Qt
Qt is a cross-platform application development framework focused on creating GUI and CLI apps for desktop, mobile and embedded platforms. It includes a class library and tools designed to streamline the process of writing and maintaining applications across platforms.
crossplatform
gui
cli
desktop-apps
mobile-apps
embedded-systems
Qt: Cross-Platform Application Development Framework
Qt is a cross-platform application development framework focused on creating GUI and CLI apps for desktop, mobile and embedded platforms. It includes a class library and tools designed to streamline the process of writing and maintaining applications across platforms.
What is Qt?
Qt is a popular cross-platform application development framework used for developing GUI (graphical user interface) and CLI (command-line interface) applications that can run on multiple operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix platforms, as well as on mobile platforms like Android and iOS. It provides developers with a rich set of widgets and tools to create interactive applications.
Qt was originally developed in the early 1990s by the Norwegian company Trolltech, which was later acquired by Nokia and then by Digia, before becoming an open-source project managed by The Qt Company. The latest major version is Qt 6, released in December 2020.
Some of the key highlights and capabilities of Qt include:
- Provides an extensive library of reusable C++ GUI components like buttons and menus
- Includes tools for creating user interfaces via drag-and-drop instead of coding them
- Supports developing native-looking apps across platforms with little extra coding effort
- Can be used to develop complex apps like CAD software, medical systems, vehicle computer systems etc.
- Integrates well with C++ but can also use JavaScript, QML, Python and other languages
- Offers sewing integration with 3D and 2D graphics libraries like OpenGL
- Has strong focus on performance optimization and small executable sizes
- Free and open-source version is available under GPL and LGPL licenses
Overall, Qt makes it easier for developers to create and deploy cross-platform GUI apps while offering many advanced features for building sophisticated, interactive applications. Its portability, comprehensive tools and wide adoption power a significant proportion of desktop, enterprise and embedded applications globally.
Qt Features
Features
- Cross-platform development
- Comprehensive widget set and UI building tools
- Integrated IDE (Qt Creator)
- Signals and slots for inter-object communication
- Model/view architecture
- Graphics framework and 2D rendering engine
- XML parser
- Networking and connectivity libraries
- Multimedia and audio support
- Database access through SQL drivers
- Web browser engine (Qt WebEngine)
Pricing
- Open Source
- Commercial License
Pros
Write once, deploy anywhere
Large ecosystem of libraries and add-ons
High performance and small executable sizes
Integrated GUI designer and debugger
Clean and consistent API design
Good documentation and community support
Cons
Steep learning curve
Binary compatibility issues when upgrading
Limited native look and feel on some platforms
Not as lightweight as some alternatives
Lacks some features of native platforms
Official Links
The Best Qt Alternatives
Top Development and Application Frameworks and other similar apps like Qt
Here are some alternatives to Qt:
Suggest an alternative ❐
Tkinter
Tkinter is a graphical user interface (GUI) library included with Python. It allows Python developers to create desktop applications with a graphical window, buttons, menus and other widgets. Tkinter is built on top of the Tk GUI toolkit, hence the name Tkinter.Tkinter provides a simple yet powerful way to create...
CopperSpice
CopperSpice is an open-source, cross-platform C++ GUI library and application framework. It is designed to be a drop-in replacement for Qt, the popular toolkit developed by The Qt Company.Some key features and goals of CopperSpice include:High code quality and stability based on modern C++ practicesPermissive BSD open source license for...
ToDesktop
ToDesktop is an application designed to help you save web pages and online content for easy access and reading later. It works by allowing you to send links or content from your browser or apps directly to your desktop.Some key features of ToDesktop include:Removes ads, navigation menus, and other clutter...
NoesisGUI
NoesisGUI is an open-source UI framework for .NET that allows developers to create cross-platform user interfaces using XML and C#. Some key features of NoesisGUI include:Uses a declarative XAML framework to define UIs, similar to WPF, UWP, and Xamarin.FormsSupports creating desktop, web, and mobile app UIs using the same code...
Tauri
Tauri is an open source framework for building tiny, blazing fast binaries for all major desktop platforms including Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It leverages web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through platforms like React, Angular, and Vue to build cross-platform native desktop applications.Some key highlights of Tauri:Lightweight - Binaries...
PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open-source mobile development framework originally created by Nitobi. It allows developers to build applications for mobile devices using web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The key benefit of PhoneGap is that it wraps the web code into native containers, allowing access to device features on platforms...
Azula
Azula is an open-source project management and bug tracking software that can be used as an alternative to Atlassian's Jira. It has a wide range of features that help streamline agile development workflows, including:User stories, epics, tasks and subtasks to break down workCustomizable workflows for different team processesReal-time collaboration with...
Appcelerator
Appcelerator is an open-source mobile application development platform that allows developers to build native iOS, Android, and Windows apps using web technologies including JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS. It utilizes a single JavaScript codebase that compiles into fully native mobile apps for multiple platforms.Some key features of Appcelerator include:Uses JavaScript as...
Dear ImGui
Dear ImGui is an immediate mode graphical user interface library for C++. It is designed to be easy to use and integrate into games or applications to create fast graphical user interfaces requiring minimal code. Some key features of Dear ImGui include:Minimal dependencies - Uses only a single header file...
Uno Platform
Uno Platform is an open-source UI framework that allows developers to build native mobile, desktop and web applications using C# and XAML from a single codebase.It provides a single API surface across iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and WebAssembly. Uno leverages XAML from existing Microsoft frameworks like WPF, UWP and Xamarin.Forms...
JUCE
JUCE is an open-source cross-platform framework that allows developers to create desktop, mobile, embedded, and console applications with native user interfaces. It handles a lot of complex tasks and processes under the hood, enabling developers to focus on writing the actual application code.Some key features and benefits of JUCE include:Supports...
JavaFX
JavaFX is a software framework developed by Oracle for building rich client applications with graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It allows developers to design and create desktop, mobile and web apps using the Java programming language.Some key features of JavaFX include:GUI controls and components like buttons, text boxes, tables, menus, charts...
WxPython
wxPython is an open source Python library that wraps the cross-platform wxWidgets GUI toolkit. It allows Python developers to easily create native user interfaces for desktop applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux.Some key features of wxPython include:Wraps the wxWidgets C++ library with a Python APISupports creating multi-platform GUIs that look...
Pywebview
pywebview is a lightweight Python library that provides a simple wrapper around a webview component to enable displaying HTML content in its own native GUI window. It works across different platforms like Windows, macOS, and Linux.Some key features of pywebview include:Lightweight and easy to integrate into Python applicationsUses native webview...
PyGTK
PyGTK is a set of Python bindings for the GTK+ toolkit and assorted GNOME libraries, allowing you to build graphical user interfaces and applications in Python. Some key things to know about PyGTK:It provides an object-oriented interface to GTK+ that is more Pythonic and easy to use compared to other...
Fox toolkit
Fox toolkit is an open source C++ library and UI framework for developing cross-platform desktop applications on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It includes a large set of widgets, tools, and components to build modern and lightweight user interfaces.Some of the key features of Fox toolkit include:An extensive set of UI...
PySide
PySide is an open-source Python binding for the Qt cross-platform application development framework. It provides a comprehensive set of Python bindings for the Qt framework that allow Python developers to leverage the power of Qt for building desktop applications, user interfaces, and more using Python.Some key things to know about...
HARFANG 3D
HARFANG 3D is an open-source 3D engine designed for building interactive 3D applications and games. Developed by Emmanuel Julien, HARFANG aims to provide an easy-to-use set of tools for creating immersive 3D experiences.Some key features of HARFANG include:Scene management with entities, components, and scriptingReal-time Physically Based Rendering, with support for...
WxWidgets
wxWidgets is an open source C++ library that lets developers create graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for cross-platform applications. It enables building desktop apps for Windows, Mac, Linux and other platforms with native look and feel.Some key features of wxWidgets include:Supports a variety of popular toolkits like GTK+, Qt, Win32/CE for...
FLTK
FLTK (pronounced 'fulltick') is a cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit for developing desktop applications and graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It stands for Fast Light Tool Kit.Some key features of FLTK include:Lightweight, small dependency footprint, and fast performance for building responsive UIsWritten in C++ but provides bindings for other languages like Python...
Avalonia UI
Avalonia UI is an open source cross-platform user interface framework for building .NET desktop applications. It allows developers to create graphical user interface (GUI) apps that can run on Windows, Linux and macOS platforms using .NET Standard 2.0 and .NET technologies like XAML.Avalonia aims to integrate easily with .NET frameworks...
Zuznow
Zuznow is a cloud-based customer service software designed to help companies provide exceptional omni-channel support. It consolidates all customer conversations from channels like email, live chat, social media, and more into a shared, team inbox.Key features of Zuznow include:Shared team inbox - All customer conversations from multiple channels funnel into...
Gtkmm
gtkmm is a C++ interface for the GTK+ graphical user interface library. It allows developers to build cross-platform GUI applications in C++ using the GTK+ toolkit. Some key points about gtkmm:It wraps GTK+ objects and functions in C++ classes and methods, providing an object-oriented API for GTK+. This makes GTK+...
Standard Widget Toolkit
The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is an open-source widget toolkit for Java designed to provide efficient, portable access to the user-interface facilities of the operating systems on which it is run. It was created by IBM and is now maintained by the Eclipse Foundation.Some key features of SWT include:It allows...
RhoMobile
RhoMobile is an open-source mobile application development framework created by Motorola for building native apps for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. It uses Ruby as the programming language and Rhodes as the Ruby-based framework.Some key features of RhoMobile:Write apps in Ruby code and deploy to native...
Codename One
Codename One is an open source framework aimed at allowing Java developers to build native mobile applications that can run on multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, and more. Some key aspects of Codename One:Write once, run anywhere - Developers can write code in Java and use the Codename One...
WxSVG
wxSVG is an open-source C++ library that allows developers to load, display and manipulate Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files in applications built with the wxWidgets GUI toolkit. Some key features of wxSVG include:GUI components like wxSVGCanvas and wxSVGButton to render SVG images and iconsClasses to load SVG files from disk...
Magnum.engine
Magnum.engine is a lightweight and modular C++ graphics middleware engine designed to simplify the development of data visualization, games and virtual reality applications. It's main goals are:C++11 (now also C++14 and C++17) as the only dependency that needs to be configured, buildsystem-agnostic (CMake is the default one)Fast compilation, low coupling...
Wails
Wails is an open-source framework that enables developers to build desktop applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and web frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. It bundles web apps in a wrapper that enables native OS integrations.Some key highlights of Wails:Build native apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux...
MauiKit
MauiKit is an open-source cross-platform UI framework for building native mobile and desktop applications using C# and .NET. It allows developers to use a single shared C# codebase to target Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.MauiKit builds on top of Microsoft's .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) framework. It provides...
IUP Portable User Interface
IUP, which stands for Portable User Interface, is an open source graphical user interface (GUI) library written in the C programming language. It provides a set of portable widgets like buttons, lists, text fields, frames and dialogs that are designed to work across multiple operating systems including Windows, macOS, Linux,...
