ToDesktop 2.0 - All in one platform for building and releasing desktop apps

Thanks so much Kat 🙌! 👋 Hi hunters! The journey of ToDesktop started here on ProductHunt a year ago and so much has changed since. I’ve moved from working on this part-time to full-time. Two co-founders (Adam and Isaac) have joined me on this crazy adventure and we’ve released two new products: Menubar and CLI. We’re just getting started but here’s a review of ToDesktop 2.0! 🌟 ToDesktop Menubar @rrhoover asked for Menubar support, so we obliged. Now you can convert any web app into a menubar app as well as a desktop app. This gives your customers one-click access to your app at all times. You can even set-up a custom keyboard shortcut to trigger it. 🧩 ToDesktop Command Line Interface A lot of interest came from companies who already had a desktop app built with Electron but didn't want to manage the build/release process. So we built a CLI that allows you to build and publish your existing Electron app with one simple command. Just like that, your Electron app is built with native installers, auto-updates, code signing and crash reports all baked-in. 🖥 New Web Interface To support the new products, the web interface has been completely re-designed. This makes it a lot easier to manage your apps. 🔎 Docs and Recipes To support our power users, we've created a documentation site and how-to guides (we call them recipes) for adding additional functionality to your desktop apps. We currently have guides on: • Sending native notifications
• Separating desktop logic from web app logic • Adding browser controls to your Desktop app • Storing data • Adding download links to your website
• Enlarging the menubar window ⚡️ Our JavaScript API We now expose a window.todesktop object and native electron features when your app is being run as a desktop app. This means you can now get electron API access without the extra codebase to manage. 🚨 Badges and Progress Bars on your Icon You can create badges on your dock icon. Here are the docs about how to do it in your app. We even made a neat video on how it all works below (contains Daft Punk 🕺). ⛓ App Protocols and Deeplinks We've also made it possible to use app protocols and deeplinks. This means you can now programmatically launch your desktop application from your website. ✅ A WYSIWYG Button Builder To support the success of our customers, we've added a step-by-step get started checklist, and a no-code builder for embedding your desktop download button And there's a heck of a lot more: • A "Launch at startup" option that lets you specify whether your desktop app should launch when a user starts their computer. • A universal download link that detects what OS your user is own and then delivers the correct installer (.exe on Windows, .dmg on Mac or .AppImage on Linux) • Branded download links which show your app being download from download.yourdomain.com instead of download.todesktop.com. • We are now fully responsive, this means that you can build a desktop app on your mobile phone 🤯 • We added support for creating multiple apps on one user account • MSI Installer which provides an alternative way for you to deploy your desktop app to customers. • And so on... The point is, there's a LOT of new features. I really hope you like it and we'd love feedback on what to improve. A massive thank you to every single one of you who made ToDesktop possible. We wouldn't be where we are without the Product Hunt community, so you have my utmost gratitude 💖

I've been using ToDesktop for nearly a year now. This app just keeps getting better and better... Love the new Menubar! Keep up the stellar work 👏

The pricing is a bit expensive but anyone who tried to build a macOS/win app with electron knows it’s such a painful process and code signing especially for windows is a nightmare. How does code signing work with your service? Do you sign the apps on behalf of your customers?

Have been following Dave and ToDesktop for a while now. I love this project!

Really love this! We're about to launch our Desktop apps and it took us 2 hours instead of several weeks for our engineering team, no-brainer for us.

Congrats lads great stuff and up cork!

Great i love it!

Congrats Dave and co! I met Dave a couple months back when they were #1 global project on pioneer.app, he has extensive knowledge about Electron, user experience and a clear vision on how to close the gap on web apps and desktop apps. Love ToDesktop 2.0. A question for you: What's your plan on making the benefits of transforming web app to a desktop app using ToDesktop worthwhile for the end user of that app. Do you (plan to) consult your customers' designers/product people on what they can achieve using a ToDesktop executable?

Great product guys. Do you have plans to add iOS and Android build targets ? Of course not based on Electron, but on some custom wrapper ?

Hi. Any plans to allow building Android or iOS app from websites in the future?