S.No.

Silverlight

WPF

Definition

The Silverlight is Microsoft’s latest development platform for building next-generation Web client applications.

The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft’s latest development platform for building next-generation Windows client applications.

Subset of

Silverlight is generally considered to be a subset of WPF and is a XAML-based technology that runs within the sandbox of browser plug-in.

WPF is generally considered to be a subset of .NET Framework and is a XMAL based technology.

GUI

Silverlight will be used in development of  Rich Internet Application (RIA) for web client users

WPF will be used in development of Rich Windows Graphical User Interface(GUI) for windows client users

Support

Cross OS, cross browser, cross device

Windows only

Software Required

Silverlight is the add-on mechanism available for most of the browsers, in order to run Silverlight applications at client machines we need to install Silverlight software on client machine once.

WPF on the other hand does not support any plug-in mechanism instead we need to install completed WPF client application in order to use the WPF application at client place.

Framework support

Silverlight has very small own rich base class library to make plug-in as small as possible. that is highly optimized for size and is a small subset of the full .NET Framework, to embed within it

WPF, on the other hand, has full access to the main .Net Framework and all its associated assemblies.

Deployment

Silverlight applications are hosted within a web server and a web page. To minimize client download size, Silverlight uses an XAP archive. A XAP archive is a zip-compressed archive of the Silverlight application, plus a manifest file describing the content. Visual Studio automatically generates the XAP archive when using the Silverlight project template.

WPF applications can be deployed as a standalone application, ClickOnce application, or a XAML Browser application.