App disk size: benchmarks

How much space a Morph app takes on disk — measured, not estimated. Every Morph number below is a real build on Linux x86-64, file bytes from ls -la (--static --no-upx for raw, then UPX --lzma).

The headline

App	Raw (static, self-contained)	UPX
hello world (single h1)	397KB	162KB
components (state, buttons, lists, shared stores, events)	879KB	339KB
windows (multi-window, ownership, modals)	891KB	344KB
routes (file routing, mounts, page cache, links, native C++)	846KB	327KB

A hello-world graphical app written in JSX ships as a single zero-dependency 162KB file — smaller than most web images. A 1080p photo is typically 200–500KB. Your hello-world is literally smaller than a screenshot of your hello-world: the PNG will probably outweigh the binary that rendered it. And real apps stay tiny too — routing, windows, state, lists and native code land around 327–344KB, still lighter than one stock photo. If your designer sends you a 300KB hero image, congratulations — the art asset now outweighs the entire program. Electron needs 95MB to say "hello". Morph says it in 162KB and still has room for lunch.

Real-world baseline comparison

Same class of measurement — fully self-contained GUI binaries:

Framework / Ecosystem	Linkage mode	UPX size	× vs Morph
Levizr Morph (hello-world)	Statically compiled C++	162KB	1× (baseline)
Tauri (v2.x / Rust)	Dynamic OS webview	~1.5MB	~9.5×
Go / Fyne	Fully self-contained	~3.8MB	~23×
C++ / Qt6	Fully self-contained	~4.2MB	~26×
C# .NET (Native AOT)	Fully self-contained	~8.0MB	~49×
Flutter (desktop)	Fully self-contained	~13.5MB	~83×
Python / PyQt6	Bundled container	~30MB	~185×
Electron	Bundled Chromium + Node	~95MB	~586×

(Morph numbers measured in-tree; competitor figures are published industry numbers for equivalent hello-world apps.)

How size grows with features

The curve above is the answer to "what happens when I add real features": hello (397KB) → a kitchen-sink app with routing, windows, state, lists and native code (~850–890KB). Roughly +470KB raw from "nothing" to "everything" — because the binary contains exactly what the app uses:

• Unused subsystems never compile in (derived MORPH_FEATURE_* flags: reactivity, tasks, networking, ownership, page cache, HarfBuzz shaping — detected from your code, never toggled by hand).
• Unused functions GC out at link (-ffunction-sections + LTO).
• No symbols ship (strip on every release link).
• Static third-party deps are trimmed at source (gamepad DB, unwind tables) and per-requirement (HarfBuzz builds only for shaping content).

Details live in the lean-binary design record (the 371KB → 113KB dynamic journey is logged step by step there).

Dynamic builds (for completeness)

Prefer system libraries over self-containment? Dynamic hello-world is 113KB raw / 43KB UPX, plus system GLFW/FreeType/HarfBuzz/X11 (~4MB on disk distribution-wide, shared by every app on the machine). 43KB. Your app now weighs less than this sentence's font file. Same promise, different tradeoff — see deployment.

Reproduce it

./tests/runtime/check-size.sh   # dynamic hello ≤ 150KB gate

Static numbers above come from morph build --no-upx --static followed by upx --lzma, measured 2026-09-23. Re-run any time — if a number regresses, the gate catches the dynamic one and the table here gets updated with the static ones.