About Desktop Insights
Technographics for desktop software, read from the binaries
Desktop Insights tracks the SDKs, frameworks, and dependency versions inside thousands of macOS and Windows applications. We download the shipped binaries and read what is actually in them — not website metadata, not surveys — and keep a record of how each app's stack changes from release to release.
Full breakdown available on our statistics page.
How the data is collected
Every record comes from direct analysis of shipped application packages — not from surveys, self-reporting, or HTML scraping. Apps are ingested from Homebrew, the Mac App Store, winget, and the Microsoft Store, then passed through platform-native extraction pipelines on every release.
Framework plists, CocoaPods and SwiftPM bundles, otool dependency graphs, code-signing metadata, and binary string analysis.
PE header analysis, .NET assembly inspection, MSIX manifests, DLL fingerprinting, and Authenticode signature data.
Electron asar and node_modules, Flutter NOTICES, JVM JARs, Rust panic paths, Go build info, Python site-packages.
Release records going back 13 years, with a dependency snapshot for every version we have extracted — see when a dependency was adopted, upgraded, or removed.
Each app is also enriched with public popularity signals: install counts from Homebrew analytics, store rankings and user ratings from the Mac App Store and Microsoft Store, and — for open-source projects — GitHub stars and release cadence. Tracked alongside the dependency history, so adoption can be weighted by reach — not just counted.
Who we serve
Teams that need to know what desktop software actually ships with, not what its vendor says it does.
- SDK and developer-tools companiesTrack adoption of your SDK and your competitors', broken down by app, version, and release date.
- Security and IT teamsIdentify applications shipping vulnerable dependency versions or outdated runtimes across your approved-software inventory.
- Investors and analystsQuantify technology adoption, platform share, and framework migrations across thousands of shipping applications.
- Enterprise buyersEvaluate vendor software before procurement with verifiable dependency inventories and SBOM-grade evidence.
Leadership
Desktop Insights is founded and operated by Andrew Schreiber, a software engineer based in Brooklyn, NY with a background in developer tools, machine-learning infrastructure, and distributed systems.
Press & Data Inquiries
For press inquiries, data requests, or partnerships — get in touch. Headline statistics are available on our statistics page. Logo assets available on request.
Contact us