Parse (YC S11): A Heroku For Mobile Apps

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.<p>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.<p>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.

Ok, using the "Heroku for x" analogy worked when x was another programming language. How is this service in any way similar to Heroku?<p>I've read the article, seems like an interesting idea, but I just can't see where the comparison comes from.

I'm an IOS developer, and to be honest I wouldn't use Parse (at least not today).<p>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?<p>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.<p>3) Some of those testimonials are hilarious, but clearly fake. Why not use real ones?<p>4) You usually need a server running for a landing page, anyway.<p>5) No support for storing images or audio. Storing simple strings isn't that useful.<p>Anyway, just my honest feedback :) Good luck!

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.

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.<p>Why has no one provided this product yet? Do the TOS for Android Market and AppStore make this impossible?<p>(To be clear: The deployment part is the part I want, the part that I don't want to have to fuss with)

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:<p>&#62;ParseQuery query = new ParseQuery("GameScore"); query.whereEqualTo("foo", "bar").whereEqualTo("baz", "biz");<p>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.

As an iOS Developer who cant do any server side coding, this service is a boon!<p>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:<p>"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."<p>While Kinvey lists "model your data and file requirements" as the first step to using their service.<p>Of course, both the services are still in beta and post-beta pricing will also be a major differentiator going ahead.

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.).

The guys behind this are incredibly smart. I really wish them the best of luck.<p>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.<p>I feel that the much bigger users would be building their own service instead of using Parse as it would be more economical anyway.

Check out part of the guide: <a href="https://www.parse.com/docs/ios_guide" rel="nofollow">https://www.parse.com/docs/ios_guide</a><p>The API is simple and does exactly the sort of things you need it to do. Awesome.

Looks awesome, but if I hear "A Heroku for..." about one more thing, I'm going to flip out.<p>It's closer to Urban Airship than Heroku. Just because they are both YC companies doesn't mean they have to be compared.

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

In the doc: "score: 1337, playerName: "Sean Plott", cheatMode: false"<p>I see what you did there :) Are Parse guys day9 fan?

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.

What separates you guys from Kinvey and StackMob?

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 ;-)

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

Congrats on the launch guys!

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

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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