Show HN: Cloud Backend – a scalable database and API builder in the cloud | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Cloud Backend – a scalable database and API builder in the cloud

cloudbackend.appdrag.com

50 pointsappdrag18 comments

I really like this. Gets rid of a ton of backend boilerplate. I really like the fact that I can do straight SQL when necessary.

I haven't read the docs in detail, so maybe you have answers for this, but I would really like to see a couple of things. First, a quick and dirty starter app for the front end. Just a straight CRUD app to save me some time. Do it in Vue or React.

Second, I want to see a path to getting this on my own servers. If I write an app and it takes off, I'll want to have direct database access, maybe front the db with memcached, do some distributed things, add my own custom API calls, whatever. Would hate to be trapped on someone else's SaaS. Give me a way to license the software and take it on-premise.

Shouldn't a simple back-end be easy enough to spin up such that this is not that attractive?

For example, I use Web2py[1] which includes Fabric and bash scripts to setup a server and deploy your apps. Then you get to work with non-proprietary Python, Postgres, etc.

https://github.com/web2py/web2py/blob/master/fabfile.py

I agree, I think they could even go further with integration into something like atomic.io. You could develop real working prototypes in a day full stack, then focus on market research and iterating your design.

We do have something similar but for websites / web apps fully integrated with Cloud Backend. You can check the CMS part here: https://appdrag.com

Our goal is exactly that, provide a full stack solution in the browser. We do have free tier for the CMS & the Backend part so you can prototype for free :)

Hey ccleve, thanks for the suggestions, we will definitely offer samples for popular frameworks like Vue, React, Angular and others.

We have thinked about an on-premise version but in that case you loose all the benefits of a serverless cloud solution, and you have to do the maintenance & scaling yourself. Moreover there is no lock-in with Cloud Backend, at any time to can import and export your database to MySQL, you can also export your whole API with source code.

Btw, it's not only a DB API, you can also create your own functions in node.js, python, c#, java and more to come (PHP very soon)

The idea behind Cloud Backend is to offer an instant backend creation without any maintenance required and an attractive price for small to medium projects :)

If you are looking for an open-source solution then checkout https://docs.dapt.in

I want to love it but:

1 - only MySQL.

2 - the per row pricing model is ridiculous. I’ve got small applications with well over 5 million rows, running on few Megabytes of SQLite, I’ve got medium size ones using an order of magnitude more rows running on AWS RDS with cross AZ redundancy for about $150. If I want a json API I’ll slap an instance in front of it for $50 running PostgREST or Sandman, or one of the other SQL/REST tools. I’ve got plenty of free database browsing tools, and AWS Lambda does the rest for fractions of a dollar. Why on earth would I ever pay these guys $250? Their pricing model tells me before I even try the product that they haven’t solved any of the problems I have with running a database.

Then love it and wait for improvements. ;-) I think they will implement something on top of MySQL. And every-time you can ask startup for different pricing model am pretty sure they will be very flexible with it.

Indeed, we do have plans to support nosql in the next few months. Our Pricing for nosql will be really different and a lot lower for the storage. We started with relational db first because a lot of developers have existing skills with RDB and it was requested by ALL our beta testers.

Our platform is a fully automated system with high availability & zero maintenance required. So you don't have to setup a RDS box + front end server for the api + load balancer + .... maintain / update all that stack.

And YES, we are very flexible and open to suggestions related to our pricing This is also why we posted here, to get valuable suggestions and comments :)

Neat!

FYI, 404 on the about page: https://cloudbackend.appdrag.com/About-Us.html

Thank you for the feedback. We will correct that quickly

Incredible, I just have the idea to do the same thing with AWS Serverless Architecture, you have implemented it so great! I believe it will be a success.

Thanks, i'm so happy to hear this, my team and I are working on this since 2 years, you guys are the first one to see it :)

How does the pricing and feature set compare to Firebase?

Firebase is a nosql database with functions in node.js,

Cloud Backend in a relational database 100% compatible with MySQL (you can import/export at any time). Functions can be written in node.js, python, java, C#, SQL and Visual SQL (a visual UI to build your queries without coding)

Pricing is also very different because of that, our pricing is more adapted for small to medium project right now, this may change in the future

Neat idea & implementation... however the pricing is offputing.IMO consumption based pricing with some hard limits set by the user would be much more appealing.

Try this for consumption based pricing (you can also host this yourself) https://github.com/1backend/1backend

Thanks, i would love to get some suggestions for a more appealing pricing. I will definitely discuss this with my team tomorrow

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