Nick Bess

Every day, the PH feed is packed with shiny new SaaS tools most of them browser-based, many of them AI-infused. It s exciting, no doubt. But compared to a time not so long ago, something seems missing: local desktop apps.

They re rare now, and it makes me wonder are native apps still worth building, or have they quietly slipped into the realm of nostalgia?

After all, web apps offer clear benefits for both users and makers or investors. Users don t have to install anything, updates are seamless, and their data is accessible from any device with a browser. For investors, the advantages are just as compelling: a single tech stack, easier user onboarding, lock-in effects, and plenty of levers for driving growth and virality.

I'm curious how people build local-first apps. I don't need full CRDT support, but more just syncing with a "parent" db (both pulling new data and pushing locally created records).
I see tinybase which feels maybe a bit more powerful than what I need (?).

I also see livestore which feels scary to build on something that new.
Is there a non-hack way to use sqllite and sync to a postgres db?
Basically my criteria in order of importance would be:
1. stays out of my way (easy to deploy, migrate, use)
2. has leverage with types (a standard linter tells me I'm blowing up the app with the code I just wrote)
3. stable (I would ideally just learn a "goto" tool and use that on all projects going forward)