Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#1

Post by jventura » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:34 PM UTC

I did ask the same question in 2016 [1] and got some really interesting answers.

I'm still chasing the dream of having a side-business and earning some side money, but with web apps it means mostly SaaS. Personally I hate rent-seeking behaviors (I'm not alone, it seems - "Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software" [2]), so I'm trying to know what people are doing regarding desktop apps.

Are people still building desktop apps? More specifically, can you make a living (or earn some side money) in 2022 by selling a desktop app? Please share it with us, or are we doomed to build web apps and SaaS for the foreseeable future?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11658873

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021404

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

#2

Post by high_byte » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:45 PM UTC

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...

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

#3

Post by jventura » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:47 PM UTC

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?

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

#4

Post by eatonphil » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:48 PM UTC

I'm building a desktop-first (SaaS-eventual) data IDE for developers [0]. Making a living? Not yet.

It being desktop-first makes it as easy to try out in a corporate environment as Sublime. The data never leaves your machine. Desktop-first is a big deal in devtools for this reason.

[0] https://github.com/multiprocessio/datastation

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

#5

Post by pavlov » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:50 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?

Anything that touches a lot of files?

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

#6

Post by QuiiBz » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:51 PM UTC

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

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

#7

Post by nso95 » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:51 PM UTC

Mobile?

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

#8

Post by eps » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:52 PM UTC

Plenty of people do this.

Go onto any software listing site (eg. Softpedia or AlternativeTo), pick a not-a-brandname commercial product and chances are that it will be a single-person project. From things that are really well-polished and look like a team effort to pimped-up crappy weekend projects. Lots and lots are made and run by a single individual.

Whether they sell well is an altogether different question, but it's generally not hard to make several $k per month off a decently useful consumer desktop software. All depends on the size of the niche, the fit (read, specialization) of the product, its quality and the amount of marketing effort.

This business model is still often referred to as "shareware", so if you want to find communities of people that are involved in it, that'd be the keyword to search for.

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

#9

Post by jventura » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:55 PM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #5

jventura wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

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.

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

#10

Post by fsloth » Fri, Jan 21, 2022, 6:55 PM UTC

A large fraction of computer games are mostly still "desktop apps".

Lots of single person indie success stories there, such as "Papers please" or "Stardew valley".

Seminal example in this genre is probably Minecraft (which of course expanded to a team before acquisition).