by Sam Galizia

Why I Mourn the Death of Parse

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Old Train Graveyard

In the past few days, most of you have probably heard of the tragic news involving Parse. If you have not, let me get you up to speed with what’s happening.

On January 28th, Parse released an official letter stating that they were going to be winding down their services, and will officially shut them down one year from now.

This news came as a complete shock to everyone, because they had just released major Apple Watch and Apple TV SDKs last month.

Now I know what you are thinking, “How can you be mourning the death of a service that isn’t dead yet.” Let me put it this way: the service may still be alive for the moment, but it has one foot in the grave, and every passing day it gets one step closer to being 6 feet under.

Why is Parse Such a Big Deal?

First, Parse is a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) that helps newer developers — and those who don’t have the know-how to build a back end from nothing

Parse and other back end services provide an easy-to-use platform for mobile and web developers to focus on building their front end without having to worry about their back end.

In most cases, the back end service is cross platform, and easily allows access to the same information, regardless of device and platform.

The second reason Parse is a big deal is that it was the first tool many mobile developers used for their back end, and some still use it.

My first experiences with Parse was that it was pretty easy to set up, and the documentation was great. It honestly didn’t take more than 5 minutes to get my project up and running.

The third reason Parse is a big deal is that it was by far one of the biggest BaaS out there, and a lot of App Store and Play Store apps still rely on Parse. This means that a bunch of production apps now have to find a different service to host their data — or they have to build their own back end.

Having to build your own back end is a bigger deal for smaller studios and individuals who don’t have the know-how or funds to achieve this.

To people who have made a back end before, or have the drive and resources to accomplish this, it is not such a big deal. For newer developers who were still learning how to put together the front end of an app, this is a huge deal. The scope of what a person needs to learn suddenly doubles in size when you have to create your own back end.

Luckily there are other services out there, like Firebase, that can help achieve the same results as using Parse. Even then, moving apps that are already in production from one BaaS to another is a lot of unwanted work.

To Parse’s credit, they’ve built a migration tool that will make it easier to move to another BaaS. They’ve also open-sourced the Parse server itself, and you can run your own instance of it in the cloud with Node.js.

Why is Parse Being Shut Down?

Well that is a really good question. Honestly, no one outside the company or Facebook knows for sure. When they made their announcement that they were going to start winding down their services, all they said was that they needed to put their resources elsewhere.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg evangelizing Parse.

Parse was acquired by Facebook in 2013, and has continued running strong since. Facebook’s decision to shut down Parse is surprising, as it was Facebook’s major play in the mobile app field.

Because Facebook doesn’t have their own operating system — like Google and Apple do — Parse was a way for Facebook to really get into the mobile app market and establish themselves. Obviously Facebook has their own mobile app, ad service, and authentication service, but Parse opened up the rest of the market for them.

Why I Mourn the Loss of Parse

Personally, I am sad to see Parse go, because I have apps that were still being developed that relied heavily on Parse. For me, it will be easier to transfer over to another service and start over. But I wish I didn’t have too.

Parse was a familiar tool and something that I was getting rather adept at using. Starting over means learning a whole new platform which takes time and resources to accomplish, effectively lengthening the process of launching the app.

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Goodbye Old Friend

The image of the old train is represents to me how many companies end up in tech. At one point, they are a shiny locomotive built with a state-of-the-art steam engine inside. And then — before you know it — they are sitting in an abandoned cemetery, slowly rusting away.

Now I know this article was rather dramatic, but I did really enjoy using Parse and I am actually sad to see it go. I wish all the engineers and staff the best, and I hope they can bring us another great service sometime in the future!

R.I.P Parse.