
Parse (YC S11): A Heroku For Mobile Apps - csmajorfive
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/04/yc-funded-parse-a-heroku-for-mobile-apps/
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danilocampos
These guys are really onto something. Playing with their stuff for a little
while was at once fun and annoying: I'd have killed to have this tech when I
was an indie iOS dev, trying to scrape by knowing nothing about server
development.

Seriously, I'd come up with cool features all the time, but have no idea how
to get started building the server components they needed. Parse abstracts all
that pain behind a few Objective-C methods that work just like all the other
frameworks I use each day. I can store arbitrary data to the cloud and
construct specific queries to pull it back down – without the mental overhead
of learning or maintaining a new stack.

It's a simple idea but it's implemented with enough clarity and flexibility
that you can accomplish a lot of neat stuff. Huge cheerleader for this team –
I think they've got a lot to offer the many mobile developers who have
ambitious projects and limited time/budget for outside server help.

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bgentry
Ok, using the "Heroku for x" analogy worked when x was another programming
language. How is this service in any way similar to Heroku?

I've read the article, seems like an interesting idea, but I just can't see
where the comparison comes from.

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div
Heroku gives you the comfort of not having to think about configuring and
maintaining the servers that run your webapp.

Parse gives you the comfort of not having to think about architecting a
server-side component for your mobile app.

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cmelbye
Basecamp gives you the comfort of not having to think about running your own
project management software.

GitHub gives you the comfort of not having to think about hosting your own git
repositories.

Doesn't _every_ Software as a Service and Platform as a Service company strive
to "give you the comfort of not having to think about" running some piece of
software on your own servers? The incessant comparisons to Heroku are just
silly now.

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juanbyrge
I'm an IOS developer, and to be honest I wouldn't use Parse (at least not
today).

1) Unless you're building a mobile client for an existing website, would you
really bother with authentication? Can't you just transparently store users
with a UDID?

2) Client-side caching is the biggest pain in IOS apps. Network calls are
relatively easy. I try to make simple/dumb calls to the backend and just do
smart filtering and data manipulation on the front end. Parse doesn't really
help here. Do they have integration with core data? They don't even seem to
mention it.

3) Some of those testimonials are hilarious, but clearly fake. Why not use
real ones?

4) You usually need a server running for a landing page, anyway.

5) No support for storing images or audio. Storing simple strings isn't that
useful.

Anyway, just my honest feedback :) Good luck!

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sadawi
Using UDIDs for authentication isn't a good idea for a serious app. Even if it
were unspoofable, devices aren't users. Users have iPhones and iPod Touches
and iPads; they upgrade; they sell devices to other users.

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juanbyrge
Let me rephrase - if I were making a game, I wouldn't bother with a username
and password. What's the point? Just ask for a nickname when entering the high
scores :)

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biot
Pricing? Free during beta is nice, but if this is $99/month after, that will
weed out weekend projects. Also, is it a per-app cost, per-user, per-company,
or something else? Per-user weeds out free apps. I like the concept, but it
doesn't make sense to use it without knowing what rough order of magnitude
cost I'm looking at when it goes live.

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lacker
We definitely don't want to weed out weekend projects or free apps. The goal
is to have a pricing model similar to Heroku's, where you pay more than you
would for a Linode box, but not a ridiculous amount more.

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stephth
Do you have an estimate for when you'll announce pricing?

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csmajorfive
not yet - but i assure you we'll do it asap!

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drcode
What I really want (and would pay money for) is something like PhoneGap but
which lets me code in HTML5 and then deploy into the Android Market and iPhone
AppStore at the push of a button, Without having to use Java/Objective C.

Why has no one provided this product yet? Do the TOS for Android Market and
AppStore make this impossible?

(To be clear: The deployment part is the part I want, the part that I don't
want to have to fuss with)

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drcode
Looks like phonegap has a beta project in the works to provide this:
<https://build.phonegap.com/>

I like the look of it!

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tluyben2
Ah! This indeed looks good. Thanks!

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adelevie
I've been following the development of Parse for the past couple months.
Really solid progress. What struck me as the coolest part of their product is
the ActiveRecord/ARel-style querying:

>ParseQuery query = new ParseQuery("GameScore"); query.whereEqualTo("foo",
"bar").whereEqualTo("baz", "biz");

The ability to stack query options like that is very Railsy. I have a feeling
that as more Rails developers focus on mobile development, they will take some
of the nicer API designs with them into the Java/Obj-C world.

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chintan100
As an iOS Developer who cant do any server side coding, this service is a
boon!

I visited both Kinvey and Parse and the one major difference i can see
straightaway is that Parse allows schema less development. From their website:

"For example, you do not need to specify any schemas before pushing data to
us. Our data API simply uses a schema-less JSON-like format."

While Kinvey lists "model your data and file requirements" as the first step
to using their service.

Of course, both the services are still in beta and post-beta pricing will also
be a major differentiator going ahead.

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mattj
This looks awesome - but I'm curious to see how much overlap this will have
with the new stuff in iOS 5 (cloud storage etc.).

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zachinglis
The guys behind this are incredibly smart. I really wish them the best of
luck.

I do agree with @biot though. Pricing needs to be better defined and there
needs to be the ability for people with side projects to be able to integrate
this without forking over $99 a month.

I feel that the much bigger users would be building their own service instead
of using Parse as it would be more economical anyway.

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RoboTeddy
Check out part of the guide: <https://www.parse.com/docs/ios_guide>

The API is simple and does exactly the sort of things you need it to do.
Awesome.

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nhangen
Looks awesome, but if I hear "A Heroku for..." about one more thing, I'm going
to flip out.

It's closer to Urban Airship than Heroku. Just because they are both YC
companies doesn't mean they have to be compared.

~~~
burke
It's a useful analogy. Heroku abstracts server configuration away from Rails
development to the point where it's (theoretically) completely unnecessary to
know /anything/ about it. If this does the same thing in a different context,
I think it's a fair comparison.

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cageface
I could definitely use something like this. I know how to do the backend
stuff. I just don't want to.

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d0m
In the doc: "score: 1337, playerName: "Sean Plott", cheatMode: false"

I see what you did there :) Are Parse guys day9 fan?

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lacker
Who isn't? I figured it was more fun than just using "John Smith" in all the
docs ;-)

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chubs
Looks fantastic. I'm personally really interested, and would like to know: *
Pricing - beta/free won't last forever! * How will this compare with using
iCloud when it comes out? I believe that icloud will provide api's for some
storage/syncing capabilities.

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csmajorfive
iCloud's data functionality so far is very user-centric and doesn't let you
store app level data. It certainly will never seamlessly work with Android and
other platforms.

We're working on pricing - stay tuned!

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dominostars
What separates you guys from Kinvey and StackMob?

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lacker
There's a lot that goes into making a product for developers. Take a look at
the APIs, and decide for yourself:

<https://www.parse.com/docs/ios_guide>

<https://github.com/stackmob/StackMob_iOS>

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sashthebash
Parse, Kinvey and StackMob are great tools if you want to read/write data such
as high scores from your app. But you won't have a nice editing interface for
the data in the web.

If Parse is "Heroku for Mobile" then StorageRoom, the startup I am working
for, is "iCloud for content".

Editors manage content in our flexible service online and data is synchronized
or pulled from mobile apps.

Different use-case, but we seem to have found another problem where many devs
complain. Existing CMS tools suck at this.

<http://storageroomapp.com>

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pixelmonkey
as the founder of Parse.ly and owner of parse.ly and parsely.com domains, I
just have to say -- that's friggen cold, dudes ;-)

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snowmaker
Parse is awesome! This is a terrific way to get a new mobile app up and
running.

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old-gregg
Congrats on the launch guys!

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cheald
Wow, I kid you not, I sat down with a friend who pitched me this exact idea
yesterday.

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sahillavingia
There is a large gap between pitching an idea, and executing on it well.

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cheald
Absolutely. It's just sort of deflating to see the exact idea you were talking
about 24 hours prior pop up on Techcrunch. _grin_

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dwynings
And pop up not only once, but twice.

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cynusx
Can I query the data gathered by mobile devices with a web-application?

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lacker
It's possible, but not yet as easy as it should be. We're working on a really
nice way to do this for an upcoming release.

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omaranto
I realize that names of companies or services don't have to be descriptive but
surely it's a good idea for them not to describe perfectly something
completely different...

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lacker
It's not _completely_ different. In a literal sense, if you use Parse, you
don't have to parse JSON or XML in your mobile app. And in a general sense, we
think of "parsing" as taking a big messy problem and making it simple.

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scopendo
Will Parse provide offline support? I saw sync mentioned, but it seemed to be
more with respect to syncing multiple devices by virtue of a common web-based
datastore.

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pwim
It seems more like Google App Engine than Heroku, in that by using this
service, you are tied to Parse's infrastructure and can't easily change.

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khangtoh
How much did they spent on the domain name? Just curious.

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jackwagon
Appears to be $50k

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csmajorfive
nope :-)

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Hisoka
Not sure how useful this will be. Synching and authorization are very specific
to each app.

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danilocampos
I had a similar reaction when I first heard about it, but quickly realized
it's definitely capable of offering a lot more than that.

Parse is like an envelope labeled "Instant Server Guy – Just Add Water." If
you need your app to be able to create/query/display remote data between
users, damn, you've got a huge head-start just by dropping in their code.

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lacker
_Parse is like an envelope labeled "Instant Server Guy – Just Add Water."_

Danilo, you are a quote machine ;-)

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danilocampos
Haha, glad to be of service. I get excited about stuff I like.

