I'm working on an ebook store application (my target users will be 10,000 users per months). It's very hard to make up my mind to select the backend between AWS and Parse.
Parse is very simple to use. It could save me one or two months development work. But I'm concerning about the number of requests per month. There are free 1,000,000 requests. But I don't know how they calculate the number of requests. I tested with the demo application. A simple run cost me 4 requests (there seems to be only one request in the code.). I totally have no clue 1,000,000 requests can server how many users.
AWS is free at the first year. It's more flexible. I can control almost everything. The problem is I have to do everything from scratch. Database, Web service, security, server management. Also it's very difficult to estimate the cost.
I'd like to hear your opinions about the cost, performance, scalability, security, etc. Thanks
Edit at 16th Nov. 2016:
Parse.com will terminate at 28th Jan. 2017. But it will provide a open source version. I personally think it's even better because I can host our own data at anywhere I like, for example, at AWS.
But! ...
Although Parse is closed, there is now: http://back4app.com
which, as far as I can tell, has now (end of 2016) reached the point of being absolutely identical to what parse.com was. ie, the back4app people offer absolutely everything Parse did, and obviously it is the same actual (open source) Parse software.
I use back4app constantly. For any typical game or just a client who wants any sort of startup or app (android, ios, unity, whatever) which connects up in some way, I just use Parse(back4app) and throw it together in 3 or 4 minutes - couldn't be easier.
So (for now) the very short answer to this question is:
1. Parse (actually now back4app.com) is a "full baas" - incredibly easy to use.
whereas
2. Amazon AWS is a "raw" cloud service.
You can't compare Parse(back4app) with AWS. Parse(back4app) is an "incredibly easy to use all-in-one baas", whereas AWS is "raw cloud power". Completely different use cases.
You might spend 6, maybe 7, minutes setting up and using Parse(back4app); whereas teams of 20 cloud engineers spend months building ... whatever it is they build! ... using Amazon AWS.
Note from 2015: Parse is closed. (Facebook got sick of it and closed it.) The bottom line seems to be, go ahead and use Firebase.com, Kinvey, or any other of the many baas available. (If you are making games, there are even specific baas for games, such as gamesparks.)
Note that for 2015: Amazon AWS now, somewhat confusingly, offers "Amazon AWS Mobile". (So, aws.amazon.com/mobile) This is not "one total-package easy-to-use baas", rather, it's a collection of services.
3. So while Amazon AWS is a "raw" cloud service, "Amazon AWS Mobile" is a collection of services, which is somewhat like using a baas.
Parse(back4app) - ridiculously easy to use. For small children. Similar to Firebase, etc.
"Amazon AWS Mobile" - this is sort of like Parse/Firebase/Etc, but it's a bit more serious and harder to use. It's not actually "one wrapped service", it's actually a suite of parts. So, "DynamoDB" is the noSql part, and "Cognito" is the "easy log in part", and so on. In contrast Parse/Firebase etc simply have the database, login, push, etc etc all wrapped up in one system.
"Amazon AWS" - this is badass raw cloud power, and you can't compare it to a baas.
The original answer before 2015:
Note that Parse is a "whole baas" whereas AWS is a raw computing system.
To make a typical simple client-server system, might take five minutes with Parse (or any other baas); the same could take six man-months if you engineered it from scratch starting with raw-servers-and-storage (such as AWS).
Finally - how does the amazing PubNub fit in this?
4. Don't forget PubNub - there is nothing like it. (Amazon's SNS is only ordinary push - nothing like PubNub.)
Whatever you're doing - whether building a massive dotcom with 20 engineers using AWS, or throwing together a game using Parse(back4app) - recall that PubNub has a unique place.
It's the only way you can "presence" every app that is running - they are all actually connected with a permanent socket. Thus, to make a simple example, the only way you can do chat is with: PubNub. Indeed this is explained nicely on a PubNub marketing page ... explained
So often whether you go with super-simple (parse-back4app) or build it out with AWS - you may well have to additionally incorporate PubNub.
Parse have changed their price plan: you do not have monthly request limit, but burst limit. For free user it's now 30 req/s which is very fair.
For your question, yes, Parse will save you lots of time. I recommend starting with Parse for one reason: if they do not fit to you, you could switch after on AWS (or app engine with cloud endpoint).
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23842141/which-is-better-parse-or-aws