If you still haven’t settled on an alternative to Parse, the premier cross-platform BaaS that will be shutting down as of January 28, 2017, you’re not alone. Fortunately, Parse has open sourced the code as Parse Server. Written in Node.js, Parse Server can serve the Parse API from any Node-enabled infrastructure.
“Focus on your apps and we’ll take care of the rest.” This is the phrase that came to mind when I and many others thought about Parse.com. However, our world was rocked when we heard the news that the site was going dark on January 28th, 2007.
API developers are in a lively dispute over the respective advantages and limitations of the Firebase and Parse Backend as a Service (BaaS) platforms. Now Facebook’s decision to make Parse code open source adds more fuel to these fires of developer debate. Does this status change disarm the arguments of Parse proponents and push the balance in favor of Firebase, or perhaps it works in the opposite direction?
O presente artigo irá detalhar as vantagens e desvantagens de se utilizar um backend as a service no desenvolvimento de aplicações web ou mobile.
Um BaaS pode ser visto como uma ponte conectando o backend e o frontend de uma aplicação. Os BaaS auxiliam os desenvolvedores a acelerar a criação de aplicações web e mobile e simplificam a criação de APIs. Em vez de codificar o backend inteiro, o desenvolvedor usa o BaaS para criar as APIs e conectá-las às aplicações.
The Backend as a Service (BaaS) market has mushroomed over the past five years. App developers find that using BaaS services frees them to focus on the more inspiring aspects of their profession. They have therefore rushed to entrust BaaS service providers with those less glamorous but nevertheless all so vital development tasks. For example, BaaS offers a highly effective way of handling server coding, database hosting, backup and other tasks that create and maintain the supporting environment app development requires. “Backend” is a most appropriate choice of word since these activities provide the framework within which the more exciting app development tasks are implemented. When these activities are managed by a third party the developer has much more time to devote to the innovations that make new apps so appealing.
In this article, we are comparing expenses required to host the complete Parse solution (Parse Server + Database) in two different configurations. The first configuration covers small apps and the second covers scaling / large apps.
Small Apps – Will detail the structure required for starting apps with less than ten requests/second and minimum server-side processing.
Large and Scaling Apps – Will detail the structure required for scaling and large apps with more than 10 API requests per second.
Google has recently released a new version of Firebase. It provides a unified platform to build Android, iOS, and web Apps. Admob, Analytics, Authentication, Indexing, Test Lab, and Notifications are some of the new features introduced in the latest version of Firebase.
Parse Server is a better choice to build new apps or API’s. Read on to get a sense of comparison between the two and to understand why Parse Server is still better.
If you hosted your app on Parse and are now aware of the fact that Parse is shutting down by Jan 2017, you should be searching an alternative to Parse. Parse has open-sourced their technology and paved a way to migrate your app’s backend to another BaaS provider. Back4app is one of the best BaaS providers that can efficiently support IoT, mobile apps or API’s. Try it out right away as the deadline for data migration has elapsed and you must be getting minor traffic on your app.
Even if you are looking for developing a new app, Back4app has an easy wizard to create and maintain your app. Back4app still supports Parse SDK and offers most features that were loved by Parse users including Push notifications on Dashboard, Global Config, Hooks, automatic emails, and cloud code.
Given the fact that Parse will be permanently shuttered on January 28, 2017, you have two options to host your apps.
1. Setting up the self-hosted Parse Server and then releasing a new app pointing to it
2. Migrating to a cloud hosting company that can provide Parse hosting service
There are pros and cons of each of these options. Here I discuss a few of them which may help you choose the better of the two that best suits you.
