Self-hosting comes in two flavors:

These are BaaS providers who have leveraged the open-source Parse Server to create Parse.com-like services. Some of the providers in this category are back4app, ParseGround (now called SashiDo) and Oursky Parse Hosting to mention just a few.

Undoubtedly, this category of Parse.com alternatives will be attractive to most of the users who chose Parse.com in the first place because of its ease of use, rich feature set and/or intuitive dashboard. Although Parse Server is not a clone of Parse.com, it is quite similar in terms of features and even has some new features like live queries which were not present in Parse.com. As such Parse Server is definitely an alternative worth considering!

As already mentioned above, there are several providers in this category. If you take this route, you’ll need to choose one of them. While there is no silver bullet or crystal ball to help you make that choice, I’ll highlight important aspect that you must take into consideration while choosing your Parse.com replacement. But first, let’s consider the third category of Parse.com alternatives.

Shortly after Parse.com announced the imminent shutdown, various lists of alternatives appeared on the Internet.
Consider, for example, this list of 100 or more alternatives to Parse.com. (Note that the list also includes alternatives from the other two categories.)

While Parse.com offered a rich feature set, it was not ideal for all use cases. For example, Parse.com was (and by extension Parse Server is) not suited for real-time messaging. If you’re one of those who found Parse’s offering insufficient for your use case, then this is a good time to consider other MBaaS options that could better meet your needs including the possibility of an in-house custom solution. While you’re at it though, watch out for signs of vendor lock-in and do not be fooled by false assurances that a particular MBaaS is reliable simply because it is backed up by a big company. If Facebook pulled the plugs on Parse, any of those big-company-backed solutions can face the same fate! That’s the reality.

The rest of this article will focus on the first two categories (i.e. self-hosting and Parse Server hosting providers).

Most self-hosting Parse migration guides display a “Deploy on <PaaS>” button. While this might help you through the initial migration, it is only the tip of the iceberg! Self-hosting requires non-trivial investment of time and resources; it requires a certain degree of technical competence and could be quite expensive in the long run.

On the other hand, self-hosting offers you maximum flexibility from choice of database to Parse server version (remember that Parse Server is still in active development so there are regular updates, bug fixes, etc.). Furthermore, you can add new functionality that is not (yet) available in Parse Server.

If you’re considering self-hosting, be sure to give yourself convincing answers to questions like:

If you cannot provide satisfactory answers to questions like the ones above, self-hosting is likely not for you. Instead, consider a Parse Server hosting provider that will handle the hosting for you, allowing you to focus on making great apps. That was the power of Parse.com – “focus on your apps and we’ll take care of the rest”. And it remains a strong value proposition.

This is particularly relevant if you choose for the Parse Server hosting category. Parse Server and Parse Dashboard are open source so you might be wondering why vendor lock-in is a potential issue. Let me explain.

Parse Server was open sourced with a BSD license model. While I’m not a software licensing expert, my understanding of this license is that it allows users to modify the source without releasing such modifications. Sooner or later, Parse Server hosting providers will begin to add their own features and I can bet you that not all of them will be willing to contribute back to the open source Parse Server. Every feature from a Parse Server hosting provider that is not present in the open source Parse Server is a potential lock-in! Think of what will happen if your new provider shuts down. Obviously, Parse Server will remain open source so there will be alternative providers. However, you’ll be stuck with those custom features that are no longer supported.

Other possible symptoms of potential vendor lock-in are unclear terms and conditions with regard to your data and migration in the event of a shutdown. Let’s be frank: Parse.com has provided a decent migration plan and, as far as I can tell, they’re doing their best to support us through the process. Your next provider should be able to commit upfront to something similar or better in case the undesirable happens.

Moreover, you’d be much better off with a Parse Server hosting provider that is actively involved in adding features and fixing bugs in the open source Parse Server repository over one that just promises to occasionally give back with no evidence whatsoever.

As the adage goes “Once bitten, twice shy!” With the unprecedented shutdown of Parse.com, you definitely do
not want to migrate your apps only to face another shutdown. So be careful with very attractive freemium offers.
One of my college professors often reminded us that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and I think he was right.

Although the announcement of Parse.com’s shutdown didn’t
provide details of why Facebook pulled the plugs, the main reason is apparently $$$ as explained in
this New York Times article
which, remarkably, was termed by Parse.com’s CEO, as
“pretty accurate”.
You might also find
this article
on the dangers and benefits of the freemium model interesting.

With the release of the open source Parse Server, one would expect that the Parse.com code was cleaned up
and open sourced. However, that is definitely not the case. While Parse Server has strong similarities to Parse.com,
it is only a look-alike and not a clone as clearly indicated in
this discussion involving Parse.com engineers.

So bear in mind that there are difference some of which are listed on the Parse Server
wiki. If your app relies
heavily on any of those features (e.g. background jobs or push notification support for Windows Phone), then Parse Server as-is does not (yet) meet your needs. The good news is that, now that it’s open source, you can (and should) contribute to making Parse Server better. You don’t have to wait until someone else builds it; you can make Parse Server richer by contributing new features! Alternatively, you could look for other ways to realize the missing functionality. Going back to the background jobs example, you could find other means to schedule background jobs or use a Parse Server provider like back4app which already implements that feature. Similarly, you could consider a separate service for multi-platform push notifications which can later be integrated with Parse Server via the
PushAdapter mechanism.

Another implication of the fact that Parse Server is not a clone of Parse.com is that there could be bugs and other issues that make it unfit for production especially for more complex apps, at least for the time being. While it is difficult to assess how production-ready Parse Server currently is, this
somewhat outdated discussion might provide some insights.

With the migration from Parse.com to Parse Server, you have to release a new version of your apps with at least the Parse endpoint changed from api.parse.com to whatever endpoint you’ll be using. While you’re at it, make sure to enrich your app with the intelligence of being able to dynamically switch to a new backend should the need ever arise in the future. In that way, you’ll have one thing less to worry about if the undesirable happens with your next provider. This is just one way you can make your apps future-proof.