Is the Parse SDK worth it? (cost-effective?)
I'm creating an iOS app that uses remote databases, sessions (login/registration), server side code, and push notifications.
I found this SDK called Parse that handles all of the server stuff like hosting, the database, cloud code, push notifications, sessions, etc... (so pretty much everything I need to do)
Is Parse SDK worth using (cost-wise) in general?
NOTE - FTR, PARSE HAVE TOTALLY CHANGED THEIR PRICING PLANS (5/2014)
these are the old plans...
- With the free version, you get 1 million requests a month (I'm guessing this means requests to the database?), 1 million pushes a month, and the burst limit is 20/second.
- The next version up costs $199/month, you get 15 million requests a month, 5 million pushes, and the burst limit is 40/second.
Do you think it will pay for itself if goes over 1 million requests / month, and I have to pay for the $199/month version? What if I plan on making money with my app via ads, will it earn enough?
Let's say every person accesses the database 5 times a day, that's 150 times a month, that means it will take 6,666 people until I have to upgrade. On average, will ads pay for the $199/month if I have that many people viewing the ads a day? (also, take into account that Parse is taking care of security, the cost of the servers, and maintenance)
Another thing to consider is, how difficult/costly is it to create (and maintain):
- Server side code
- Database management and security
- Push notifications
- Set up a host
- Session management and security
Will the robustness, security, and ease of maintainability when using Parse will help pay for itself?
Thanks!
Answer
As someone who has looked into this before, to see if its "worth it" it depends on a few things. And i have a few questions followed by some answers if these are your cases.
Does your app cost? If not then look at how you are going to make the money, will you cover the expenses? I Imagine even with advertising only on a free app you will be making enough money to cover the expenses. If you start to have "too many" requests.. that's a GOOD thing! it means you have a lot of users or active users which in an advertising sense, is good. Or even in a paid app sense.
Does your app have a bunch of requests operations? For example, in my app we have a chat system, obviously that's going to be a heavy load on requests. Take that into consideration
Are you in a hurry to develop? If your in a hurry, obviously go with Parse, they handle a lot of great things for you and is a really amazing product. fast secure and reliable.
So if you're in a hurry, and are expecting users. Then go for it! Even if you don't get users, you can always go with Parse Free and when you reach your limits with Parse Free, you should have enough users to start paying and upgrading your services.
Also, paying for server maintenance is no joke. The only reason we do not use parse, is because of the fact that we like to have control. And even Parse is giving you more and more control each release.
Once Push Notifications have been implemented and are being used, there's really no maintenance after that.