Modern applications is a combination of a variety of features and services, including push notifications, APIs, analytics, authentication, and many more. mBaaS give developers access to tools that they can use to optimize apps and don’t need to re-write these features from scratch.
Mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS) offers developers with a way to connect their applications to backend cloud database and storage while also providing important features such as user management, push notifications, and integration with social networking services. These services come with their own Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to help web and mobile developers quickly connect their products with their services.
This article compiles a list of the best BaaS providers for developers to quickly browse through and choose the most suitable for their own apps or webs.
Each Backend-as-a-Service provider has an own set of pros and cons. Choosing a suitable provider for your business will depend on several factors.
If you know a good BaaS, please comment below so I can add it to this list.
Table of Contents
Top 15 mBaaS Providers
Firebase
Firebase has gone through a few major changes since it was acquired by Google. Most of its services are available for free. There are, of course, a few premium features as well – hosting functions or databases. If you have no experience at all, Google has made this mBaaS super easy to understand.
Amazon AWS
AWS Mobile Hub offers developer with variety of tools to easily add and configure features for mobile apps. Those features are user authentication, backend logic, data storage, content delivery, push notifications and analytics; they are divided into different services which are Amazon Mobile Analytics, Amazon Cognito, Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Lambda, AWS Device Farm and Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). These services are priced separately based on usage. Each service has a free tier available.
Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform allows you to build, test, and deploy apps on Google’s scalable and reliable infrastructure. Its cloud platform offers all necessary cloud products and services for compute, networking, storage, machine learning, big data, operations, and more. Each of the platform’s service has a different price.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure whcih allows developers to build, deploy, and manage applications and services through Microsoft’s data centers. You can run Windows and Linux based applications in 30 Azure datacenter regions. Azure supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks. It has a calculator to help developers determien monthly cost based on used services.
Back4App
Back4App is based on an open source software and super easy to use – little to no experience required. It is scalable and grows along with your applications. It supports dozens of thousands of apps and it is quite common among Parse developers because of its features. Pricing packages can be customized too.
Azure Mobile Apps
Running under Microsoft, Azure Mobile Apps will surprise you with its proprietary tools and services. There are more features to make your life easier, but more importantly, you have push notifications, databases and authentication functions. It is pretty straightforward as well.
Sencha
Sencha is mostly about mobile web development, yet its capabilities go further than that. The UI for apps is similar to the UI used by the respective device. It represents a mix of HTML5 and CSS3. Its primary role is to come up with HTML5 based applications that work with most operating systems.
Kinvey
Kinvey is suitable for a plethora of platforms. It runs flawlessly with Xamarin, Android, iOS and others. It is just as handy for HTML5. The mBaaS provides is available for free and comes with features like authentication, encryption, cloud caching, data modeling and store and so on.
Kinvey offers a complete BaaS service which powers entire businesses and important apps. Kinvey is trusted by many large enterprises, agencies and technology partners. Kinvey helps developer to start developing immediately with its tools and agile delivery model. Developer can switch from development to production with no useless code.
Parse
Parse is one of the most popular mBaaS provides out there. Owned by Facebook now, it became open source in 2016 due to Facebook not being able to keep it running. It has gained an impressive community around it, so you can find loads of tutorials and guides on how to use it for maximum efficiency.
AWS Amplify
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amplify has many features that will impress, but its cloud solutions can clearly outweigh the competition. Most of the operations are suitable for mobile applications. The mBaaS provider is mostly recommended to those with a bit of experience. It comes with a premium subscription too.
Built.io
Built.io is scalable and flexible. No matter what you need in the database, this provider will get it done for you with its architecture. It relies on SDK for connectivity between servers and applications. Once the connection is made, you gain access to all the services in its range.
Appcelerator
Appcelerator consists of two different platforms. One of them – Titanium – Is suitable for mobile applications – cross platforms. It is available for free. The other one allows developing apps over JavaScript, as well as mBaaS features.
Backendless
Backendless is based in the cloud and provides access to development tools without the headaches coming with coding. Practically, the mBaaS provider brings in a bunch of server functions – everything is programmable for your convenience. Top features include relational data, notofications and user management, among many others.
Backendless platform consists of 4 elements: mBaaS, hosting, API engine and marketplace. Its mBaaS has a lot of features to help developer build the top-notch mobile app. Your project’s data and file can be stored in its powerful, secure and reliable hosting. Backendless provides SDKs and REST APIs for easy development and quick deployment. Its marketplace provides a large variety of tools to make the development process easier.
Appery.io
Appery.io differentiate it with other BaaS providers via its App Builder. This tool allows to develop app which can be run on both Android and iOS. Appery.io combines enterprise-grade integration middleware with a browser-based rapid development environment and mobile backend services for developers to accelerate their mobile development.
Kii
Kii provides complete platform for connected experience. Developer can manage multiple vendors and dozens of SDKs with this platform. Kii helps develop, test, optimize, scale and run from a single integrated cloud platform. Kii will provide support developers throughout their project’s lifecycle.
mBaaS Providers for Network Gaming
Game BaaSes are similar to services above, but they are catered to network gaming, be it social, RPG, turnbased card games or realtime first-person shooter.
Game Sparks
Game Sparks has every from friends, leaderboards, chat, to realtime multiplayer. The service also provides teams, tournaments, lobbies and matchmaking. Game Sparks has a separated pricing package for indies and students, which is quite cheap compared to other services.
PlayFab
PlayFab offers back-end building blocks for online games, including storage, compute, commerce, analytics and other tools. PlayFab’s free tier has all features, which makes it quite a good option for indies’ multiplayer games.
Photon Engine
Photo Engine are trusted by many famous developers such as Square Enix, Microsoft Studios and Bandai Namco.
UNet (deprecated)
UNet is Unity’s built-in service for those who develops their games using Unity. It is not mandatory but it can be an easy start for Unity users as it comes with other Unity’s SDK.
