Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Developing a Desktop vs. a Web App?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20181922

by raizinho • 7 years ago

4 5 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Check here why https://blog.sentry.io/2019/06/13/building-a-sentry-symbolic...

alexis2b• 7 years ago

Desktop: pros -> more productive, simpler, stabler APIs and frameworks, easier for « backend devs », more information density, better screen management (multi windows), more access to native devices and features, ... cons -> deployment / upgrade workflows, dependant on client configuration, usually less portable, easy to leak domain logic in frontend, harder to scale, ...

Web: pros -> portable, “lightweight” client dependencies (browser), mobile / tablets, good separation of backend and front-end logic, ... cons -> less productive (generally), require more infrastructure and Ops, harder to fit LOB-apps workflows and information density requirements, many choices to choose from, fast changing, ...

But this is becoming a relatively false dichotomie with web-based desktop apps (electron based or specialized like OpenFin in the banking world).

raizinho• 7 years ago

Would you recommend just building web-based desktop apps?

tomglynch• 7 years ago

Depends entirely on the usecase. I'll say one thing though, users are much more likely to visit a website than download and install a desktop application.

jetti• 7 years ago

"I'll say one thing though, users are much more likely to visit a website than download and install a desktop application."

Again, that depends on the use case. I am in health care and because of HIPAA regulations I would be much more inclined to download a desktop application than a web application.

Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Developing a Desktop vs. a Web App?

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