avatarNuno Bispo

Summary

The website content provides an overview of the top four open-source Backend as a Service (BaaS) platforms: Supabase, Parse, Appwrite, and Strapi, detailing their features, availability, and pricing.

Abstract

The article introduces developers to four leading open-source BaaS platforms that can simplify the backend development process for web and mobile applications. Supabase, positioned as an open-source alternative to Firebase, offers a hosted Postgres database, real-time subscriptions, and a dashboard, with pricing plans ranging from free to pay-as-you-go. Parse, known as a complete application stack, provides a self-hosted solution with features like REST API, social login, and user management, and is supported by commercial services like Back4App. Appwrite focuses on security and offers a MariaDB database, storage, and functions, with a console UI for project management. Strapi, an open-source headless CMS, emphasizes its JavaScript foundation, multi-database support, and customizable APIs through GraphQL or RESTful interfaces. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of open-source solutions for maintaining data security and privacy while reducing the burden of backend maintenance.

Opinions

  • The author suggests that developers should not have to bear the additional load of creating and maintaining a backend service, advocating for the use of open-source BaaS solutions.
  • Supabase is endorsed as a viable open-source alternative to Firebase, with a nod to its enterprise-grade tools and flexible hosting options.
  • Parse is highlighted for its comprehensive out-of-the-box features and the community support it receives, including the Parse Dashboard for project management.
  • Appwrite is recognized for its security-focused approach and the potential for future enterprise plans following its successful seed funding round.
  • Strapi is praised for its developer-friendly features, such as full customizability, webhooks, and auto-generated documentation, positioning it as an advanced headless CMS.
  • The article implies that the trend towards open-source backend solutions is beneficial for the development community, providing both convenience and control over data and privacy.

Top 4 Open Source BaaS platforms

When building a web or mobile application, most of the time you need a backend to handle data storage and authentication, let’s see the best open source solutions for a BaaS.

Parse Logo is one of the open-source BaaS

What is a BaaS?

Let’s start with some basic concepts, what is a web or mobile application backend?

Most applications today use and need to access some data to provide services, which means that that need a way to access and store that data. Besides that, they also need to provide security so that the stored information is not accessible by the wrong actors.

The backend is the infrastructure that supports a web application (or mobile) and provides several services, like authentication, data storage, or the ability to execute code on the cloud.

BaaS, Backend as a Service is a cloud backend infrastructure that provides all the backend services with simple-to-use interfaces and modules, using API calls or different framework plugins.

Supabase

Supabase claims to be the open-source Firebase alternative and they are building the features of Firebase using enterprise-grade open source tools.

It is available in self-hosted and cloud-hosted versions.

Pricing starts at $0, and there are plans at $25 (Pro) and $25 + usage (Pay as you go). All features all available in all plans with different limits.

The cloud-hosted version provides a Dashboard for ease of configuring the projects.

They provide official libraries for JavaScript but there are community libraries for React, Vue, NextJS, and more.

Main features:

  • Hosted Postgres Database
  • Realtime subscriptions
  • Authentication and authorization
  • Auto-generated APIs
  • Dashboard
  • Storage
  • Functions (coming soon)

Parse

Parse platform claims to be the Complete Application Stack and that you can build applications faster with object storage and file storage, user authentication, push notifications, dashboard, and more out of the box.

It is only available as a self-hosted version, although there are commercial services build around it like Back4App.

As such, there are no paid plans directly available from Parse.

There is also a Parse Dashboard to manage your projects.

They provide libraries for iOS, Android, JavaScript, and many more, even including Arduino.

Main features:

  • REST API
  • Automatic Emails
  • Social Login
  • Cron Jobs
  • WebHooks
  • Config Parameters
  • ACLs and CLPs
  • User Management
  • Geo Queries

Appwrite

AppWrite claims to be a secure open-source backend server for Web, Mobile & Flutter developers that provides a set of easy-to-use and integrated REST APIs to manage their core backend needs.

It is only available as a self-hosted version.

As such, there are no paid plans directly available from AppWrite, although they have completed a $10M seed fund, so enterprise plans might be expected in the future.

There is a Console UI to manage all your project needs.

They provide libraries for JavaScript, Flutter, Swift, Android, and many more.

Main features:

  • MariaDB Database
  • Storage
  • User Authentication
  • Geo & Localization
  • Functions

Strapi

Strapi claims that you can design APIs fast and manage content easily with an open-source headless CMS that is 100% JavaScript, fully customizable, and developer-first.

It is available in self-hosted and cloud-hosted versions, although the cloud hosting packages are provided by partners and not by Strapi, at least not yet, they do have that feature in the pipeline.

As such, there are no paid plans directly available from Strapi.

You can manage your projects from the provided Dashboard.

There are libraries for React, Angular, NextJS, and more.

Main features:

  • Multi-database support
  • GraphQL or RESTful
  • 100% JavaScript
  • Webhooks
  • Auto-generated documentation
  • Authentication & Permissions

Conclusion

Creating a web application or a mobile application is already a big task. A lot of importance nowadays is given to the user interface and its usability.

For developers, there is no need to add to that an additional load of creating and maintaining a backend service for those applications.

Fortunately, the world of open source provides us with solutions that can be self-hosted, allowing us to maintain a high level of data security and privacy.

For other topics, you can also check out some of my other stories:

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevAsService

Check out my website at: https://developer-service.io/

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Technology
Programming
Backend
API
Development
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