

Ask HN: Any startups here that moved off of BaaS (ex. Parse, Kinvey, Kii)? Why? - mi3law

If you were part of a startup that was initially built on a Backend-as-a-Service, but later moved off-- why did you move off? What exactly prompted the decision? Was it cost, inflexibility, something else?<p>I would <i>love</i> to talk to you about this (no more than 15 min) to find out why-- in exchange, you will get a box of your favorite snacks or chocolate and a young startup&#x27;s undying gratitude. (If you know someone from a startup that moved off BaaS, please connect me; same snacks&#x2F;choco&#x2F;gratitude apply.)<p>Please comment below or email falling.hill@gmail.com<p>Context: I&#x27;m cofounder of a startup that is adding a new spin on BaaS, and we want to make sure our new spin adds enough value.
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tpae
I used Parse in South Korea to build mobile apps quickly, and the entire
experience has been great.

However...

The latency from Parse data centers to South Korean consumers became an issue,
and our users were complaining slow response time.

The executive decision came when Parse was having scheduled maintenance, which
took place somewhere between 11pm~5am in PST, which turned out to be our
busiest time during a business day, in KST (Korea Standard Time).

I had to re-build the entire infrastructure from scratch, import data from
Parse, but overall it wasn't a pleasant experience.

The biggest problems for me when using BaaS, was that I had no control over
their business decisions, and sometimes you get screwed over and at best they
can say is, "Sorry."

BaaS is like the backbone to your application, if it goes down, it could mean
the end for a fragile startup.

~~~
mi3law
Thank you so much for your response!

This is _really_ helpful-- the way we're building our system gives ours
customers their own instance (so update at your convenience). So this feedback
makes us feel good!

And sorry to hear about your experience with Parse. Building a startup is hard
enough.

If you consider using a BaaS in the future but want a different / more
flexible experience, please get in touch: falling.hill@gmail.com (or drop me
your contact info and I'll get in touch).

------
MalcolmDiggs
We gave Parse a spin, a few times actually. Mostly just for hobby projects. It
was proposed for a production build but the general consensus on our team was
"externalize anything you want _except_ the core product...because we can't
afford the implications of vendor lock-in there".

------
jtfairbank
I can tell you why we're going with a Baas (Firebase).

~~~
mi3law
Please do! Why Firebase specifically? And (more importantly to me) do you
anticipate moving off later?

(If you'd prefer to move this off HN, can I email or call you? That way I'll
also get to send you a thank-you package!)

~~~
jtfairbank
"jtfairbank+hn" /at/ gmail /dot/ com

