What are the best Python GUI frameworks/toolkits?

Question

DevelopmentFrameworkGUI

What are the best Python GUI frameworks/toolkits?

16

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Considered

581

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Recs.

Feb 1, 2024

Last
Updated

16 Options Considered

Best Python GUI frameworks/toolkits	Price	License	Platforms
87 Kivy	Free	MIT	Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Pi
67 PyQt	Free / Paid	-	-
54 Tkinter	Free	-	-
-- PySimpleGUI	Free	-	-
-- Dear PyGui	-	MIT	Windows, Linux, Mac

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score 233 · Answer 1

Kivy

Top Pro

Can be used to develop mobile applications

Kivy can be used to develop multi-touch applications and games on iOS and Android. One popular example showcasing the capabilities of Kivy, with source code provided for reference, is “2048 with Kivy” on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. See More

Top Con

Documentation & examples are terrible

Terrible documentation & not too many resources can be found. See More

SpontaneousPoena's Experience

Hard to begin but lot of tutorial on web. Dynamic community See More

Specs

License:MIT

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Pi

Top Pro

High performance

Cross-platform frameworks implementing native APIs usually have one issue in common: performance across platforms. Kivy solves this by implementing performance-critical features in C / Cython, and it’s graphics engine is built on OpenGL ES — hardware-acceleration out of the box with many smart under-the-hood optimizations to ensure high performance. See More

Top Con

No full support for accessing certain system-level APIs

It can be hard to accomplish things that requires APIs not supported by Kivy — while it is possible to interface with the platform's system libraries with third-party Python libraries (pyobjc for macOS, pyjnius for Android, etc.), it provides a level of indirection and can be hard to work with if you are not familiar with the platform's native API. See More

ImaginativeTuonetar's Experience

easy and multi plataform See More

Top Pro

Modern looking UIs

Kivy's widgets are entirely custom and look the same across all platforms out of the box. It has theming support — the default theme has a flat modern look to it, and there are third-party themes available: FlatKivy, KivyMD (Material Design), etc. See More

Top Con

Very difficult to deploy to various platforms, like Android

ProductiveDeaTacita's Experience

Seriously, and where is pygame? easy to get, easy to use and easy to deploy? See More

Top Pro

MIT Licensed

Kivy is released under the MIT License. It is completely free to use, even for commercial applications. See More

PoliteFuamnach's Experience

Build Air Traffic Controllers A-CDM application See More

Top Pro

Great for interactive applications

Kivy shines when you need more than traditional UI controls or inputs. It has native support for many kinds of input devices and gestures (such as the Apple Trackpad / Magic Mouse, joysticks, game controllers). See More

Top Pro

Ability to compose UI outside of application logic

Kivy has a domain-specific language called KV for composing UIs. Instead of writing Python code for your UI, you can write it in KV and separate your application logic from its presentational code. See More

Top Pro

Kv design language

Kv design language is designed to work well with scalable graphical user interfaces (GUIs) as one of its primary focuses. It also segregates the logic from the design elements, making them easier to visually distinguish from each other. See More

Top Pro

Multitouch gestures

Top Pro

Versatile

Compared to other GUI frameworks, Kivy is a lot more dynamic and versatile - it is essentially an OpenGL canvas; the graphics API is an abstraction of low-level OpenGL commands. This means you can use it to draw any kind of graphics, and makes Kivy suitable for game development. See More

See All

score 67 · Answer 2

PyQt

Top Pro

API is easy to grasp for someone with a Qt/C++ background

PyQt has a straightforward API with its classes corresponding to Qt C++’s, and as such, the API documentation for C++ works for Python — the namespaces, properties, methods are all the same. If you have experience working with Qt and/or C++, you will find PyQt easy to work with. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve

It can take a while to get productive with PyQt. It is a huge framework and there are many ways to implement different things, some of them are conflicting and might be confusing to the unfamiliar. See More

Bob W's Experience

Lots of effort to learn only to find out you need to pay for license. See More

Top Pro

Stability

PyQt is used in many large-scale applications and has stood the test of time. See More

Top Con

Paid license required if your application is not "free as in speech"

PyQt is dual-licensed with GPL v3 and the Riverbank Commercial License. If you do not intend on releasing your application under a GPL-compatible license (i.e. make your application open-source), you must pay for a commercial license. See More

Top Pro

Signal/slot mechanism allows for code flexibility

GUI programming with Qt is built around the concept of signals and slots for communication between objects. A signal is emitted when an event occurs (e.g. a button is clicked), and slots are callable functions that handle the event (e.g. show a pop-up, when a button is clicked). This allows for flexibility when handling GUI events and results in a cleaner codebase. See More

Top Con

No Python-specific documentation on classes in PyQt5

PyQt5's documentation links to its Qt counterpart, which is in C++. This can be confusing for someone without a background in C++ or experience with Qt. See More

Top Pro

Many native widgets (UI components) available

Qt provides many widgets (buttons, textboxes, menus, et al.) out of the box, and they have a native look to them across all supported platforms: the same widget looks similar to the platform's native widget (e.g. a button in a PyQt application looks the same as a button on macOS, or Windows). On Linux systems, it changes according to the desktop environment. See More

Top Pro

WYSIWYG interface builder available

PyQt has support for loading UIs built with Qt Designer, a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface builder, which allows you to design and build interfaces without writing any code. See More

Top Pro

Many learning resources available

PyQt is one of the most popular UI frameworks for Python. It has an active community with many third-party code examples and tutorials available. See More

Top Pro

More than just a GUI framework

Qt wraps several native platform APIs for networking, databases, etc. and provides standardized access to them through a single API — one codebase can cater to many platforms and perform the same across them. See More

See All

score 47 · Answer 3

Tkinter

Top Pro

Free for commercial use

Top Con

No advanced widgets

TkInter does not come with advanced widgets out of the box (e.g. date picker). See More

Bob W's Experience

Good well supported standard already integrated. BIG plus for Raspberry Pi use ! See More

Top Pro

Included in the standard Python library

You probably already have it, since it's included in the standard Python distributions. See More

Top Con

Not good looking

You need a lot of code to make it look good. See More

GraciousChronos's Experience

It has an easy to use framework ideal for quick graphic user interfaces.PyQt or Tkinter? That question was there for a long time in my mind. I would prefer Pyqt for complex apps and Tkinter for small ones See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn and get productive with

TkInter is a small library with a gentle learning curve compared to what’s out there. It has a straightforward API and is often the go-to choice for building quick GUIs for Python scripts. See More

Top Con

No reliable UI builder available

There is no tool in the same league as Qt Designer (PyQt) for TkInter. See More

Top Pro

Building executables is less complicated

Compared to other GUI libraries, building executables for TkInter applications are simpler because TkInter is included in Python and has no other dependencies. This results in less complicated packaging requirements and smaller binary size. See More

Top Pro

Fast

See All

score 47 · Answer 4

PySimpleGUI

Top Pro

Extremely easy to learn, compared to other GUI

Python GUI For Humans - Transforms tkinter, Qt, Remi, WxPython into portable people-friendly Pythonic interfaces. Requires 1/2 to 1/10th the amount of code as underlying frameworks. One afternoon is all that is required to learn the PySimpleGUI package and write your first custom GUI. Students can begin using within their first week of Python education. No callback functions. You do not need to write the word "class" anywhere in your code. "I've been working to learn PyQT for the past week in my off time as an intro to GUI design and how to apply it to my existing scripts... Took me ~30 minutes to figure out PySimpleGUI and get my scripts working with a GUI." "Python GUI has been an absolute nightmare for me and I've avoided it like the plague. Until I saw PysimpleGUI." "I've been pretty amazed at how much more intuitive it is than raw tk/qt. The dude developing it is super active on the project too so if you come across situations that you just can't get the code to do what you want you can make bug/enhancement issues that are almost assured to get a meaningful response." "This library is the easiest way of GUI programming in Python! I'm totally in love with it" "Wow that readme is extensive and great." (hear the love for docs often) "Coming from R, Python is absolutely slick for GUIs. PySimpleGUI is a dream." "I have been writing Python programs for about 4 or 5 months now. Up until this week I never had luck with any UI libraries like Tkinter, Qt, Kivy. I went from not even being able to load a window in Tkinter reliably to making a loading screen, and full program in one night with PySimpleGUI." "I love PySimpleGUI! I've been teaching it in my Python classes instead of Tkinter." See More

Top Con

Bad dev attitude

Mike's Experience

Particularly good at putting a front-end onto a Python script in under 5 or 10 minutes. See More

Specs

Python 2.7 & 3 Support:2.7 & 3.x

Supports GUI Frameworks:tkinter, Qt, WxPython, Remi (GUI in Browser)

Top Pro

Single file

Either pip install or copy single source file to your project. See More

Top Con

Non pythonic

ProudNinigi's Experience

Code is dirty, documentation is horribly structured (if it's possible to call it a structure) and the attitude of the dev is overall bad. See More

Top Pro

Run PySimpleGUI code on multiple GUI Frameworks by changing 1 line of code

The same PySimpleGUI code written by the user can be executed on multiple GUI platforms without changing the source code. Only the import statement needs to be changed. Write the GUI once, run on multiple platforms including a web browser Create windows that look and operate identically to those created directly with tkinter, Qt, WxPython, and Remi. See More

Top Con

Bad documentation

The documentation has no structure, is very messy and is based on a case-by-case usage instead of explaining how the lib works. See More

UpbeatDeverra's Experience

Easy to begin with it. See More

Top Pro

No package dependencies other than tkinter

Wraps tkinter and does not require any other packages be installed. See More

Top Con

No forms designer

GutsyHina's Experience

I like this library it saved me from leaving the GUI making! See More

Top Pro

Easy and comprehensive documentation, tutorials, example code and videos

300+ Demo Programs teach you how to integrate with many popular packages like OpenCV, Matplotlib, PyGame, etc. Tons of documentation, a Cookbook, built-in help using docstrings - in short, it's heavily documented. See More

Top Con

Less online tutorials compared to tkinter

Bob W's Experience

wxPython See More

Top Pro

Open source

Top Con

No good for commercial

MerryBiegkegaellies's Experience

PySimpleGUI runs on Windows, Android Raspberry Pi See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

EnergeticThalassa's Experience

Teaching Python GUI at a fairly early stage. Ease of use and simplicity of code is important for my classes in High School. Further complexity is not needed; only on rare occasions has this required work-arounds. See More

Top Pro

Multi-platform support

Python code with GUI will run on Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Android (PyDroid3) with very minor changes. one to 4 lines of boilerplate type code. See More

EnterprisingLadon's Experience

Provides all the features I need, yet much easier to use than the other popular ones I tried See More

Top Pro

Supports both Python 2.7 and Python 3

ImaginativeTyche's Experience

Great for cross-platform use. Generate a python script with a GUI. Run it on Windows run it on Linux box and then run it on an Android Pydroid3 . PySimpleGUIQt may require a simple change in sizing for the Android platform screen. Con: No WYSIWYG display editor/layout tool. See More

Top Pro

Uses Python language constructs cleverly

PySimpleGUI leverages the Python language constructs in clever ways that shorten the amount of code and return the GUI data in a straightforward manner. When a widget is created in a form layout, it is configured in place, not several lines of code away. With most GUIs, arranging GUI widgets often requires several lines of code… at least one or two lines per widget. PySimpleGUI uses an "auto-packer" that automatically creates the layout. No pack or grid system is needed to lay out a GUI window. What makes PySimpleGUI superior for newcomers is that the package contains the majority of the code that the user is normally expected to write. Button callbacks are handled by PySimpleGUI, not the user's code. Beginners struggle to grasp the concept of a function, and expecting them to understand a call-back function in the first few weeks is a stretch. See More

Top Pro

Updated frequently

New releases, new Demo Programs, documentation, online resources as constantly being added. See More

Top Pro

Udemy Course

Has a 61 lecture course on Udemy now that's got more than the free older courses on YouTube. See More

See All

score 38 · Answer 5

Dear PyGui

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Con

Community is still very small

AuthenticShaushka's Experience

Tooo easy to learn, I have just one word for it Awesome See More

Specs

License:MIT

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

PRICE:FREE

Top Pro

Multi-purpose

Even while it's in beta, there's a ton of stuff that can be done with this framework. See More

CaffeinatedErato's Experience

DPG is by far the best UI framework for Python! The only downside is that the community is still very small, and there's no governance model for it yet. Hopefully the two creators will donate it to PSF or some other community to manage. See More

Top Pro

Helpful and responsive community

NeighborlyGabija's Experience

Super easy to get up and running with Dear PyGui and the devs are very active with helping the community and fixing issues. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

It's fast and responsive due to being written in C++, using the GPU and it is asynchronous by default. See More

DecisiveAmm's Experience

Beautiful GUI for native users. See More

Top Pro

Smooth and easy to scale with a project

VersatileEidothea's Experience

Used it for a couple of small projects, seems really smooth and easy, and has sane defaults. See More

Top Pro

Permissive MIT license

PassionateRongo's Experience

It's straight-forward to get started with Dear PyGui. It's under active development, often with multiple bugfix and minor releases every week. The Discord channel provides a friendly and supportive community. If something doesn't work (intuitively), the core devs are open to create better solutions. See More

Top Pro

Pythonic API

Despite originating from C/C++, DPG is the most Pythonic framework out there. See More

Top Pro

Open source

Top Pro

No GUI lag

GUI and Python API run at separate thread automatically! See More

See All

score 20 · Answer 6

BeeWare/Toga

Top Pro

Cross-platform with real native widgets

Top Con

Not everything works on Windows

Top Con

Still in alpha

Some features are missing and the API isn't that stable yet. See More

See All

score 17 · Answer 7

PySide

Top Pro

Supported by the Qt Company

Qt for Python aka PySide2 is the official set of Python bindings supported by the Qt Company. See More

Top Con

Similar to PyQt, you need a C++ background. at least you can read C++ code

Qt's document is poor, and Qt for Python(PySdie) is even worse. this document assumes that you are already familiar with Qt. if you want to customize a Widget, you need to look at the Qt C++ source code to know what to do. See More

Mike's Experience

Good documented and easy to use class library supporting classic widget style GUI as well as a modern declarative approach. See More

Top Pro

Qt widgets

Possibility to use a traditional widget-based user interface. See More

CompassionateJarilo's Experience

So far, great experience. One of the pros is its supported by Qt Company and has great community behind it. See More

Top Pro

QtQuick/QML

Possibility to use a declarative approach to define the user interface. See More

EnterprisingLadon's Experience

Traditional, complex C++ GUI framework wrapped in Python. Not very Pythonic. See More

Top Pro

Weak copyleft

PySide is licensed under the LGPL, which makes it easier to incorporate into commercial projects than PyQt. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 8

pyglet

Top Pro

Written in pure Python

A small advantage, but being a core Python developer, it may be the best to stick to the roots and develop with pyglet as it is able to compile using other Python interpreters. See More

Specs

License:BSD

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works with Windows, Linux, and OS X. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 9

Abstra

Top Pro

Modern looking UIs

Widgets have a sleek and modern design. See More

HonorableSisyphus's Experience

Great for quickly creating a web UI for a script you'd like other people to use - makes it easy to build apps for co-workers, for example. See More

Top Pro

Drag-and-drop UI editor

Makes it very easy and fast to create the app's look, then just plug it into the script using variables and functions. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 10

PyGObject / Python3

Top Pro

Simple XML format for UIs

PyGObject provides tools to load UIs from XML files or strings, reducing the Python code needed to construct GUIs. See More

Specs

License:LGPLv2.1+

Top Pro

Works particularly well on Linux, as many desktops use Python and GObject

GObject is a 'C' library with bindings to many other languages, so can be widely used. Nice GTK.UIManager function to produce a menu system from a string. See More

See All

score 8 · Answer 11

guietta

Top Pro

Layout GUI with code

Super fast GUI layout using Python lists and strings See More

Specs

License:LGPL

Platforms:Windows, Linux, MacOS

Python 2.7 & 3 Support:Python 3

Price:FREE

Top Pro

Automatic GUI updates

Gueitta uses a property-like mechanism to read/write widgets and actions See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 12

MD Python Designer

Top Pro

Amazing array of uses

The GUI Designer is compatible with all the features of the software. It is compatible with all major databases. They have an interesting GUI database form on their webpage. The GUI can also include graphs and you can create applications like desmos. You can also use ICP DAS, LabJack and Advantech devices. See More

Top Con

Visual appearance compared to other GUI frameworks/Designers

The end product did not look as appealing as it would have done with a different GUI Designer. However, it still looked professional and got the job done perfectly. See More

InfluentialChione's Experience

Incredible for practical and advance GUIs. See More

Top Pro

No adjustment required

The GUI designer has more than one coding language that it's compatible with, however it works well with Python. The transition from Kivy is easy.The GUI Designer is super easy to use and saves lots of time. See More

See All

16 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Kivy

My Recommendation for Kivy

Can be used to develop mobile applications

Documentation & examples are terrible

High performance

No full support for accessing certain system-level APIs

Modern looking UIs

Very difficult to deploy to various platforms, like Android

MIT Licensed

Great for interactive applications

Ability to compose UI outside of application logic

Kv design language

Multitouch gestures

Versatile

My Recommendation for PyQt

My Recommendation for PyQt

API is easy to grasp for someone with a Qt/C++ background

Steep learning curve

Stability

Paid license required if your application is not "free as in speech"

Signal/slot mechanism allows for code flexibility

No Python-specific documentation on classes in PyQt5

Many native widgets (UI components) available

WYSIWYG interface builder available

Many learning resources available

More than just a GUI framework

My Recommendation for Tkinter

My Recommendation for Tkinter

Free for commercial use

No advanced widgets

Included in the standard Python library

Not good looking

Easy to learn and get productive with

No reliable UI builder available

Building executables is less complicated

Fast

My Recommendation for PySimpleGUI

My Recommendation for PySimpleGUI

Extremely easy to learn, compared to other GUI

Bad dev attitude

Single file

Non pythonic

Run PySimpleGUI code on multiple GUI Frameworks by changing 1 line of code

Bad documentation

No package dependencies other than tkinter

No forms designer

Easy and comprehensive documentation, tutorials, example code and videos

Less online tutorials compared to tkinter

Open source

No good for commercial

Highly customizable

Multi-platform support

Supports both Python 2.7 and Python 3

Uses Python language constructs cleverly

Updated frequently

Udemy Course

My Recommendation for Dear PyGui

My Recommendation for Dear PyGui

Easy to use

Community is still very small

Multi-purpose

Helpful and responsive community

Great performance

Smooth and easy to scale with a project

Permissive MIT license

Pythonic API

Open source

No GUI lag

My Recommendation for BeeWare/Toga

My Recommendation for BeeWare/Toga

Cross-platform with real native widgets

Not everything works on Windows

Still in alpha

My Recommendation for PySide

My Recommendation for PySide

Supported by the Qt Company

Similar to PyQt, you need a C++ background. at least you can read C++ code

Qt widgets

QtQuick/QML