Native Windows Desktop Client

We are considering a future development of a native Windows desktop client application. Let’s discuss the pro’s and con’s so we see how we should continue.

Pro’s

  • Thick application (client/server) – smaller database server needed, work is offloaded to the client computer
  • Definitely faster
  • Possible to create an offline applications scenario (developing a specific offline application which would be used on the desktop, synchronizing with the main app using work queues or other means).

Con’s

  • Thick application (client/server) – more maintenance – has to be installed on every desktop
  • Less features – currently it is no. 2 in our development efforts and not every feature that is present in the web client makes it to the native app. In the future even the Mobile app could make it and then the priorities can be even worse.

This is how the native Windows client looks now:

Let’s hear what you have to say?

Definitely YES for Windows client. For huge amount of data (processing ten hundred invoices per day etc.) is web server version insufficient. More desktop clients can use needed CPU power for each client itself. In these cases web server becomes slow and users are not fully satisfied.
But web version have advantages for easy access and sharing application for wide range users around the world. There are two kind of approaches - heavy daily usage, repeating one or two processes by more users (desktop client advantage) or usage for mostly external user for standard working agendas (web client).