10 Tools for Developing Desktop Applications With User Interfaces

An overview of desktop applications frameworks, libraries, toolkits, programming languages, IDEs, and more.

These days, web and mobile applications rule the market. The dominant mindset is web or mobile-first (friendly). But it does not mean that the need for desktop apps is gone. We still need our beloved desktop applications.

Let’s review some of the possible use-cases of desktop apps:

✔ Standalone Business Applications

✔ Collaborative Applications

✔ Utilities and Plug-Ins

✔ System Apps and Services

✔ Multimedia Applications

✔ Network Applications

All of these tools are usually referred to as “desktop apps”. But each has its own set of features — both in terms of functionality and the technology stack behind.

Things are getting more confusing when your app needs a user interface. Then it means that you have to search for UI Tools.

You may ask why I am using the word “Tools” and not something like “Frameworks”, “Libraries”, “Widgets” or similar?

Good question!