singh Panwar
Hey @davej Could you please explain to me how "ToDesktop Builder" works as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old (Eli5)?
Nathan Manousos
I'm a big fan, I was dreading creating my desktop app and this solved all the headaches. I used it to launch two desktop apps, ReadyRunner.ai and TaskTXT.com.
Dave Jeffery
@trafnar Your feedback has been absolutely invaluable Nathan, thank you. @ everyone else: check out Nathan's apps, the attention to detail and care that goes into his apps are remarkable.