electron-builder vs InstallAware

electron-builder is a free, open-source tool for packaging Electron apps for distribution on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It creates installers, portable builds, and archives, with targets ranging from DMG, PKG, AppImage, and DEB to NSIS, MSI, ZIP, and other formats. Command-line packaging and silent installation are supported. The electron-updater package provides differential updates, staged rollouts, and documented providers including GitHub Releases, Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Cloudflare R2, Keygen, and generic HTTP(S) servers. Update manifests may be signed with Ed25519 and checked against a public key embedded in the app. Configured credentials enable macOS notarization and Windows Authenticode signing; ASAR integrity hashes are enabled by default, and Electron Fuses can disable selected features at package time. GitHub Actions guidance covers CI/CD builds and publishing. In v27, publishing must be explicitly requested. One build constraint matters: macOS signing requires macOS, and native dependencies generally need compilation on the target platform unless prebuilt binaries are used.

InstallAware 2026 is a setup builder for app and game developers working across Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its listed output formats include MSI, EXE, MSIX, APPX, App-V, DEB, RPM, and PKG. The multi-platform page names Apple Intel, Apple Silicon, GTK2, Qt5, and Windows x86 targets. Setups can be deployed over the web, while a minimum setup can work without an internet connection. The Developer edition builds MSIX packages and can bridge Win32, Win64, and.NET applications to the Windows Store. It also supports switching between Native Code and Windows Installer setup engines at runtime. InstallAware can create an App-V package from a setup project and includes a viewer for inspecting package contents. A free Visual Studio extension analyzes solution dependencies and creates and builds a setup from a Visual Studio solution. The freeware edition costs nothing, is listed as free for commercial use, and requires Visual Studio. InstallAware offers a 30-day trial and free peer support forums, with optional Gold support for priority technical support.