compose-jb/tutorials/Native_distributions_and_local_execution/packaging-tools-comparison.md

Packaging tools comparison

The built-in Gradle tasks cover basic packaging needs:

• Creation of MSI files or NSIS installer EXEs for Windows, signed app bundles for macOS and DEB/RPM packages for Linux.
• Bundling of the JVM using jlink.
• Customization of packaging options on each OS.

Conveyor (docs) is a tool available for download from Hydraulic. It integrates with the Compose Gradle plugin and is useful if you want any of the following things:

• Online updates. The Compose plugin creates packages that users must update manually by reinstalling. Conveyor generates packages that can silently update themselves in the background on Windows/macOS, or which use apt/etc on Linux.
• Cross-building. Creation, signing and notarization of packages for all supported targets from any OS (e.g. your developer laptop, a CI machine). The built-in tasks must be run from each OS you target.
• Self-signed packages. These don't require you to purchase signing certificates, but require the user to copy/paste terminal commands.
• Download pages. Generated static HTML that detects the user's OS and CPU architecture (example).
• Icon conversion. The built in tasks require you to convert icons to platform specific formats manually.
• Size optimization. jdeps is used to shrink the download by stripping unused JDK modules.
• Accessibility. Automatic support for screen readers is added using the Java Accessibility Bridge.
• Happy IT departments. Conveyor uses MSIX, Microsoft's current-gen Windows 10/11 packaging system, which is deeply integrated with Windows network admin tools.
• CLI support. Supplementary command line tools included with your package.
• Commercial support.

This isn't a complete list of features, we suggest checking their docs to see what's available. It's free for open source projects, but after the introductory period ends it will require a license for commercial projects (see their pricing page for details).