Docker is probably not a solution for the non-tech people. Especially docker for windows.

Just a few things to consider (sorry for not answering your question):

• thick client requires maintenance on machines that are out of your control
• thick client is a pain to upgrade (you have to keep at least some backwards compatibility)
• server cost is a temporary problem that will go away, the decisions stay
• webapps are precisely the thing for non-technical users due to lack of installation and configuration on user side
• you need to transmit the sensitive information to the server either way regardless if they come from a native app or browser
• you are likely to keep the web interface as well having two products to maintain in the end

I use exrm to release as Windows Service, I have tried distillery, it doesn’t work. After release, strip your beam files of debug symbols, and edit the bat script as necessary, eg add new firewall rule to open up ports. I use InnoSetup to ship the entire release (elixir server plus a local GUI app), which also takes care of calling the install/uninstall script.

A small problem with this is starting up the database, for now I’m using sqlite so the entire service is standalone. But I think there’s a way to configure windows service dependency so you ask postgresql/etc to start first, or just have the service do delayed startup.