Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Cowboy VS Parse-Server

Compare Cowboy VS Parse-Server and see what are their differences

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Cowboy logo Cowboy

Small, fast, modular HTTP server written in Erlang.

Parse-Server logo Parse-Server

parse-server. Parse-compatible API server module for Node/Express. JS, 14271, 3819. parse-server-conformance-tests. Conformance tests for parse-server adapters.
  • Cowboy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-20
  • Parse-Server Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-14

Cowboy features and specs

  • High Performance
    Cowboy is a small, fast, and modern HTTP server for Erlang/OTP, known for its high performance and low latency.
  • Erlang Ecosystem
    Being built using Erlang, Cowboy benefits from Erlang's robust ecosystem, such as fault tolerance, concurrency, and distributed computing capabilities.
  • WebSocket Support
    Cowboy offers built-in WebSocket support, making it easy to build real-time applications.
  • HTTP/2 Support
    Cowboy supports HTTP/2, allowing for performance improvements like multiplexing and header compression.
  • Extensibility
    Cowboy is designed to be modular and extensible, allowing developers to customize and extend its functionalities as needed.

Possible disadvantages of Cowboy

  • Learning Curve
    Developers unfamiliar with Erlang may find Cowboyโ€™s learning curve steep compared to other web servers written in more common languages.
  • Community Support
    While Erlang has a dedicated community, it is smaller compared to communities around more popular languages like Python or JavaScript, which could impact the availability of third-party libraries and support.
  • Documentation
    Although Cowboy has official documentation, some developers might find it less comprehensive and harder to navigate compared to more widely-used platforms.
  • Single-thread Performance
    Cowboy is optimized for handling many connections in an asynchronous, non-blocking manner, but depending on the workload, it might not perform as well as other servers in single-threaded scenarios.

Parse-Server features and specs

  • Open Source
    Parse-Server is open-source, which means it's free to use and you can modify the source code to fit your specific needs. It also benefits from community contributions and improvements.
  • Backend as a Service
    It provides a backend as a service (BaaS), offering out-of-the-box features like data storage, user authentication, and push notifications, which allows developers to focus more on the frontend.
  • Cloud Independence
    You can deploy Parse-Server on any cloud service of your choice, giving you flexibility and control over your server environment, unlike other closed BaaS options.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Parse-Server includes a rich set of features such as live queries, GraphQL support, and file storage, which helps in developing complex applications efficiently.
  • Community Support
    An active community supports Parse-Server, providing regular updates, plugins, and extensions that can help solve common issues and expand the server's capabilities.

Possible disadvantages of Parse-Server

  • Self-Hosting Requirements
    Unlike fully managed BaaS platforms, you need to set up and maintain your own server infrastructure to use Parse-Server, which can be time-consuming and require technical expertise.
  • Limited Native SDKs
    Although Parse-Server provides SDKs for various platforms, it may not offer the same level of support or regular updates as commercial platforms, leading to potential compatibility issues with newer technologies.
  • Scaling Challenges
    Managing and scaling a self-hosted service can be challenging, especially for applications with growing and fluctuating user bases, requiring additional resources and infrastructure management.
  • Potential Feature Lag
    As an open-source project, Parse-Server might lag behind the latest innovations or features that commercial BaaS providers can rapidly implement due to their resources and funding.
  • Community Reliance
    Since Parse-Server is community-driven, critical bug fixes and improvements depend on community input, which can result in slower resolution times compared to proprietary solutions with dedicated support teams.

Analysis of Cowboy

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Cowboy is considered a good web server.

Why this product is good

  • Cowboy is a small, fast, and modern HTTP server for Erlang/OTP. It is widely appreciated for its performance, low latency, and ability to handle a large number of concurrent connections efficiently. Cowboy adheres to standards, offering complete support for HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and Websocket protocols. Developers often praise its reliability, robustness, and straightforward architecture.

Recommended for

    Cowboy is recommended for developers building Erlang-based systems who need a lightweight yet powerful web server. It's especially suitable for applications that require handling many simultaneous connections, such as real-time web applications. Its design makes it a solid choice for microservices architectures and projects that demand high performance and low resource consumption.

Analysis of Parse-Server

Overall verdict

  • Parse-Server is considered a good choice, particularly for developers looking for a flexible, open-source backend solution that avoids vendor lock-in. It offers a robust set of features out of the box, which can significantly accelerate the development process.

Why this product is good

  • Parse-Server is an open-source backend platform that allows developers to build applications faster by leveraging features like user authentication, push notifications, cloud functions, and real-time database capabilities. It is highly customizable, scalable, and can be deployed on any infrastructure. Moreover, it's backed by a strong community and extensive documentation, making troubleshooting and development easier.

Recommended for

    Parse-Server is recommended for startups, small to medium enterprises, and individual developers seeking a cost-effective backend solution with full control over their infrastructure. It's also ideal for projects that require rapid prototyping and deployment, app developers who need pre-built SDKs, and teams looking to migrate away from Parse's legacy hosted services.

Cowboy videos

COWBOY 3 REVIEW: Why I shipped my Cowboy 3 e-bike back.

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  • Review - NEW COWBOY REVIEW - Spin & Cash Generation Explained - TDS Badlands Update
  • Review - COWBOY 4 Review - Design E-Bike im groรŸen Test

Parse-Server videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cowboy and Parse-Server)
Web And Application Servers
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Biking
100 100%
0% 0
Design Prototyping
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cowboy and Parse-Server

Cowboy Reviews

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Parse-Server Reviews

Firebase Alternative: 3 Open-Source ways toย follow
Parse Server comes with a gazillion out-of-the-box features that allows you to get your MVP out quick and effortlessly. Currently, Parse server is the most popular and robust BaaS framework available that helps developers build mobile apps faster without any technical locks. It is an open source version of the Parse backend that can be easily downloaded for free on GitHub....
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Parse-Server might be a bit more popular than Cowboy. We know about 6 links to it since March 2021 and only 6 links to Cowboy. 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.

Cowboy mentions (6)

  • A First Look at the Phoenix Framework
    Plug is both a specification for composable modules between web applications and an abstraction layer for web servers (like Cowboy or Bandit. The core concept is a unified connection (the %Plug.Conn{} struct, similar to HttpContext in .NET) that is transformed as it moves through a series of functions. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Does the Heroku Ruby Stack use Log4j?
    According to the 'Server' response header, Cowboy is the customer facing web server Https://github.com/ninenines/cowboy. Source: over 4 years ago
  • How to create an Erlang rebar3 release derivation with dependencies?
    ===> sh(git clone -n https://github.com/ninenines/cowboy .tmp_dir636214859401) Failed with return code 128 and the following output: Cloning into '.tmp_dir636214859401'... Fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/ninenines/cowboy/': SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate. Source: over 4 years ago
  • Oh Erlang... where have you been all my life?
    RE: HTTP/Web Sockets/TCP/UDP/etc. - check out NineNines libraries: Ranch (TCP Socket Acceptor), Cowboy (HTTP Server), Gun (HTTP client), and CowLib (General HTTP/SPDY library) are pretty good from what I hear. Source: over 4 years ago
  • Build an Elixir Redis Server that's 100x faster than HTTP
    Ranch is a pretty well optimized and battle hardened tcp acceptor. It powers the Cowboy/Phoenix server which scales to extreme level of concurrency and low latency. Cowboy uses ranch to pool and accept connections and I believe it uses {active,once}. https://github.com/ninenines/cowboy https://github.com/ninenines/ranch. - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago
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Parse-Server mentions (6)

  • AI Coding: Building a 1-Hour App Clone Is Easy. Shipping It Is the Work
    If youโ€™re coming from the Parse ecosystem, it may help to know that Parse itself is a long-running open source backend framework. You can start from the official Parse Platform site, or go deeper with the communityโ€™s Parse Server repository. Our own developer docs are organized around that reality. If you want implementation-level guides, start with our SashiDo Documentation. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • What to choose for backend
    If you like headless CMS / Backend As A Service you should consider https://directus.io/ or https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server. Both nodejs and open source. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Any general purpose visualisation "just add the data" framework
    There's numerous standard backends which frontenders could use in simplistic cases to start, say https://github.com/PostgREST/postgrest or https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server. Source: over 4 years ago
  • Show HN: Caffeine, minimum viable back end for prototyping
    Parse is still around and supported: https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server. - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago
  • Ask HN: What Back End Framework with User Management Is Your Favorite?
    I am curious what backend framework you would choose to run with for prototyping an application with run of the mill user management requirements. That is functionality along the lines of: session management, password policies, password reset, user verifications, etc. Sadly it seems there really aren't any frameworks that have user management natively supported. The only one I am aware of is [Parse... - Source: Hacker News / about 5 years ago
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