If you've come across Pake on GitHub, you know the pitch: run one command, and a website becomes a small desktop app with its own window and icon. WebCatalog Desktop gets you to the same place without opening a terminal.
That's the real difference between them. Pake is an open-source tool for developers who are happy to install a toolchain and build each app. WebCatalog Desktop is an app for anyone who just wants their web apps on the desktop, ready to use.
At a glance
| WebCatalog Desktop | Pake | |
|---|---|---|
| How you create apps | Pick from a catalog or enter any URL, in the app | A command-line tool or a GitHub Actions build |
| App catalog | 65,000+ apps with names and icons | A few prebuilt apps, plus any URL |
| Engine | Chromium, the same everywhere | Each system's built-in web view |
| Multiple accounts | Every account signed in side by side, each with its own session | One session per app |
| Organizing apps | Spaces that group apps and accounts in one window | One app per website |
| Updates | Apps update automatically | Rebuild to update |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Open source | No | Yes |
What is WebCatalog Desktop?
WebCatalog Desktop is a regular app for macOS, Windows, and Linux that installs websites as desktop apps with a click. Most of what you use is already in its catalog with the right name and icon, and anything else can be added by URL. There's nothing to compile and nothing to maintain.
What is Pake?
Pake is a popular open-source project built with Rust and Tauri. You run a command such as pake https://example.com --name Example, and it packages that website into a small desktop app using your system's built-in web view. It also offers builds through GitHub Actions and a handful of prebuilt apps for popular sites.
1. No terminal, no toolchain
To build Pake apps on your own computer, you install Rust and Node.js, then run commands in a terminal, and the first build takes a while. Want a different icon or window size? That's a flag and another build. For developers who want to script app creation, that's a strength. For most people, it's where they stop.
In WebCatalog Desktop, you search the catalog of more than 65,000 apps, click install, and the app opens. For a site that isn't listed, such as your company's internal dashboard, enter its name and URL and choose an icon or let WebCatalog Desktop find one. Settings like custom CSS and JavaScript, which Pake handles at build time, are in the app's settings, and you can change them whenever you like.
2. Sites that work like they do in Chrome
Pake keeps apps small by using each system's own web view: Safari's engine on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux. The trade-off is that sites behave the way they do in those engines. Pake's own FAQ notes, for example, that Google sign-in may fail and that some sites' bot checks can loop.
WebCatalog Desktop runs every app on Chromium, the engine behind Chrome and Edge. Signing in with Google works the way you expect, web apps behave the way their developers tested them, and an app looks the same on your Mac as on a Windows laptop.
3. One app, several accounts
Each Pake app is one website with one session. If you're in two Slack workspaces under different emails, or manage a brand's social account alongside your own, you build a second app and keep both in your Dock.
WebCatalog Desktop lets one app hold several accounts, each with its own isolated session, all signed in at once. They sit in a sidebar, and you switch with a click or Cmd/Ctrl + number.
4. Apps that look after themselves
A Pake app stays as it was built until you rebuild it. WebCatalog Desktop and the apps you install update automatically, and your setup syncs across your computers.
As your collection grows, spaces let you group the apps and accounts for one client or project into a single window with its own Dock or taskbar icon. Inside every app you also get tabs, bookmarks, downloads, and spell check, plus a built-in ad and tracker blocker.
Which one should you choose?
Pake can make sense if you specifically need to script app builds from the command line, or want to modify the tool itself.
For everyone else, WebCatalog Desktop is the simpler path. Choose it if you:
- Would rather click install than set up Rust and Node.js
- Need Google sign-in and other Chrome-tested sites to just work
- Keep more than one account for the same service
- Don't want to rebuild apps to keep them current
Skip the build step and start using your web apps today: try WebCatalog Desktop.
