• Blog
  • Documentation
  • Pricing
  • Statistics
  • FAQ
Sign InSign Up

Statistics

Aggregate ecosystem data from thousands of the most popular macOS and Windows applications

Data as of March 2026 · 13,204 apps analyzed

13,204
Total Apps
4,328
macOS Apps
8,876
Windows Apps
163
Open Source
458
Cross-Platform
13
Years of Data

What is the most popular error monitoring SDK for desktop apps?

Error monitoring SDK adoption across desktop applications that include at least one error tracking dependency.

Sentry
66.6% (971)
Crashpad
18.8% (274)
Bugsnag
5.5% (80)
Datadog
4.9% (72)
Rollbar
3.6% (52)
Raygun
0.6% (9)

What analytics SDKs do desktop apps use?

Analytics and product telemetry SDK adoption across desktop applications.

Segment
54.9% (311)
Amplitude
17% (96)
Mixpanel
14.3% (81)
PostHog
13.1% (74)
Snowplow
0.7% (4)

What payment SDKs do desktop apps use?

Payment and billing SDK adoption across desktop applications that include at least one payment dependency.

Paddle
45% (141)
Stripe
22% (69)
Braintree
16% (50)
Gumroad
7.3% (23)
LemonSqueezy
7.3% (23)
PayPal
2.2% (7)

What real-time SDKs do desktop apps use?

Real-time communication and sync SDK adoption across desktop applications.

Firebase
58.1% (469)
Supabase
21.4% (173)
SignalR
9.8% (79)
Socket.IO
5.8% (47)
Pusher
3.5% (28)
Ably
1.4% (11)

What observability SDKs do desktop apps use?

Application performance monitoring and observability SDK adoption across desktop applications.

OpenTelemetry
60.6% (337)
Dynatrace
38.3% (213)
New Relic
1.1% (6)

How secure are macOS desktop apps?

Security posture across 4,328 macOS applications.

97.2%
Code Signed
16.5%
Privacy Manifest
35.5%
Sandboxed
4.8
Avg Entitlements

Most Common Entitlements

EntitlementApps%
app-sandbox153735.5%
network.client138131.9%
com.apple.application-identifier133430.8%
com.apple.developer.team-identifier128629.7%
cs.allow-jit117427.1%
files.user-selected.read-write104324.1%
cs.disable-library-validation98322.7%
cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory96222.2%

What are the most popular desktop SDKs?

Top 15 most widely adopted dependencies across all tracked desktop apps, ranked by number of apps using each SDK.

SDKCategoryApps%
zlibUtility426132.3%
WebView2Utility291222.1%
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00Utility262419.9%
libjpeg-turboUtility162012.3%
runtimeUtility159112%
SQLiteUtility153811.6%
OpenSSLUtility150111.4%
corefxUtility143110.8%
FFmpegUtility132710%
Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2Utility13069.9%
Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.2.2Utility13069.9%
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktopUtility12959.8%
Newtonsoft.JsonUtility11038.4%
libpngUtility10668.1%
NewtonsoftUtility10558%

How many desktop apps lack key SDKs?

Across 11,438 apps with at least one detected dependency, the vast majority lack SDKs in major categories.

Error Monitoring88.7% have none
1297 apps (11.3%) use a error monitoring SDK
Real-time / Sync93.5% have none
747 apps (6.5%) use a real-time / sync SDK
Observability / APM95.2% have none
544 apps (4.8%) use a observability / apm SDK
Analytics95.3% have none
540 apps (4.7%) use a analytics SDK
Payments97.4% have none
297 apps (2.6%) use a payments SDK
Feature Flags98.5% have none
166 apps (1.5%) use a feature flags SDK
Customer Support98.6% have none
158 apps (1.4%) use a customer support SDK
Authentication99.1% have none
102 apps (0.9%) use a authentication SDK
Push Notifications99.6% have none
50 apps (0.4%) use a push notifications SDK
Session Replay99.9% have none
9 apps (0.1%) use a session replay SDK

How many Electron apps are there?

Runtime breakdown across 13,204 desktop applications. Electron powers 10.4% of all tracked apps.

macOS

Native (Swift/ObjC)
62.5% (2703)
Electron
17.5% (756)
Qt
5.6% (242)
Rust (Native)
5.2% (226)
Python
2.1% (93)
Unity
1.9% (81)
JVM
1.8% (79)
Go (Native)
1.5% (63)
Flutter
1.1% (46)
CEF
0.7% (31)
GTK
0.2% (7)
.NET
0% (1)

Windows

Native
58.8% (5219)
.NET
17.8% (1581)
Electron
6.9% (616)
Rust (Native)
3.7% (324)
Flutter
3.4% (305)
Qt
2.7% (240)
Go (Native)
2.1% (182)
JVM
2% (176)
Python
1.6% (146)
CEF
0.6% (55)
Gecko
0.2% (20)
python+electron
0.1% (7)
Delphi
0.1% (5)

How up-to-date are Electron apps?

Electron major version distribution across 1285 apps. 60.5% run a version more than 5 releases behind the latest (v41).

v1
7 apps (0.5%)
v2
6 apps (0.5%)
v3
6 apps (0.5%)
v4
18 apps (1.4%)
v5
6 apps (0.5%)
v6
10 apps (0.8%)
v7
14 apps (1.1%)
v8
12 apps (0.9%)
v9
11 apps (0.9%)
v10
9 apps (0.7%)
v11
24 apps (1.9%)
v12
23 apps (1.8%)
v13
29 apps (2.3%)
v14
5 apps (0.4%)
v15
8 apps (0.6%)
v16
12 apps (0.9%)
v17
17 apps (1.3%)
v18
14 apps (1.1%)
v19
26 apps (2%)
v20
14 apps (1.1%)
v21
19 apps (1.5%)
v22
43 apps (3.3%)
v23
18 apps (1.4%)
v24
12 apps (0.9%)
v25
22 apps (1.7%)
v26
27 apps (2.1%)
v27
33 apps (2.6%)
v28
48 apps (3.7%)
v29
32 apps (2.5%)
v30
45 apps (3.5%)
v31
38 apps (3%)
v32
24 apps (1.9%)
v33
52 apps (4%)
v34
43 apps (3.3%)
v35
24 apps (1.9%)
v36
27 apps (2.1%)
v37
104 apps (8.1%)
v38
117 apps (9.1%)
v39
147 apps (11.4%)
v40
111 apps (8.6%)
v41
28 apps (2.2%)

Green = v37+ (recent) / Orange = older versions

How many apps support Apple Silicon?

Architecture support across 4,294 macOS apps with architecture data. 83.8% of apps now run natively on Apple Silicon.

Universal (ARM64 + Intel)
63.4%
ARM64 Only
20.4%
Intel Only
16.2%

How complex are desktop apps?

Median and mean dependency count by runtime. The overall median is 8 dependencies per app (mean: 35.4). 13.4% of apps have zero detected dependencies.

RuntimeMedian DepsMean DepsApps
Flutter173178.7351
Rust (Native)100125.4550
Go (Native)66109.4245
.NET4676.41582
JVM4081.3255
Python2854.4239
Electron2544.31372
CEF2435.886
GTK2425.67
Gecko2223.520
python+electron1919.77
Qt1625.9482
Unity86.881
Native (Swift/ObjC)617.22703
Delphi44.45
Native35.85219

What OS versions do desktop apps require?

Minimum OS version requirements across macOS and Windows apps.

Minimum macOS Version

10.13
12.7% (549)
11.0
11% (476)
12.0
10.9% (473)
10.15
9.6% (414)
13.0
4.6% (199)
14.0
3.4% (149)
10.14
3.4% (149)
10.11
3.4% (147)
10.12
2.5% (109)
11.5
2.1% (89)

Minimum Windows Version

10.0.17763.0
26.8% (2381)
Windows Vista
9.2% (818)
Windows (4.0)
8.6% (761)
10.0.16299.0
6.6% (589)
10.0.10240.0
5.7% (506)
10.0.14393.0
4.9% (433)
10.0.19041.0
4.7% (420)
10.0.18362.0
4.6% (406)

How are Windows apps packaged?

Installer technology distribution across 8,876 Windows applications.

MSIX
74.1% (6574)
NSIS (Nullsoft)
5.4% (476)
ZIP / Portable
4.7% (416)
Inno Setup
4.4% (390)
WiX Toolset
3.7% (326)
unknown
3.5% (308)
Custom EXE
2.7% (241)
MSI
1% (86)
WiX Burn
0.6% (52)
APPX
0.1% (7)

How do desktop apps deliver updates?

Detected auto-update mechanisms across macOS and Windows apps.

MechanismPlatformApps
MSIX / Microsoft StoreWindows6,581
SparklemacOS1,037
electron-updaterCross-platform498
Homebrew Auto-UpdatemacOS29

How big are desktop apps by runtime?

Average and median application bundle size grouped by runtime. macOS apps average 247 MB; Windows apps average 176.5 MB.

macOS

RuntimeAvgMedianApps
Native (Swift/ObjC)133.8 MB30.9 MB2703
Electron459.6 MB413 MB756
Qt354.8 MB171.5 MB242
Rust (Native)225 MB74 MB226
Python572.8 MB317.7 MB93
Unity596.3 MB510.8 MB81
JVM872.8 MB270.9 MB79
Go (Native)161.2 MB61.1 MB63
Flutter207.9 MB116.8 MB46
CEF975.8 MB868.7 MB31
GTK231.8 MB168.4 MB7

Windows

RuntimeAvgMedianApps
Native85.8 MB20.1 MB5197
.NET262.5 MB170.2 MB1581
Electron440.9 MB370.4 MB616
Rust (Native)176.9 MB61.4 MB324
Flutter94.2 MB55.9 MB305
Qt310.5 MB141.8 MB240
Go (Native)120.2 MB36.5 MB182
JVM623 MB295.4 MB176
Python618.3 MB185.1 MB146
CEF677.6 MB518.4 MB55
Gecko265.9 MB280.3 MB20
python+electron623.4 MB492.6 MB7
Delphi193 MB122.3 MB5

What languages do desktop apps support?

72.2% of macOS apps (3,125 of 4,328) include localization bundles.

English
51.6% (2232)
German
39.4% (1706)
French
38.4% (1660)
Spanish
35.3% (1529)
Japanese
35% (1514)
Italian
34% (1473)
Russian
30.8% (1331)
Korean
29.7% (1287)
Dutch
28.3% (1226)
Polish
25.2% (1089)
Turkish
25% (1081)
Swedish
24% (1039)
Czech
23.2% (1002)
Ukrainian
22.8% (988)
Arabic
22.7% (981)

What are the most installed desktop apps?

Top 10 most installed apps per platform by package manager download counts.

Methodology

Statistics are derived from automated analysis of 4,328 macOS and 8,876 Windows application bundles, with version history going back 13 years. For macOS, we extract framework plists, package.json from Electron asars, SPM bundles, CocoaPods, and binary string analysis. For Windows, we analyze MSI/MSIX/EXE installers, PE binaries, .NET deps.json, and JVM JARs. Runtime classification uses framework detection heuristics. Download counts come from Homebrew Cask analytics and GitHub release data. Cross-platform detection uses both manual mapping and automated name matching across platforms. See our FAQ for more details on our extraction methodology.

Get full data via API

The only technographics platform for desktop software. See the SDKs, frameworks, and dependencies inside thousands of macOS and Windows applications.

© Copyright 2026 Desktop Insights . All Rights Reserved.

About
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • X
Product
  • Statistics
  • Documentation
Legal
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy