This answer has been updated to take into account the Parse.com shutdown. Parse Server (the parse.com service) is now available open source.
Go with Parse Server, running on Heroku and mLab - seriously.
There are 4 compelling reasons to do this:
- It's really well developed. There are APIs for a dozen platforms, including mobile and web. The time you would spend just rebuilding the security and extensibility is huge.
- Parse is free* (mLab and Heroku cost at scale). You can build a huge user base before it costs anything. I currently have apps with 50k+ active users for which I pay zero. (See my answer here for this in more detail: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26809697/parse-request-per-second-too-expensive-want-to-get-personal-aws-developed-advi/26846950#26846950)
- The documentation and community is excellent. I have found answers to every question on their systems either neatly laid out in their docs (which include an awesome guide as well as standard class documentation) or via Stack Overflow. It is hard to quantify how much faster and more fun this makes development.
- Even with Parse.com shutting down, there is a huge community that will keep the technology moving. It's a simple, fantastic API and server structure.
