Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Backendless VS Datomic

Compare Backendless VS Datomic and see what are their differences

Backendless logo Backendless

Backendless is a mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS) platform.

Datomic logo Datomic

The fully transactional, cloud-ready, distributed database
  • Backendless Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-20
  • Datomic Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-14

Backendless features and specs

  • Codeless Development
    Backendless offers a 'Codeless' feature, which allows users to build backend logic without writing any code. This is particularly beneficial for those who are not familiar with complex coding languages.
  • Real-Time Database
    The platform provides real-time data synchronization, allowing applications to update data instantly across all clients. This is essential for interactive applications such as chat apps and real-time data feeds.
  • API Services
    Backendless allows the creation of REST and SOAP APIs effortlessly. This makes it easier to integrate with other services and provides a clear pathway for extending app functionality.
  • User Management
    The platform comes with built-in user management features such as registration, login, password recovery, and social logins. This helps in reducing the effort required to implement user authentication and authorization.
  • Mobile and Web App Support
    Backendless supports both mobile (iOS/Android) and web applications, offering SDKs for multiple platforms which streamlines the development process.

Possible disadvantages of Backendless

  • Pricing
    Although Backendless offers a free tier, many features and higher usage levels are locked behind a paywall. This may be prohibitive for startups or small projects with limited budgets.
  • Learning Curve
    Even though Backendless offers codeless development, mastering the platform as a whole can be challenging for beginners. There are many features and settings that require some time to understand fully.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Relying too much on Backendless-specific features can create difficulties if you decide to migrate to another backend service in the future. The migration process can be complex and time-consuming.
  • Limited Customization
    While Backendless offers many out-of-the-box features, there can be limitations in terms of customizing the backend behavior in comparison to building a custom backend.
  • Community and Support
    The community around Backendless is smaller compared to more established backend solutions like Firebase. This can make finding community support, third-party plugins, or comprehensive tutorials harder.

Datomic features and specs

  • Immutability
    Datomic employs an append-only data model where data is never overwritten but instead appended, ensuring historical data is always available and providing strong consistency.
  • Time Travel Queries
    Datomic allows you to query the database as of any point in time, facilitating auditing and debugging by allowing easy access to historical data states.
  • Rich Data Model
    Supports complex data types like maps and sets directly within its schema, providing a flexible way to represent data.
  • ACID Transactions
    Datomic supports fully ACID-compliant transactions, ensuring reliable and predictable database operations.
  • Scalability
    Separates storage and compute, allowing for horizontal scaling of read operations, making it suitable for handling large datasets.
  • Query Flexibility
    Offers a powerful query language that supports recursive queries, making it suitable for complex data retrieval needs.

Possible disadvantages of Datomic

  • Complexity
    The architecture of Datomic can be complex to understand and implement, particularly for teams unfamiliar with its design principles.
  • Cost
    Can be expensive to operate, especially in a cloud environment, where costs increase with the amount of data stored and the compute resources required.
  • Limited Write Throughput
    Due to its append-only design, Datomic can have limited write throughput, which may not be suitable for applications with heavy write requirements.
  • Closed Source
    Datomic is a proprietary database system, which may not appeal to organizations that prefer open-source solutions.
  • Learning Curve
    Requires a learning curve as its conceptual model and query language are different from traditional databases, potentially requiring additional training.
  • Dependency on AWS
    Relying on AWS ecosystem for the storage backend can limit choices for deployment environments, impacting flexibility.

Backendless videos

Backendless 5 Release Overview (webinar)

More videos:

  • Review - Functionality Visibility Control in Backendless Console
  • Review - Backendless version 3.0 Overview

Datomic videos

KotlinConf 2018 - Datomic: The Most Innovative DB You've Never Heard Of by August Lilleaas

More videos:

  • Review - "Real-World Datomic: An Experience Report" by Craig Andera (2013)
  • Review - Rich Hickey on Datomic Ions, September 12, 2018

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Backendless and Datomic)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Databases
34 34%
66% 66
Relational Databases
0 0%
100% 100
No Code
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Backendless and Datomic

Backendless Reviews

2023 Firebase Alternatives: Top 10 Open-Source & Free
There are three comprehensive plans of this BaaS vendor: Backendless Cloud, Pro and Managed. But it only opened the pricing details of Backendless Cloud in this regard. Here are the key components of Backendless Cloud pricing:
Firebase Alternatives – Top 10 Competitors
Backendless is a highly scalable mobile Backend-as-a-Service (mBaaS) platform providing gazillion of features, including user authentication, live audio and video streaming, message filtering, push notifications, auto-scalability, data persistence, file storage, geo-location, cloud-code, analytics, and custom business logic. It has it all what you need to build awesome...

Datomic Reviews

We have no reviews of Datomic yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Backendless seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 21 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Backendless mentions (21)

  • Ap Developer
    Go here: https://backendless.com/ . If that don't work for you, Let me know and I'll tell you what next to do. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Join the Free Database Training Course From Backendless
    This article first appeared on https://backendless.com. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • free-for.dev
    Backendless.com — Mobile and Web Baas, with 1 GB file storage free, push notifications 50000/month, and 1000 data objects in table. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How Much Does Custom Software Development Cost?
    Luckily, instead of building the backend from scratch, some backend Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are available. Consider the following options: REST API, Firebase, Backendless, and JHipster. Using APIs is a great way to adopt a functional backend with lower custom software development pricing. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Urgent: Low code / No Code App Builders
    The best no-code/low-code platform for building both the frontend and backend in one place is Backendless. They have the best backend features and a really solid UI Builder that gives you pretty much all capabilities you'll likely need. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

Datomic mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Datomic yet. Tracking of Datomic recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Backendless and Datomic, you can also consider the following products

MarkLogic Server - MarkLogic Server is a multi-model database that has both NoSQL and trusted enterprise data management capabilities.

Valentina Server - Valentina Server is 3 in 1: Valentina DB Server / SQLite Server / Report Server

Datahike - A durable datalog database adaptable for distribution.

Google Cloud Datastore - Cloud Datastore is a NoSQL database for your web and mobile applications.

Matisse - Matisse is a post-relational SQL database.

DynamoDB - Amazon DynamoDB is a fast and flexible NoSQL database service for all applications that need consistent, single-digit millisecond latency at any scale. It is a fully managed cloud database and supports both document and key-value store models.