HACKER Q&A
📣 aresant

Browser Based or Desktop App?


Curious what HN crowds experience has been in releasing a desktop enabled version of their product?

Slack, for instance, pitches a 33% overall speed improvement, 10x benefits in some cases, etc.(a)

With those benefits one would expect that overall satisfaction would track up, leading retention and usage.

But I can't find much topical data.

I'd love to understand:

1 - What is your overall "take" rate from customers and do those cohorts behave differently?

2 - Any data that you have or studies online that make the business case?

(a) https://slackhq.com/introducing-a-more-efficient-slack-desktop-experience


  👤 q92z8oeif Accepted Answer ✓
datapoint 1: if the user is not on the platform you provide your desktop app, you lost that client.

this alone would steer me into browser based. And by browser i mean browser, javascript even as an enhancement. but i guess on this i am on the minority since most people here assume browser means chrome. sigh.