I think this blog post on the Esri site is still applicable: [ArcObjects or the ArcGIS Runtime SDKs for Java and WPF—which is right for you?][1] Thought [this question][2] discusses the Java flavors, it may help as well. [1]: http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2012/12/07/arcobjects-or-runtime-sdk/ [2]: http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/110210/difference-between-arcobjects-sdk-for-java-and-arcgis-runtime-for-java