Desktop vs Web Application

What is the difference between the web application and desktop application?

The main difference between the Web based application and Window based application

is that the Web application can be access from anywhere in the world through the internet

whereas window based application need to be install on your machine to access.

Web applications run on web servers (usually IIS)

Winforms Applications run on Clients

Web Application Advantages

The biggest, and most obvious, advantage to using a web application is flexibility. A web application can be accessed from any computer no matter where you are. This is due to the fact that a web application only exists online.

Of course, constant accessibility depends on your current Internet connection.

Desktop Application Advantages

Desktop applications are reliable and trustworthy. You can access a desktop app as long as you have your computer within reach. These applications don’t rely on an Internet connection in most instances.

One unfortunate drawback to a desktop application is that you can’t access this type of app if you don’t have your computer handy.

Further Web Application Disadvantages

Safety and security is a huge problem when it comes to web applications. Since the Internet is not a secure place, any business conducted online is at risk for a security breach. This is also true when it comes to Intranet.

Web applications are slower than desktop applications. This is largely due to the fact that various web app sites gain heavy traffic on a frequent basis. Avoiding a slow web app is difficult to do, since users do not directly control these applications.

The Future of Apps

There’s no doubt that web applications serve some very interesting purposes. As more and more people gravitate towards web apps, desktop apps may become obsolete. Then again, the problems that web apps have (security, accessibility) are large ones. For this reason, desktop applications have not been wipe out completely.

In the end, all applications are simply programs, and programs contain errors.

Web applications are mostly physical 3 tier application

Client (the webbrowser), The middle Tier (the webapplication) The server

(the database).

Physical is a window form application mostly a 2 tier, although in a good

design it has multi layers (what is by some called tiers).

Client (the window forms) The server (the database).

- web applications have the authentication/authorization mechanism partially

built

- desktop applications (windows forms) need the entire mechanism built

- web apps have validation controls

- windows apps don't have validation controls, data needs to be validated

through code