BaaS Providers — 20 Backend Platforms
This blog post contains a list with 20 backend as a service providers. We will cover open-source and proprietary frameworks, the hosting options will vary from SaaS cloud services to on-premises deployment for enterprise customers, and the support options will go from no support to 24/07 dedicated support teams.
Ready to know more about the best BaaS providers? Please continue reading.
What is a BaaS?
Backing up data, having redundant servers, and thinking about scalability are time-consuming and resource-intensive tasks. Using a backend as a service will allow you to outsource server-side management, automate boilerplate coding, and let you focus on creating amazing user experiences on your mobile app.
BaaS Providers
Here is a detailed list of backend as a service providers.
Back4App
Overview: Back4App product is based on several open-source technologies including, NodeJS, Parse Server. It is an open-source backend that supports developers creating scalable apps without reinventing the wheel.
Company Location: Headquarters in California and engineering office in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Customers: Accenture, Embraer, El Pais. More customers available on the website.
Free Plan: Yes
Pricing: Starts at $5/month.
Features: data model, REST and GraphQL APIs, non-technical administration panel, cloud functions, login, authentication, reset the password, push-notifications, CLI, data backup, multiple SDKs,
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: Yes. Private cloud and on-premises options available.
Technical Documentation: Yes
Support Services: 24/07 support available.
Professional Services: Consulting, solutions architect, and enterprise plans.
Remarks: GDPR privacy settings available.
Parse
Overview: Parse is a backend framework that is used to accelerate mobile app development. Facebook open-sourced the technology in 2016, and the source code is available for download at GitHub Parse Server repository.
Company Location: N/A. A large developer community supports the framework.
Customers: Not specified on the website.
Free Plan: Yes
Pricing: The framework is completely free. Only self-hosting options are available.
Features: JSON type data management console, social-login (Facebook, Twitter, Apple, WeChat, GitHub, Google, etc.), password rest, push-notifications, SDKs (Javascript, iOS, Android, GraphQL, Rest, etc.), file storage connector to AWS.
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: No
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: No
Technical Documentation: Yes. Detailed docs, guides, and videos available.
Support Services: No
Professional Services: No
Remarks: The framework has more than 16k stars and 4k forks on Github.
Backendless
Overview: General-purpose mobile application development platform. It has four pillars that are a BaaS framework, a web hosting service, an API generation engine, and a services marketplace.
Company Location: Dallas, Texas, USA.
Customers: World Vision, Repo Cyber, Window Nation. More customers available on the website.
Free Plan: Yes
Pricing: 3 pricing tiers available. Free, cloud, limitless, and fully managed. Pricing starts at $15/month.
Features: database, caching, cloud code, codeless, geolocation, logging, messaging, real-time database, security, user management.
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: Yes
Technical Documentation: Yes. Detailed tutorials, guides, and videos available.
Support Services: Yes
Professional Services: Yes. Consulting services are available.
Remarks: The company has a marketplace with Stripe and AWS plugins.
Kinvey
Overview: Enterprise oriented backend as a service. Progress Software acquired Kinvey in 2017, and the company is now part of this large organization.
Free Plan: Free trial available.
Pricing: Not found on the website.
Features: UI builder, connected templates, code sharing between web/mobile, chatbots, AI/ML, serverless backend, microservices, and functions.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: Yes
Technical Documentation: Yes. Detailed docs, guides, and videos available.
Support Services: Yes
Professional Services: Yes
Remarks: Built-in compliance for HIPAA.
AWS Amplify
Overview: That is another value-added service provided by Amazon Web Services. AWS Amplify is a JavaScript library for frontend and mobile developers building cloud-enabled applications.
Location: AWS has offices in several locations around the world. Headquarters located in Seattle, USA.
Free Plan: No.
Pricing: Pay as you go.
Features:
Open Source: Yes.
Downloadable: Yes.
Cloud-Hosting: Yes.
Self-Hosting: Yes. It’s possible to download the source code on GitHub and run the framework on your server.
Dedicated Servers: Yes.
Technical Documentation: Extensive and detailed tutorials available.
Support Services: Developer, Business, Enterprise.
Professional Services: No
Remarks: The framework integrates with AWS cloud (pre-built configuration).
Firebase
Overview: Firebase is a mobile/web development suite with endless possibilities. Let developers create server-free apps or push notifications on your users’ smartphones in a simple, secure, and scalable way. Among all the options of Firebase, they are most known by their Realtime Database.
Location: Firebase is a Google company, and locates in California.
Free Plan: Yes
Pricing: Flame Plan –> $25 per month, Blaze Plan → Pay as you go.
Features: Firebase is feature-rich, and the main features include realtime database, firestore, storage, cloud functions, phone authentication, hosting, ML kit.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: No
Dedicated Servers: No
Technical Documentation: Yes. Detailed docs, guides, and videos available.
Support Services: Yes. Support case submission.
Professional Services: No
Remarks: Does not offer enterprise plans or private clouds.
Game Sparks
Overview: That is another company owned by AWS. It’s a backend as a service focused on games.
Free Plan: Yes
Pricing: Standard plan starts at $299/month, enterprise plans under quotation.
Features: Social multiplayer, metagame economies, custom back office, scaling, player management, segmentation, analytics, marketing automation, live events, leader boards, real-time multiplayer, matchmaking, teams, chat, currencies, virtual goods, A/B testing, achievement systems, roles, permissions, notifications, messaging, authentication, multiple integrations
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: No
Dedicated Servers: Yes
Technical Documentation: Extensive and detailed tutorials available.
Support Services: Online ticket support
Professional Services: No
Remarks: No remarks.
Cloudboost
Overview: Supports developers building web and mobile apps that scale with a realtime Javascript backend.
Company Location: Cloudboost is part of Hackerbay that locates in Boston, MA.
Customers: Sony, Coca-Cola, Adobe. More customers available on the website.
Free Plan: Free trial is available for 30 days.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $93/month.
Features: data storage, files, search, real-time apps, authentication.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes, for enterprise plans.
Dedicated Servers: Yes, for enterprise plans.
Technical Documentation: Extensive and detailed tutorials available.
Support Services: Support plans are available. The basic plan covers email support with two days SLA; enterprise plans provide 24/07 support coverage. In between plans available on their website.
Kuzzle
Overview: Kuzzle is a ready-to-use backend solution you can host on your infrastructure. The platform powers and unify innovative applications for web, mobile & IoT
Company Location: Offices in France, UK, and Canada.
Customers: Biogen, QWant, EKO. More customers available on the website.
Free Plan: Free plans available.
Pricing: Managed cloud edition starts at $1,200/month.
Features: Authentication, real-time database, advanced search, geofencing, admin console.
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: Yes.
Technical Documentation: Online docs available.
Support Services: Pricing for support starts at $2,400/month. Community support available for free.
Professional Services: Training, consulting, and proof of concept services available.
Hoodie
Overview: The platform helps you making web application development very fast, easy, and accessible.
Free Plan: Yes.
Pricing: Only download is available.
Features: The main feature is the offline first backend. Other features like sign-up, data storage, synchronization, shares, emails are available via plugins.
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: No
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: No
Technical Documentation: Documentation available.
Support Services: No
Professional Services: No
Kumulos
Overview: It is a secure, easy to use mobile app management platform is trusted by thousands of app developers all across the globe. Kumulos focus their strategy in supporting app development agencies.
Location: Offices in North Carolina and the UK.
Customers: Waracle, NS804, Ciber. For more customers, please check the website.
Free Plan: Free trial available.
Pricing: Information not available on the website.
Features: Push-notifications, in-app messages, crash reporting, SEO, cloud hosting.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Information not available on the website.
Dedicated Servers: Information not available on the website.
Technical Documentation: Documentation available.
Support Services: Yes. Email, community, technical training, user training, dedicated Slack channel.
Remarks: The platform is built for mobile app agencies.
PlayFab
Overview: Microsoft acquired the company in 2018, and PlayFab is part of Microsoft. That is a backend as a service focused in game development, and they provide a complete backend platform for live games.
Free Plan: Yes. Free plans with limited features are available.
Pricing: Indie Studio –> $99/month Professional –> $299/month
Features: Game services (multi-player, responsive matchmaking), real-time analytics (dashboards, full-text search, engagement reports), liveops (manage game config, schedule tasks, custom email templates, trigger actions), add-ons (game distribution platforms, analytics, multiplayer, monetization).
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Not specified on the website.
Dedicated Servers: Not specified on the website.
Technical Documentation: Yes
Support Services: Yes. The Indie Studio plan has dedicated support. Professional plan has dedicated support + SLA agreement.
Professional Services: No
Remarks: Enterprise plans are available under quotation.
Appcelerator
Overview: A mobile enterprise platform to deliver native apps, mobilize data, and measure success with real-time analytics.
Location: Appcelerator is part of AxWay. Headquarters AxWayof are in Phoenix, USA. Appcelerator located out of San Jose, CA.
Customers: Avis, Cisco, VMWare. Other clients are available on the website.
Free Plan: Free plan available.
Pricing: Indie (Free), Pro ($199), Enterprise (under quotation)
Features: IDE, App Designer, Hyperloop, Dashboard, API Builder, Push-Notifications
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: No
Technical Documentation: Technical tutorials available.
Support Services: Support services are available.
Professional Services: Available under quotation on the enterprise plans.
Pubnub
Overview: Backend company that allows developers to create chats, live-notifications, and device control applications.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Customers: DocuSign, Adobe, Logitech. Other clients are available in the website.
Free Plan: Free up to 1 million transactions per month.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $49 per month.
Features: Pub/Sub messaging (iOS, Android, and IoT), Functions (business logic and device state), Push-Notifications, on-line status, and real-time visibility.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: No
Dedicated Servers: No
Technical Documentation: Yes. Extensive documentation is available.
Support Services: 3 types of support plans available. GOLD at $500/month, Platinum at $1,500/month and Enterprise at $5000/month. The range of services goes from email support to a dedicated support agent.
Professional Services: Information not available.
Remarks: No remarks.
Deployed
Overview: Open-source platform (API engine) to build APIs. It helps developers speeding up API creation and avoiding boilerplate coding code.
Free Plan: Yes. Deployed is an open-source framework, and it is completely free to download.
Pricing: Not applicable.
Features: API engine, create user collections, authenticate users, etc.
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: Not available
Self-Hosting: Yes. You can download the framework and install it wherever you want.
Dedicated Servers: Yes. You can download the framework and install it wherever you want.
Technical Documentation: Yes.
Support Services: Support services are not available.
Professional Services: Profesional services are not available.
Remarks: No remarks
Azure Mobile Apps
Overview: Microsoft’s backend as a service platform. Allow users engaging mobile apps fast. Use the Mobile Apps feature of Azure App Service to rapidly build engaging cross-platform and native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, or Mac
Free Plan: Free trial available.
Pricing: Pay as you go
Features: .NET/PHP/Java/HTML apps available, CLI, create mobile-first service, authentication, push-notifications, store and retrieve data, IDE integration.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: At Azure
Dedicated Servers: At Azure
Technical Documentation: Technical documentation available.
Support Services: Yes.
Remarks: The platform integrates with Azure Cloud.
Kii
Overview: Backend as a service for IoT applications.
Features: user management, sensor-cloud-interactions, data management, device management, push-notifications, geolocation.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: Yes
Technical Documentation: Technical docs available.
Support Services: Yes.
Remarks: Public and private cloud deployment available.
CloudKit
Overview: That is Apple’s backend as a service. The service works in an integrated way with Xcode. You can sync data across devices, store application data, sync data between multiple apps, authenticate via iCloud, send notifications.
Free Plan: Free plan available up to 1PB for each app.
Pricing: Pay as you go above free limits.
Features: Automated syncing, simple sharing, analytics dashboard.
Open Source: No
Downloadable: No
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: No
Dedicated Servers: No
Technical Documentation: Yes.
Support Services: Yes
Remarks: Works with Apple products only.
Couchbase
Overview: Couchbase is the NoSQL database for business-critical applications.
Location: The company is located in Santa Clara, CA.
Customers: Include companies like Amadeus, Cisco, Ebay, and others.
Free Plan: Yes.
Pricing: Under request
Features: Query, analytics, full-text, search, SDKs, eventing
Open Source: Yes
Downloadable: Yes
Cloud-Hosting: Yes
Self-Hosting: Yes
Dedicated Servers: Info not available
Technical Documentation: Detailed documentation available.
Support Services: Yes
MongoDB Sticth
Overview: Serverless platform for MongoDB
Free Plan: Free up to 25GB download per month
Pricing: Pay as you go above 25GB download per month
Features: Serverless hosting, functions, triggers, rules, static hosting, SDKs, logging, debugging, CLI
Open Source: Yes (MongoDB)
Downloadable: Yes (MongoDB)
Cloud-Hosting: Yes (MongoDB)
Self-Hosting: Yes (MongoDB)
Dedicated Servers: Information not found
Technical Documentation: Detailed documentation available
Support Services: Yes
Remarks: Integrates with MongoDB Atlas
Would you like to know more about the Backend as a Service market and companies? Please check the following tutorials.
Originally published at https://blog.back4app.com on September 30, 2019.