Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#11

Post by fsloth » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:59 PM UTC

jventura wrote: post #9

pavlov wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything that touches a lot of files?

Ok, but what kind of business niche would that be? You can also touch a lot of files on a webserver, although it would be a pain to upload them.

For example file management. "Directory opus" is a windows desktop 'better explorer' in this category (I have bought a license myself, it's pretty darn good).

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#12

Post by everly » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:59 PM UTC

Webgility is an example of a SaaS company that offers a desktop or cloud-based version of their product.

Quickbooks for that matter as well.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#13

Post by ducharmdev » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:01 PM UTC

jventura wrote: post #3

high_byte wrote: post #2

desktop does not imply "not SaaS". I'll add that today most desktop apps are headless Chrome. that being said, I actually do web, but were I to go desktop I would look for a niche that can't be done in browser, even though today you already got access to most APIs & hardware...

> I would look for a niche that can't be done in browser What kind of niches would that be, beside audio/video and other cpu intensive things?

On my current team we work on a cashiering desktop app, that needs to interact with local devices for processing checks and credit cards. Although almost everything reaches out to an API at some point, I'd generally say desktop apps are still relevant in cases like this.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#14

Post by Wistar » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:02 PM UTC

jventura wrote: post #3

high_byte wrote: post #2

desktop does not imply "not SaaS". I'll add that today most desktop apps are headless Chrome. that being said, I actually do web, but were I to go desktop I would look for a niche that can't be done in browser, even though today you already got access to most APIs & hardware...

> I would look for a niche that can't be done in browser What kind of niches would that be, beside audio/video and other cpu intensive things?

Something that requires absolute real time responsiveness?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#15

Post by jarl-ragnar » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:05 PM UTC

QuiiBz wrote: post #6

The guy from Inkdrop [0] makes a living with his note-taking app. He also has a YouTube channel [1] which I found very relaxing. [0] https://www.inkdrop.app [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/devaslife

Uses a subscription pricing model though. I wonder why he choose that model. Personally I love the Sublime model, buy a license, use it anywhere.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#16

Post by Osiris » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:05 PM UTC

I have a side-project (https://batterybarpro.com) that's a native Windows application. It brings in $400-1000 a month.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#17

Post by iffycan » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:07 PM UTC

I work on a desktop budgeting application. I love that it's desktop-only (and so do the users)! It doesn't earn a living (yet), but it makes more than enough to cover expenses.

[0] https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#18

Post by jventura » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:11 PM UTC

Osiris wrote: post #16

I have a side-project ( https://batterybarpro.com ) that's a native Windows application. It brings in $400-1000 a month.

This kind of small tools is what I've been thinking of doing lately. It should not consume much of your time after you deploy it and there's not need to have a server and dealing with people's data..

Small question: how do your users find your product?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#19

Post by frakt0x90 » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:11 PM UTC

Not a self-venture but my old team built desktop applications for the pricing department at a very large airline. They did everything from recommending price changes to loading ad hoc adjustments and keeping track of pricing strategies. All in JavaFX. That team split and is making most of them web-based now but the desktop apps still thrive in the meantime.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#20

Post by jventura » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 7:13 PM UTC

jarl-ragnar wrote: post #15

QuiiBz wrote: post #6

The guy from Inkdrop [0] makes a living with his note-taking app. He also has a YouTube channel [1] which I found very relaxing. [0] https://www.inkdrop.app [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/devaslife

Uses a subscription pricing model though. I wonder why he choose that model. Personally I love the Sublime model, buy a license, use it anywhere.

I think it syncs the data between instances of the app (on the cloud - 10GB or something like that..).