From Web to Desktop: Wrapping a Rails Hotwire App in Electron

Very often I find myself building a successful web application, and inevitably, a user asks the golden question: "Do you have a desktop app for Mac or Windows?"

As a solo developer, hearing this used to give me anxiety. I am a Ruby developer. I don't have the time to learn Swift for macOS, C# for Windows, or rewrite my entire frontend in React just to use a desktop framework.

But in 2026, you don't have to. You can take your existing Rails app, wrap it in Electron , and ship it as a native desktop application.

The secret reason this works so well today is Hotwire . Because Turbo intercepts link clicks and updates the page without doing a full browser reload, your web app inside Electron doesn't have that ugly "white flash" between pages.…