Web Application - Drawbacks

Drawbacks

• In practice, web interfaces, compared to thick clients, typically force significant sacrifice to user experience and basic usability.
• Web applications absolutely require compatible web browsers. If a browser vendor decides not to implement a certain feature, or abandons a particular platform or operating system version, this may affect a huge number of users;
• Standards compliance is an issue with any non-typical office document creator, which causes problems when file sharing and collaboration becomes critical;
• Browser applications rely on application files accessed on remote servers through the Internet. Therefore, when connection is interrupted, the application is no longer usable. However, if it uses HTML5 API's such as Offline Web application caching, it can be downloaded and installed locally, for offline use. Google Gears, although no longer in active development, is a good example of a third party plugin for web browsers that provides additional functionality for creating web applications;
• Since many web applications are not open source, there is also a loss of flexibility, making users dependent on third-party servers, not allowing customizations on the software and preventing users from running applications offline (in most cases). However, if licensed, proprietary software can be customized and run on the preferred server of the rights owner;
• They depend entirely on the availability of the server delivering the application. If a company goes bankrupt and the server is shut down, the users have little recourse. Traditional installed software keeps functioning even after the demise of the company that produced it (though there will be no updates or customer service);
• Likewise, the company has much greater control over the software and functionality. They can roll out new features whenever they wish, even if the users would like to wait until the bugs have been worked out before upgrading. The option of simply skipping a weak software version is often not available. The company can foist unwanted features on the users or cut costs by reducing bandwidth. Of course, companies will try to keep the good will of their customers, but the users of web applications have fewer options in such cases unless a competitor steps in and offers a better product and easy migration;
• The company can theoretically track anything the users do. This can cause privacy problems.
• According to Jonathan Zittrain, the online applications like Facebook and Google Apps have made the Internet become far more proprietary than early versions of Microsoft Windows.