Desktop applications are software programs that can be activated on a desktop or a laptop device to perform a specific task. In contrast to a website application, which enables the internet users worldwide to use when joining in the web with a stable internet connection, a desktop application is only available on a standalone desktop or laptop device, and can be used with or without the internet.

Remember the app you have always used to listen to music, to play games, to edit a photo, to draw a picture, or to scan a virus on your computer, they are all examples of desktop applications. Desktop applications nowadays have played such an important role in our daily life that they have replaced almost all of our daily devices such as the calendar, the clock, the notebook, the camera, etc.

There are desktop applications development services that help internet users, businesses clients create applications to fully fill a specific task in a faster, more convenient, and with better results. The service can be delivered by businesses’ full-time employees, or their freelance partners. 

Examples of desktop applications that can be mentioned are:

• File management apps: Window Explorer, PDFelements, …
• Text editor apps: Microsoft Office Apps, NotePad, Grammarly, TinySpell, Memrise, Open Offices, …
• Music playing apps: Window Media Player, VLC Media Player, …
• Photo editing apps: MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Photo, …
• Virus scanning apps: Kaspersky, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Clean My Mac, …
• Others: Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Snipping tool, Unikey, UltraViewer, Outlook, Voice Recorder,…

Desktop applications are favored because of several benefits that they bring to users worldwide including:

• Offline performances;
• Easy and secure data storage;
• Better security of private information;
• Better controlled working environment;
• Fast and convenient accessibility to perform system features.

Desktop applications creation is a time-and-effort-taking process that will cost you a huge amount of money in order to build an effective and practical application as you wish. Building a desktop application requires several factors that need to be taken under a thorough consideration. All the main points you need to consider are:

• Involving department: Software developers, UX/UI Designers, UX/UI Writers, DevOps Engineers, Project Managers, Product Managers, Business Consultants.
• Models of Sourcing: Full outsourcing, Partial Outsourcing, All In-house.
• Budget: $50,000 - 500,000 depending on the complexity of the application, and the other minor factors.

Desktop applications building steps:

1. Determining main objectives: what is needed to figure out include the benefits or solution of the app, target users, target platforms, unique selling point(s), success metrics.
2. Project planning: Based on all of the main objectives above, the project manager will help suggest the most appropriate project management plan following needed practical design and implementation methods in the consideration of operation risks and constraints.
3. Software design and planning: This is the final step to thoroughly describe what the future project will look like before getting to the designing stage. In this step, the overall description of the app, description of required features, main purposes, demo user interface, and more are completed and presented for appropriate approval and adjustment.
4. UX/UI Design: Next step is to conduct on the user experience wireframes and user interface mockups according to the given user journey map. After the two stages are done, we now can move to the development step.
5. Development, Testing, and Adjustment: These three steps will be conducted respectively and continuously until the app is considered to be matched with the plan and free from any significant issues.
6. Launching and Evolution: This is the moment of the truth. However, launching the app to the store for users is not yet the end of the process. The development team will continuously review and measure to see if the app is doing its job properly.

C++, JAVA, and Python are all popular programming languages for coding and programming. However, each programming language has its own distinctive features, purposes, usages, and types of users. To know more about the differences between these three programming languages, let's look at the table below.

The differences in usage objectives, target users, and platforms, desktop applications and web applications are significantly different from each other on several aspects as mentioned in the table below.

If you are considering hiring a freelance desktop application developer for your business, then you will need to look over several factors on both the freelancer side and your side. The first thing should always be what app you want to have and what feature(s) you want it to do for you is (are). The second thing you need to find out is your budget for this project. Try doing market research and have a discussion with your freelancers if needed to figure out the suitable amount of money you should pay for your desired app. Figuring these things out will help saving time, effort, and money when looking for the one who can fully fill your requests.

The next you should take a thorough look into is the freelancers’ portfolios. They should have enough experience and skills in the type of app you wish to build. You also need to make sure that they are qualified enough to build and add in the app with all of your required features. Besides, a freelancer working in desktop application development must obtain the experience in the platform you wish to build your app in.

After the freelancers have fully filled all of your requirements in terms of experience and skills, the final step is to check if they are reliable enough to deliver the app on time with all of the mentioned features in the agreement, if they have the attitude that you are looking for, or if they can communicate well to tell and discuss with you if any issues occurs.