Electron Forge vs IzPack
Electron Forge
electronforge.ioIzPack
izpack.orgSide by side
| Figure | Electron Forge | IzPack |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Software Packaging Tools | 8.6 (#1) | 7.6 (#21) |
| Customization | Custom build logic can be added through Forge’s Plugin API, and custom build and storage targets can be implemented with Makers and Publishers. | Users can choose the elements and appearance of an installer and extend it with additional features. |
| Purpose | Electron Forge is an all-in-one tool for packaging and distributing Electron applications. | IzPack packages, distributes, and deploys applications on the Java platform by generating installers. |
Plans
In their own words
Electron Forge
Electron Forge is a free, open-source tool for packaging and distributing Electron applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its build pipeline brings together code signing, installer creation, and artifact publishing. Makers generate platform-specific distributables, including Squirrel.Windows, ZIP, DEB, RPM, DMG, AppX, and Flatpak formats. Publishers can send outputs from the make command to distribution services, update servers, or storage such as an S3 bucket. Developers can initialize projects with create-electron-app and choose first-party Webpack, Webpack with TypeScript, Vite, or Vite with TypeScript templates. The Plugin API supports custom build logic, and custom Makers and Publishers can address additional build or storage targets. The GitHub Publisher supports GitHub Releases and, with host configuration, GitHub Enterprise. Documented auto-update options include a free Electron team service for open-source GitHub apps, static storage publishers, and a hosted update server; macOS auto-updates require a signed app. Getting started requires Node.js 16.4.0 or later, Git, and a JavaScript package manager. Packaging requires node_modules on disk and does not account for symlinked dependencies or Yarn Plug'n'Play.
IzPack
IzPack generates installers for packaging, distributing and deploying Java applications. It creates one installer that runs on operating systems with a Java virtual machine, with Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X listed as destinations. Users can select installer components and appearance, then extend installers with additional features. Optional native integration can create desktop shortcuts, modify a system registry or switch to an administrator account. Documented capabilities include command-line packaging, silent installation, auto-update support and CI/CD integration. Output includes standard JAR installers, web installers and pack JARs. The download page identifies IzPack 5.2.7 as the current release. A Maven plugin is documented, with links to independent Gradle, Scala SBT and Apache Buildr plugins. IzPack is published under the Apache Software License 2.0. The project uses mailing lists for updates and feedback and accepts GitHub pull requests. The Windows native launcher from IzPack 4 is not supported in version 5 because it lacks a maintainer.