Let's discuss around BaaS ecosystem. Why we need, when to use, what are the options, and how they are comparing.
🎉 Feel free to do some casual discussion and QA (question/answer)
Why we need it and when to use it?
- Frontend and backend are well differentiated.
- Experimentation for new projects/products/features.
- Limitation factors related to business as well.
- Team of developers, so need to maximize team effort. Want to outsource cloud infrastructure management to the most experienced.
- Timeline, so need to speed up backend development. Reduce time to market.
- Budget, so need to cut cost. Save money and decrease the cost of development.
- Need a lot of backend features quickly.
- Database management
- Hosting and deployment
- User authentication and authorization
- Email verification
- Files/assets storage
- Push notifications
- Serverless function
- Geolocation
- Security settings
- Social account integration
- REST API or GraphQL API
- SDK (software development kit) for various platforms
- JavaScript
- Java
- Ruby
- Python
- Golang
- PHP
- Trade-offs
- 3rd party code and responsibility
- Vendor lock-in
- Unexpected long term cost
What is exactly a BaaS?
- Backend that we can use immediately without any prior development.
- Can expose the REST API or GraphQL.
- Can be cloud-hosted (available instantly) or self-hosted (usually open source or on-premise).
- Comparable to Headless CMS (Content Management System).
- Can be categorized as low-code and no-code.
- https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/serverless/glossary/backend-as-a-service-baas
- https://blog.back4app.com/backend-as-a-service-baas
- https://www.okta.com/identity-101/baas-backend-as-a-service
- https://bejamas.io/discovery/headless-cms
Evaluating most popular BaaS options.
- Firebase
- Supabase
- Nhost
- Strapi
- Payload CMS
- Hygraph
- AWS Amplify
- Backendless
- back4app
- Pocketbase
- Kontenbase
- Kontenbase v1
- Kontenbase v2 preview / Microgen v3
- How is it different with PaaS (Platform as a Service)