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Parse VS Pusher

Compare Parse VS Pusher and see what are their differences

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Parse logo Parse

Build applications faster with object and file storage, user authentication, push notifications, dashboard and more out of the box.

Pusher logo Pusher

Pusher is a hosted API for quickly, easily and securely adding scalable realtime functionality via WebSockets to web and mobile apps.
  • Parse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17
  • Pusher Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

Parse features and specs

  • Open Source
    Parse Platform is open-source, which means it is free to use and can be customized to fit the needs of your application without any licensing fees.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Parse provides a wide range of built-in features such as a robust database system, real-time notifications, user authentication, cloud functions, and file storage, reducing the amount of development work needed.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Parse supports multiple platforms including iOS, Android, JavaScript, .NET, and more, enabling easier development across different types of applications.
  • Community and Documentation
    There is a strong community around Parse with extensive documentation and numerous tutorials, which can help developers quickly resolve issues and learn best practices.
  • Unified Backend
    Parse allows developers to manage database, server code, and user authentication in one unified platform, simplifying backend management.

Possible disadvantages of Parse

  • Self-Hosting Complexity
    While Parse is open-source, it requires self-hosting, which involves managing and maintaining your own server infrastructure, adding operational complexity.
  • Performance
    Depending on your server setup and scaling needs, you might encounter performance issues, especially for high-traffic applications, requiring constant monitoring and fine-tuning.
  • Limited Scalability
    Parse might not be as scalable as other backend solutions like Firebase, particularly for apps that need to handle massive amounts of data and users.
  • Initial Setup Time
    The initial setup of a Parse server and its environment can be time-consuming and challenging, particularly for those without DevOps experience.
  • Feature Limitations
    While Parse offers a rich feature set, some advanced features available in other modern backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms may lack, necessitating custom development.

Pusher features and specs

  • Real-Time Capabilities
    Pusher offers real-time data transfer, enabling instant updates and live feeds without the need for page refreshes. Its WebSockets-based architecture ensures low latency communication.
  • Ease of Use
    The API is straightforward to integrate, with comprehensive documentation and SDKs for various programming languages and platforms, making implementation quick and painless.
  • Scalability
    Pusher can handle a large number of concurrent connections, making it suitable for applications that need to scale seamlessly as user demand grows.
  • Security
    Pusher provides built-in authentication and authorization options, ensuring that data is secure and accessible only to authorized users.
  • Managed Service
    As a managed service, it eliminates the need for maintaining the infrastructure for real-time functionality, freeing up resources and reducing operational complexity.

Possible disadvantages of Pusher

  • Cost
    Pusher can become expensive, especially for applications with high traffic or requiring a large number of concurrent connections, making it less suitable for startups or small-scale projects on a tight budget.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Relying heavily on Pusher's services can lead to vendor lock-in, making it challenging to migrate to another service or in-house solution in the future.
  • Limited Offline Functionality
    Pusher is designed for real-time online communication, and it does not inherently support offline capabilities, which can be a limitation for applications that need to function without a constant internet connection.
  • Complexity for Advanced Use Cases
    While it's easy to set up for basic use cases, implementing more complex scenarios may require additional configuration and a deeper understanding of the architecture.
  • Latency
    Even though Pusher boasts low-latency communication, network conditions and geographical distances can still introduce lag, which might not be acceptable for ultra-low-latency requirements like high-frequency trading.

Analysis of Parse

Overall verdict

  • Parse is a good choice for developers looking for a flexible and scalable backend solution that can be deployed on their own servers or using cloud services. It is particularly beneficial due to its active community and extensive documentation.

Why this product is good

  • Parse is a popular open-source backend-as-a-service framework that simplifies app development by handling server-side components, freeing developers to focus on front-end development. It offers features like push notifications, cloud functions, social media integration, and a real-time database.

Recommended for

  • Developers who want an open-source solution with the freedom to self-host.
  • Teams building mobile or web applications that require a robust backend service.
  • Projects that need strong support for relational data and real-time functionalities.
  • Developers looking to avoid the overhead of writing custom backend code.

Analysis of Pusher

Overall verdict

  • Pusher is a solid choice for real-time communication needs. Its ease of integration, wide range of supported platforms, and reliable performance make it a good fit for many applications. However, like any third-party service, it's important to consider factors such as cost, specific requirements, and potential vendor lock-in.

Why this product is good

  • Pusher is a popular service for adding real-time functionality to applications. It offers robust APIs that make it easier to implement features such as notifications, live updates, and real-time chat functionality. Pusher's service is known for its reliability, ease of use, and scalability, making it a strong choice for developers who need to integrate real-time capabilities without building infrastructure from scratch.

Recommended for

  • Developers building real-time chat applications
  • Teams needing live updating features
  • Projects requiring scalable and reliable real-time communication
  • Developers looking for a quick-to-implement solution for notifications and updates

Parse videos

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Pusher videos

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Mark Kermode reviews Pusher

More videos:

  • Review - Pusher (1996) - Movie Review
  • Review - Film Recommendations: The Pusher Trilogy

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Parse and Pusher)

Parse

Pusher

Developer Tools
51 51%
Developer Tools
49% 49
Mobile Push Messaging
0 0%
Mobile Push Messaging
100% 100
Realtime Backend / API
100 100%
Realtime Backend / API
0% 0
App Development
100 100%
App Development
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 Parse and Pusher

Parse Reviews

10 Top Firebase Alternatives to Ignite Your Development in 2024
If you’re looking for a Firebase alternative that gives you full control and the freedom to tinker, Parse Platform is your jam. Again, it’s a popular open-source framework loved by developers who want to build custom backends without being tied to a specific provider.
Source: genezio.com
Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
Back4App is a backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platform that uses Parse Server, the open-source version of the Parse backend. It simplifies backend development and management, providing developers with a robust platform for building modern applications.
Source: signoz.io
What is AWS Amplify? - AWS Amplify Alternatives
It is well-known for making the development process quick, easy, and simple. Using Parse, you may complete a day's worth of work in a few hours.
Source: mindmajix.com
2023 Firebase Alternatives: Top 10 Open-Source & Free
Community Support – If Firebase comes with the backing of Google, then Parse is also tested and trusted by Facebook. Yes, Facebook is the parent company of Parse. Therefore, it has a big community. You can find resources and solutions regarding Parse on GitHub, Stack Overflow and several other programming forums.
Source: digitalcruch.com
12 Best Open-source Database Backend Server and Google Firebase Alternatives
Parse server is an open-source database backend solution which speed up application building. It features database, user management, authentication, file upload and push notification.I used Parse for a few times, and I was satisfied with the speed and productivity it offers, especially in terms of developer tools as it comes with dozens of SDKs, libraries and sample code to...
Source: medevel.com

Pusher Reviews

SignalR Alternatives
Pusher as a signal Alternative comes into the picture when it is simple and has free plans for the fallback of SSE to make the frame and log polling also available to the developers for troubleshooting as well.
Source: www.educba.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pusher should be more popular than Parse. It has been mentiond 55 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.

Parse mentions (21)

  • Supabase Alternatives 🔄 in 2025 😼
    Parse deserves mention primarily for its historical significance as the precursor that inspired the entire backend-as-a-service space. Founded in 2011, Parse pioneered many concepts that we now take for granted in modern BaaS platforms. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The 2024 Web Hosting Report
    Backend as a Service (BaaS) goes back to early 2010’s with companies like Parse and Firebase. These products integrated everything a backend provides to a webapp in a single, integrated package that makes it easier to get started and enables you to offload some of the devops maintenance work to someone else. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to set up a Parse Server backend with Typescript
    Parse Server is a great way to quickly spin up a backend for your project. Parse is a Node based utility that sits on top of ExpressJS. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Free online DB for production app
    You can try https://parseplatform.org/, it is self-hosted if you need. And also there are a number of cloud services with compatible API, like https://www.back4app.com/ It has dart-friendly generated API client, much simpler than firebase and is built on top of postgresql and mongodb. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Supabase Series B
    Not to crash the party or anything. Supabase is great and all but in terms of feature completeness and getting actual products built, it doesn't come close to Parse[0]. Same with Appwrite. Both of these are very popular but they either lack essential features or have them behind a subscription wall. For example, the OSS version of Supabase (last I checked) doesn't include the edge functions which are really... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
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Pusher mentions (55)

  • 5 Must-Watch Tutorials to Build Your SaaS App in 2025
    In this tutorial, you’ll create a Next.js project with TailwindCSS and build custom authentication pages for Clerk without the watermark. This means you’ll create a custom Clerk authentication component, allowing you to have a UI without the Clerk branding in the authentication component. You’ll then set up file uploads using Uploadcare and create custom theming with Shadcn UI for light and dark modes. A real-time... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • PubNub vs Pusher creating a realtime messaging app in React
    When talking about general IM applications, having the ability to speak to someone in real-time opens up the door to so many unique possibilities. Our world has become ever more connected as a result of these newfound capabilities. In todays article we will learn all about messaging as we build a real-time messaging application. The application will be able to connect to two different real-time application... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • 10 Must-Use APIs for Your Next SaaS Project
    For real-time notifications, Pusher’s APIs allow you to implement in-app notifications, chat features, and collaboration tools easily. You can find it here. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • How to Build a Real-time Chat App with Laravel, Vue.js, and Pusher
    Pusher is a cloud-hosted service that makes adding real-time functionality to applications easy. It acts as a real-time communication layer between servers and clients. This allows your backend server to instantly broadcast new data via Pusher to your Vue.js client. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Show HN: Webhooked.email (2023)
    Feature request received! Pusher as in this thing -- https://pusher.com/ right? Any other places you want to push to? Slack? - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Parse and Pusher, you can also consider the following products

Firebase - Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications for mobile and web.

Socket.io - Realtime application framework (Node.JS server)

AWS Amplify - JavaScript library for app development using cloud services

Back4App - Low code backend to build apps faster and scale easily.

PubNub - PubNub is a real-time messaging system for web and mobile apps that can handle API for all platforms and push messages to any device anywhere in the world in a fraction of a second without having to worry about proxies, firewalls or mobile drop-offs.

Azure Mobile Apps - Build engaging cross-platform and native apps for iOS, Android, Windows or Mac with Azure's Mobile App Service.

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