Discussion of Parse Alternative services

1. Parse Alternatives
CocoaCoders
28 April, 2016

2. Warning
No one here has used all these
services
Different Teams/Apps have different
needs
Your mileage may vary

3. Please Interrupt
This is better as a conversation
than as a lecture.
Your experience is as valid as
anyone else’s

4. Reasons and Dates
Jan 27th 2016: Shutdown announcement
http://blog.parse.com/announcements/moving-on/
Jan 28th 2017: Shutdown
https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/wiki/Migrating-an-Existing-Parse-App

5. Tasks
Select new Vendor
Provision
Rewrite (at least part of) app
Migrate data?
Get users to upgrade

6. What makes a Parse Alternative?
BaaS (Backend as a Service)?
Integrated Hosting?
Other Services?

7. Must Haves?
Cheap? (Free to start?)
Data Storage?
Authentication/Authorization?
Dashboard tools?

8. Nice To Haves?
Cross Platform?
Push notifications?
Server code access?

9. Can’t Haves?
Writing server code yourself?
Possible Acquisition target?
Shaky financial support?

10. Alternative List

11. Parse Server (Now OpenSource)
Node.js stack
Can find a hosting provider (more later)
Minimal(?) app changes
More work for you than old Parse
OSS Support future?

12. CloudKit
iOS Only
Won’t get Acqui-hired
Not the best track record
Now with server-side code
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/
CloudKitJS/Reference/CloudKitJavaScriptReference/

13. Amazon/AWS
Arguably longest/oldest
Won’t get Acqui-Hired
Very flexible
Cross-platform
Bewildering cacophony of services
Bloated SDK Library

14. Microsoft Azure
Really Slick
Ryan Joy demoed it for us
Feature-rich
Microsoft(+/-)?

15. mLab/ObjectRocket
Partnering with Parse to do migrations/hosting
https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/
wiki/Migrating-an-Existing-Parse-App
No idea if they’re viable. Thoughts?

16. Realm
Nice database/setup
Great community
Data Migration may be an issue
May be acquisition target(?)

17. Firebase
Recommended by Ray Wenderlich
https://www.raywenderlich.com/126098/top-5-
parse-alternatives
No push (but you can add another service)

18. perfect.org
New (heard about them at CocoaConf)
Swift-in-the-Cloud
Don’t know much, but the Swift angle is novel

19. Further Reading/Resources

20. https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/wiki
http://blog.parse.com/announcements/introducing-
parse-server-and-the-database-migration-tool/
https://github.com/relatedcode/ParseAlternatives