Low-code backend to build modern apps. Store and query relational data on the cloud. Make it accessible over GraphQL and REST with a scalable, open-source backend. Firebase alternative, Backend as a Service, Mobile Backend as a Service, Low Code Backend, Heroku Alternatives, Open Source Firestore https://www.back4app.com/

1. What is BaaS – Backend-as-a-
Service?
Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a cloud-based platform designed to
streamline and automate backend development tasks.
It efficiently handles complex aspects of cloud infrastructure management,
making it easier for developers to focus on creating applications.
By outsourcing server responsibilities, you can devote all your time to the
frontend or client-side development. BaaS comes equipped with tools that
can help you create backend code quickly.
With its ready-to-use features like scalable databases, APIs, serverless
functions, social media integrations, file storage, and push notifications,
you’ll be able to speed up the development process with ease.
Using BaaS means you can develop at lightning speed, cut engineering
costs, and keep your focus on what matters most – your core business.
Key Takeaways
• BaaS Simplifies Development: Streamlines backend processes,
reducing coding effort.
• Feature-rich and Scalable: Offers real-time updates, cloud storage,
and scalability.

2. • Efficiency vs. Customization: Balances rapid development with some
loss of custom control.
What are the features of a backend as a
service?
Are you curious about what features are typically included in a backend as a
service? A backend as a service (BaaS) can provide your application with a
multitude of features that can be deployed seamlessly.
Name Description
Scalable Backend
Offers both NoSQL and SQL options for flexible data
management.
APIs Supports GraphQL and REST for versatile data access.
Cloud Code
Functions
Enables custom business logic execution in the cloud.
User Authentication Provides secure user sign-in capabilities.
Social Integration Integrates with platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.
Email Verification Ensures user authenticity through email validation.
Push Notifications Sends timely updates and alerts to users.
Geolocation Offers location-based services and functionalities.
Database GUI Provides a graphical interface for database management.
Logs Records and stores application activities for review.
CDN and Cache Enhances content delivery and speeds up response times.
Infrastructure Includes security, auto-scaling, data backup, DB optimization.
Let’s explore some of the most common features found in a BaaS:
Advantages and Disadvantages of a
Backend as a Service

3. Using a BaaS platform can help you solve two important problems:
managing and scaling your cloud infrastructure, as well as speeding up your
backend development.
The benefits of using a Backend as a Service can be categorized into both
business and technical aspects. Here are a few major advantages of using a
Backend as a Service:
• Lightning-fast development speed that helps you get your app to
market quickly and efficiently.
• Reduced development price since BaaS services eliminate the need for
developers to spend extra time creating backend systems from scratch.
• Serverless architecture that frees you from the hassle of managing
infrastructure, allowing you to focus on building a great app.
BaaS makes it easy to outsource your cloud management responsibilities,
increase your productivity, and reduce your costs. For small to medium-
sized businesses, these benefits can be particularly attractive.
Benefit Category Description
Cost Savings Business
Save on backend/infrastructure engineer costs by
outsourcing to a BaaS provider.
Fewer Developers
Needed
Business
Reduce backend developer headcount while
maintaining productivity with BaaS.
Faster Time to Market Business
BaaS accelerates software delivery, seizing market
opportunities quickly.
Outsource Cloud
Infrastructure
Management
Business
Focus on core development by offloading cloud
infrastructure management to BaaS.
Simplified Cloud
Infrastructure and
Scalability
Technical
BaaS offers easy cloud setup and scalable solutions
without server management hassle.
Focus on Frontend
Development
Technical
Frontend developers can concentrate on UI/UX, as
BaaS handles backend tasks.
Eliminates Redundant
Stack Setup
Technical
BaaS removes the need for redundant server
architecture, streamlining development.
No Need for Boilerplate
Code
Technical
Use BaaS pre-built modules and APIs for common
tasks, enhancing development efficiency.

4. Benefit Category Description
Standardized Coding
Environment
Technical
BaaS provides a consistent coding environment,
easing team integration and understanding.
High-Value Code Focus Technical
Backend developers can focus on critical,
application-specific code with BaaS.
Ready-to-Use Features Technical
BaaS offers built-in functionalities like
authentication and data storage.
Clone Apps and Testing
Environments
Technical
BaaS enables app cloning and safe testing
environments for various scenarios.
Focus on Business Logic Technical
Developers can prioritize application business
logic, improving quality and user experience.
Security and Backup
Readiness
Technical
BaaS provides built-in security and backup
solutions, ensuring application reliability.
As with any technology, there are some downsides to using a BaaS. Here
are a few potential disadvantages:
• Limited flexibility, compared to custom coding, can make it difficult to
implement certain features that require more control over the backend
infrastructure.
• Reduced ability to customize the backend since BaaS services often
provide pre-built APIs and configurations that may not meet all of your
app’s needs.
• Vendor lock-in for closed source platforms, which can limit your ability
to switch providers or make changes to the code if the BaaS vendor goes
out of business or changes its terms of service.
When to use a backend as a service?
Are you wondering about the best scenarios for using a backend as a
service? Here are some use cases where BaaS can come in handy:
1. Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): When building an
MVP, the focus is on quickly creating a functional product that you can
test with your target audience. Using a BaaS can help speed up
development by providing pre-built backend features and services,
allowing you to focus on building the front end.

5. 1. Developing Stand-alone Apps with Few Integrations: If you need to
develop a simple app that doesn’t require complex integrations, using a
BaaS can be a cost-effective solution. By using a pre-built backend, you
can avoid the time and expense of developing your own custom
backend.
1. Enterprise Apps That Aren’t Mission-Critical: For enterprise apps
that don’t require high levels of security or reliability, using a BaaS can
be an efficient solution. It allows developers to focus on building
business-specific features rather than managing infrastructure and
maintenance.
Overall, using a BaaS can save time and resources, making it a smart
choice for certain use cases.
Who should use a backend as a service?
A backend as a service (BaaS) platform is designed for app developers who
want to speed up their development process and outsource low-value or
repetitive tasks to a third party.
It is best suited for frontend engineers with limited knowledge in backend
development and backend engineers who want to streamline their
development process.
Backend as a Service Real-Life Use Cases
While there are many types of projects that can benefit from using a BaaS,
some common backend as a service examples include Real-time applications,
transportation apps, social networks, games, etc.
Using a backend as a service to build a SaaS
app – The 1001 Dubai Use Case
Meet 1001 Dubai, a mobile commerce provider creating apps for
supermarkets and convenience stores in the Middle East.
With over 80,000 downloads and hundreds of clients, they distribute their
app via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

6. To power their app’s backend architecture, they use a backend as a
service. This means they don’t have a dedicated team to handle server
operations as they’ve outsourced their entire infrastructure to a backend
provider.
Scaling a backend to millions of users –
Two4Tea Case Study
Two4Tea is a French mobile game development company that’s passionate
about creating engaging games.
Their most successful game, called Fight List, is a trivia game that’s been
downloaded over 55 million times across the globe.
With thousands of concurrent users playing Fight List in seven different
languages, it’s safe to say that the game is a big hit.
However, Two4Tea needed to find a way to keep up with the growing
number of users and ensure that the game remained fast and reliable.
By using a BaaS platform, they were able to scale up from just a few users to
thousands of concurrent users quickly and efficiently.
This allowed them to keep the game running smoothly while also continuing
to add new features and improvements over time.
Using a BaaS to build a marketplace and save
costs – VantageBP Use Case
Meet VantageBP, the superhero SaaS company that helps brands fight
against counterfeit products, identify sneaky resellers, and shut down
unauthorized sales on over 100 online marketplaces.
Using BaaS has allowed VantageBP to speed up its product launch,
validate its MVP much faster, and eliminate the need for a DevOps
engineer, saving them more than $500k.
Their infrastructure can scale up automatically without any worries about
downtime or pesky DevOps issues.
In the words of Joren Winge, VantageBP’s CTO:

7. The nice thing is that I don’t have to worry about uptime, scalability, or
DevOps issues. Joren Winge, VantageBP CTO
What Frontend Technologies Can A BaaS
Support?
So, what frontend technologies can a BaaS support? Generally, most BaaS
providers are able to support a wide range of web and mobile frameworks,
such as:
• Web development frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular
• Mobile development technologies like iOS Native (Swift or Objective-C)
and Android Native
• Cross-platform frameworks like React Native, Xamarin, Flutter, Kotlin,
Ionic, Unity
Backend as a Service vs. Cloud Providers:
What’s The Difference?
Backend as a Service (BaaS) and Cloud Providers offer different services
that cater to different needs. We’ll cover the definitions first to make these
concepts easier to understand.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides the basic infrastructure such as
servers, storage, networking, and virtualization.
IaaS providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure offer infrastructure
resources that can be used to build and manage applications.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a platform for developers to build,
deploy, and manage their applications.

8. PaaS providers like Heroku and Engine Yard offer a preconfigured
environment that includes operating systems, web servers, and databases,
making it easier to develop and deploy applications.
• Backend as a Service (BaaS)
Backend as a Service (BaaS) is a type of cloud service that provides a
complete backend solution for mobile and web applications.
BaaS providers like Back4App, Parse, and Firebase offer features such as
user authentication, push notifications, file storage, and database
management.
These services can save time and effort for developers who don’t want to
spend time building their own backend infrastructure.
• Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS)
Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) is a type of BaaS that specifically
caters to mobile app development.
MBaaS providers offer services that are optimized for mobile devices, such
as offline data synchronization, native SDKs, and mobile-specific analytics.
MBaaS providers like Back4App, Parse, and Firebase offer pre-built
backend services that can be easily integrated into mobile apps.
In summary, while IaaS and PaaS provide basic infrastructure and
development platforms, respectively, BaaS and MBaaS offer pre-built
backend services that can be used to quickly build and deploy applications.

9. BaaS vs. Custom Backend – What are the
differences?
When building an app, you have two options: create a custom backend or
use a BaaS framework. Here’s how they differ:
Custom Backend:
• You build your backend from scratch and manage the infrastructure

10. • Pros: provides flexibility and the customization options
• Cons: higher development costs and longer time to market
BaaS (Backend as a Service):
• Provides ready-to-use building blocks and code-generation tools
• Pros: faster development process and reduced time to market
• Cons: less flexibility and standardized architecture
Here are some examples to help illustrate the differences between custom
coding and using a BaaS.
Example #1: Backend as a Service vs. AWS
EC2 Instances
Imagine you want to build a new software project without using BaaS.
Before you dive into developing the backend code, you need to set up the
servers. Here are the steps:
1. Log in to AWS or any other cloud.
2. Go to Instances.
3. Launch Instance.
4. Select the Operating System, Instance Size, and Type.
5. Configure Instance Details like the number of instances, Network, IP,
Monitoring, and other settings like Auto Scaling, IAM, etc.
6. Add Storage.
7. Security Settings.
Now, your instance is up and running, but you still need to install the web
server, database, framework, etc.
Once that’s done, you can start coding. This process can take a few hours
to more than a day for large environments, depending on the skills of the
backend developers.
However, if you use a backend as a service, the same process will take just
a few clicks and a few minutes to set up.
Example #2: BaaS vs. Custom Coding Login
Features

11. Picture this: You’ve set up your server and are ready to start building your
application’s first feature. For example, that feature is a social login with
Facebook.
Now, if you outsource the development to an offshore company, it’ll cost
you $25 per hour and take around 16 hours to complete – bringing the total
cost to $400.
But, if you opt for a BaaS (Backend as a Service), you can get the same
feature implemented in less than an hour.
This means you’ll save 15 hours of development time and $375 and it’s a
good deal for such a simple task!
Example 03 – GDPR security settings
GDPR privacy requirements are pretty complicated, and the The rules for
GDPR privacy can be hard to understand, and it takes a lot of work to put
them into action.
This includes things like making sure data is secure when it’s being sent
over the internet and encrypting data that’s stored on servers.
Depending on how big and complicated the project is, it could take more
than 100 hours to get everything done.
If you’re working on a small or medium-sized project, it might make sense to
hire a backend as a service company to handle all of this.
They can spread out the cost of making sure everything is GDPR compliant
across many different apps, so it won’t cost as much for each individual
app.
But if you’re working on just one project, all of the costs will fall on that
project. Even if it’s successful, it could take a long time to make up the
money spent on making sure it’s GDPR compliant.
What Is The Backend as a Service Market
Size?

12. The industry of Backend as a Service (BaaS) is growing rapidly, with the
market predicted to increase from $2.8 billion in 2022 to around $27.9 billion
in 2023, resulting in a compound annual growth rate of 23%.
This growth can be attributed to two main factors – the widespread use of
mobile devices and BaaS’s ability to enhance mobile development
productivity. Here is a list of the key players in this market.
Backend as a Service Providers
Here is a summary of the BaaS providers in 2023. For more information
about each provider, please read the article Backend as a Service Providers –
A Comprehensive Comparison.
Name Headline Key Features Pricing
Back4App Top BaaS Provider
Scalable DB, APIs,
Notifications, Authentication
Free, Paid starts at
$15/month
Parse
Open-Source App
Framework
API Server, Dashboard, SSO,
File Storage
Free, hosting costs
vary
Firebase
Google’s
Comprehensive BaaS
Real-time DB, Analytics,
Hosting, Growth tools
Free tier, Paid as
per use
Cloudkit
Apple’s Backend
Platform
Native SDK for iOS, iCloud
authentication
Free and Pay as you
go
Backendless
Online and Local
Hosting
UI Builder, Cache, 24/7
Support
Free tier, Paid starts
at $15/month
AWS
Amplify
Serverless
Integration with
AWS
Analytics, AR/VR, APIs, CDN
Free tier, Pay as
you go
Azure
Mobile
Microsoft’s BaaS
Solution
Security, Offline Sync, AD
Integrations
Pay as you go
Kii
BaaS for IoT and
Mobile Apps
Data Management, User
Management, Notifications
Details not
specified
8Base Web App Platform
Serverless, Business Logic,
GraphQL Support
Starts at $25/month
NHost Serverless BaaS
DB, API, Authentication,
Storage
Free, Paid starts at
$25/month
Supabase
Open-Source
Firebase Alternative
Database, Instant API, Real-
time Subscriptions
Free, Paid starts at
$25/month

13. Name Headline Key Features Pricing
Appwrite
Open-Source
Backend Server
Database, Security, Functions Free, self-hosted
Kuzzle
Feature-Packed
Platform
Real-time DB, Geofencing,
Admin Console
Free, Paid support
starts at €500
Conclusion
In software development, applications have different components, such as a
frontend, a backend, and APIs that connect them.
A backend as a service (BaaS), also known as mBaaS for mobile apps, is a
cloud computing model that automates the development of backend code.
Along with this, BaaS providers are responsible for deploying, managing,
and scaling applications.
The implementation of BaaS has many advantages, such as reducing the
time to launch an app, lowering development costs, and outsourcing
infrastructure management.
Some of the most common features of a BaaS include scalable databases,
APIs, cloud code functions, notifications, and authentication.
BaaS platforms are often compared based on their pricing models, feature
sets, and ease of use. Some of the most popular BaaS solutions include
Firebase, Supabase, Appwrite, and Kuzzle.
Depending on your application’s specific needs, one of these options may
be the best fit for you.
Regardless of your choice, there are plenty of options out there, so research
and find the one that’s right for you.