Is it better to go with Web or Desktop? (App Idea)

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

I'm planning on creating an app to download video from websites, I know that there's a lot of similar websites out there and most of them are using youtubedl behind the scenes. I was planning on creating something totally different, better in terms of SEO, better in terms of design, using sockets to make it kinda of real time with download progress, advanced caching and a writing all the scripts to download manually to make sure I get most out of it (in terms of speed).

I was also thinking about instead of creating for web, why not create for desktop where users can install on their computers and get rid of the need to open the browser, enter the website in order to download.

But it also comes down to monetization on desktop, if it's better to do with PPI (Pay Per Install) or Ads.

What are you guys opinion about this?

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

Wait, I think I posted on the wrong place. I thought it was suggestions regarding everything and not the forum itself.

I will report my thread and ask the moderators to move to the right place.

Sorry for that.

MisterF · Mar 10, 2020

Maxmus said:
Wait, I think I posted on the wrong place. I thought it was suggestions regarding everything and not the forum itself.

I will report my thread and ask the moderators to move to the right place.

Sorry for that.

No worries, moved to a more suitable section.

Yee · Mar 10, 2020

Web, their is not such thing like desktop

j3xxus · Mar 10, 2020

Web for sure. It’s easy to wrap that into mobile apps which is the direction the world is heading right now.. and can still be used on a laptop/desktop.

You shouldn’t really ever consider building something not taking advantage of cloud technology at this point in the game.

Desktop apps are cool if you already have the web component working as an additional option but really unless it’s a client to hook into another network it’s useless. (Skype or discord or teamviewer for example)

Leader777 · Mar 10, 2020

If you can do both it will increase your chance of success

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

j3xxus said:
Web for sure. It’s easy to wrap that into mobile apps which is the direction the world is heading right now.. and can still be used on a laptop/desktop.

You shouldn’t really ever consider building something not taking advantage of cloud technology at this point in the game.

Desktop apps are cool if you already have the web component working as an additional option but really unless it’s a client to hook into another network it’s useless. (Skype or discord or teamviewer for example)

Yes, you are right, I intend on using cloud for this for sure.

Razen666 said:
If you can do both it will increase your chance of success

That is actually an option, perhaps creating for web and wrapping on Electron.js or even using Qt (C++) to be more native with Chromium.

Thank you guys for the answers. Perhaps soon I will start a journey thread showing the progress.

tum01 · Mar 10, 2020

I think web app + browser extension would work best for that purpose.

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

tum01 said:
I think web app + browser extension would work best for that purpose.

What about web app + browser extension + desktop?

I answered other replies but it's awaiting moderation.

liquardo · Mar 10, 2020

I recently made a bigass guide on downloading YT vids on my site so I ended up testing most of the current web apps and desktop apps made for that purpose.

In conclusion, the desktop apps were miles better because of the new YouTube/Google changes where you can't download YouTube videos in high quality without separating video and audio first, then converting them.
Almost no service does that without additional desktop installations or software because it is too costly to do on their own servers.

However, if your focus is not downloadable YouTube videos (or at least high quality ones) or you're fine with paying for insane server fees, you should go with a web app as it will definitely get more users and traffic, while also being easier to monetize.

Making a desktop app you can allow the users PC to do all the heavy lifting so you won't need to invest so much in servers and such.

Both have their pros and cons

But as you said, why not both? You could use a technology/programming language like React or whatever that can be used on web, desktop apps, mobile etc.

tum01 · Mar 10, 2020

Maxmus said:
What about web app + browser extension + desktop?

I answered other replies but it's awaiting moderation.

It is the best to make an app everywhere possible, but I would start with just web app + browser extension. Desktop app can be added later

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

Thank you for your reply liquardo.

You are totally right, for instance there's one website I intend to implement that the competitors doesn't support. The website is actually loaded fully in JavaScript and most of the crawlers can't reach as the content is only available when the DOM is loaded and that for that I would need to use some features to actually scrap the website like it was in an actual browser.

Regarding Youtube videos, you are right, I think that most of the websites out there that allows you to download from Youtube has the limit of 720p. Desktop apps actually download them both (audio and video) merging them afterwards (for videos above 720p).

The heavy portion is that if you want to allow people to download videos with high quality from Youtube you would need a server that has capacity to handle conversion (using FFMPEG for example). The problem also is that you would be storing files on your server (which might be bad - legally speaking).

Another problem is with other websites that has downloads above 480p as HLS (streaming), meaning: would need to convert as well.

I think I can support most of the websites and for the user to download high quality videos he would need to download the desktop app. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (or don't allow at all)

liquardo · Mar 10, 2020

Maxmus said:
Thank you for your reply liquardo.

You are totally right, for instance there's one website I intend to implement that the competitors doesn't support. The website is actually loaded fully in JavaScript and most of the crawlers can't reach as the content is only available when the DOM is loaded and that for that I would need to use some features to actually scrap the website like it was in an actual browser.

Regarding Youtube videos, you are right, I think that most of the websites out there that allows you to download from Youtube has the limit of 720p. Desktop apps actually download them both (audio and video) merging them afterwards (for videos above 720p).

The heavy portion is that if you want to allow people to download videos with high quality from Youtube you would need a server that has capacity to handle conversion (using FFMPEG for example). The problem also is that you would be storing files on your server (which might be bad - legally speaking).

Another problem is with other websites that has downloads above 480p as HLS (streaming), meaning: would need to convert as well.

I think I can support most of the websites and for the user to download high quality videos he would need to download the desktop app. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seems like you've done your research

Depending on your budget, it might indeed be optimal to release a limited web version first, similar to your competitors, then once you start earning a bit from that + building the brand, getting people to pay for a premium / desktop app is gonna be a cakewalk.

Good luck on your project man, would love to see a journey thread once you get something off the ground.

SEOMet · Mar 10, 2020

Unless absolutely required, ALWAYS browser-based. It's not the 2000s anymore. I can't remember the last time I instally anything on my computer, except for work related very specific-technical software.

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

Being honest even working with programming for 12 years I never created any website like this (a service to earn from ads and stuff), most of my time was working on bigger projects in teams and stuff. It helped me a lot and that is why it's easier for me to do some research and know what is going on.

I wanted to create a service to put online and I thought "why not a service to download videos". I know that the niche is kinda saturated, there's a lot of websites that does the same but maybe it has room for one more and with experience applied make it better and stand out.

I don't know, perhaps in the future I think of another service to create and put online, I'm always open to ideas.

TheGreyMatter · Mar 10, 2020

Depending on who's point of view you're looking from,

For the customer, a web-based interface is always better since it's easier and universal and works across everywhere without any restrictions.
While download a tool in this age where anything can get you virus, people tend to skip downloads and stick to using everything online.

Maxmus · Mar 10, 2020

TheGreyMatter said:
Depending on who's point of view you're looking from,

For the customer, a web-based interface is always better since it's easier and universal and works across everywhere without any restrictions.
While download a tool in this age where anything can get you virus, people tend to skip downloads and stick to using everything online.

It crossed my mind to be honest (regarding users afraid of virus) but I wanted to ask to confirm, we never know, as I mentioned before it's all new for me creating services to earn money with ads and you guys are way more experience than me on the subject. I think that knowing how to code isn't enough, we need all the knowledge we can get right? haha

Thank you guys very much, you are helping me a lot.

Leader777 · Mar 10, 2020

Maxmus said:
Yes, you are right, I intend on using cloud for this for sure.

That is actually an option, perhaps creating for web and wrapping on Electron.js or even using Qt (C++) to be more native with Chromium.

Thank you guys for the answers. Perhaps soon I will start a journey thread showing the progress.

I will follow your journey for sure

michiosha1 · Mar 10, 2020

In seo world usually desktop=windows, what I hate personally. As a web app at least it will be usable anywhere.

rafark · Mar 10, 2020

Maxmus said:
I'm planning on creating an app to download video from websites, I know that there's a lot of similar websites out there and most of them are using youtubedl behind the scenes. I was planning on creating something totally different, better in terms of SEO, better in terms of design, using sockets to make it kinda of real time with download progress, advanced caching and a writing all the scripts to download manually to make sure I get most out of it (in terms of speed).

I was also thinking about instead of creating for web, why not create for desktop where users can install on their computers and get rid of the need to open the browser, enter the website in order to download.

But it also comes down to monetization on desktop, if it's better to do with PPI (Pay Per Install) or Ads.

What are you guys opinion about this?

A desktop app for this would work wonders!... ...if It was 2007.

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