There is the third option of hybrid native/web applications, which I haven't seen considered here. One example is the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, which "

There is the third option of hybrid native/web applications, which I haven't seen considered here. One example is the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, which "... intends to provide a versatile runtime-environment that allows existing Flash, ActionScript, or HTML and JavaScript code to be used to construct Internet-based applications that have many of the characteristics of more traditional desktop-like programs." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_AIR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_AIR Another example of a hybrid option, one which is much simpler than AIR, and which I haven't seen anyone really trying, is where the application is sold without a GUI of its own. You interact with it through your browser, and it acts as your proxy to the Internet. This allows for increased computation, better display, and optimized communication, such that the experience is somewhere between pure web app and pure native app. The customer gets the good feeling of "owning" the thing for which they paid, and the developer's work is simplified by using the browser as a cross-platform GUI.