What is backend as a service? A guide to developing better apps faster

Setting up authentication, databases, storage, and notifications in a way that is secure, scalable, and customizable to fit your needs is complex and time consuming. Backend as a service (BaaS) solves this by providing fully managed backend infrastructure.

This greatly reduces the complex technical task of implementing all of these features yourself. It also helps eliminate common risks like bugs or security flaws in your homegrown configurations. On top of that, using a managed back end can reduce ongoing operational costs — and it benefits your users too, by providing a more secure and reliable experience.

What is backend as a service (BaaS)?

Backend as a service is a cloud-based model that provides prebuilt, managed backend infrastructure that is ready to use. The service provider handles server configuration, hosting, database management, and functionality like authentication and notifications. You can access these features through REST and GraphQL APIs, or by using SDKs. This takes the heavy development work of setting up a secure, scalable, and performant back end off your plate so you can concentrate on building the most important part of your app: the unique, engaging features that will impress your users.

Consider the following situation: Two startups happen to be working on apps that do the same thing and target the same users. Startup A opts to build their back end themselves and sets to work on their custom code, servers, databases, and realtime functionality. Then, they move on to testing and securing their implementation and making sure it's scalable before they bring their app to market.

Startup B instead chooses to leverage backend as a service. Due to the managed nature of BaaS, scaling is taken care of, and they have less testing to do and fewer security concerns to worry about. Their product ships quickly and gets the attention of their target audience.

Startup A did all of that work on scalability for nothing — they missed out on first-mover advantage, as their competitor released the app months earlier. They were beaten to the punch, and the crowds never arrived. The speed with which BaaS allows you to move could be the difference between success and failure.

What is MBaaS?

Mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) is a subcategory of BaaS that is targeted at mobile applications specifically. Its offerings — managed infrastructure, databases, authentication, file storage, and cloud functions — are practically the same, but it has a few extras to support the needs of mobile environments. This includes built-in support for push notifications, offline data synchronization, mobile analytics, and cross-platform SDKs, reducing the complexity of making API calls to the back end.

What features and components can BaaS give you?

Backend as a service offers all of the backend essentials, as well as some features for more advanced use cases:

• Authentication and user management: BaaS can help you handle user signups, registration, and secure logins with prebuilt authentication and authorization. Many BaaS providers support passwordless logins, OAuth, SSO, and role-based access control.

• Scalable databases: Most BaaS providers offer fully managed database setups (SQL, NoSQL, and document-based), real-time data sync, and offline data access capabilities.

• Event-driven capabilities: With BaaS, you can handle changes in real time, including webhooks for instant updates, push notifications, and pub/sub messaging for multiuser sync.

• Serverless computing: Some BaaS even allow you to write small, scalable, serverless functions to run any backend logic you might need, like background jobs, email triggers, or payment processing.

• Storage: You can use BaaS to handle file uploads, storage, and CDN delivery without having to manage S3 buckets and access rules.

• Integration: Most BaaS providers allow you to connect to third-party services with ease, opening your app up to functionality like payments (Stripe) and analytics (Segment). Additionally, companies like Contentful offer content platforms that integrate with BaaS setups to manage structured content.

• Security: BaaS providers handle security for you, covering such things as rate limiting, input validation, and encryption at rest in transit. They also provide real-time monitoring dashboards.

Different BaaS providers will mix and match these common features, each with their own specific functionality differences, alongside their own unique backend services. For example, Azure offers a lot of managed backend services that integrate with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

BaaS vs. PaaS

Backend as a service and platform as a service (PaaS) both abstract away backend complexity, but BaaS goes farther than PaaS. BaaS offers ready-made backend features that allow developers to bypass infrastructure and maintenance entirely. PaaS offers a deployment environment through the cloud where developers can build their applications. You’re still responsible for the logic while PaaS handles deployment, runtime, and scaling. PaaS is perfect if you want full control over your backend logic, and BaaS is better for when you want to save time by offloading backend functionality.

What are the advantages of BaaS over traditional development and hosting?

Positive impact on developers

The main win for developers is the saving of valuable development time — not just in the implementation of various complex components, but also in the time saved not having to configure and maintain all of the infrastructure and security involved in a modern back end. With the development burden lightened, you can spend time perfecting other parts of the application, such as the front end or any unique features your app may require.

Positive impact on users

BaaS can result in much faster experiences for end users, especially during high demand. Most BaaS providers offer auto scaling, which means if your app suddenly goes viral or there's a sudden spike in traffic, the provider automatically increases the resources available to handle the requests, ensuring your app is performant. Teams developing with BaaS will also have more time to spend perfecting their user experience.

Positive impact on business

When using BaaS, you cut down the time needed to develop your product significantly — much of the backend work is done for you, reducing development time and costs and allowing you to maintain a leaner development team. BaaS also reduces maintenance and security overheads. This makes it easier to stay compliant with data privacy laws and enhances your products’ reputation as reliable and secure. Leveraging BaaS can also greatly decrease the time to market, meaning you can get ahead of the competition and capitalize on the benefits of first-mover advantage.

The challenges of BaaS and how you can avoid them

BaaS platforms are optimized for broad use cases, and although they allow for some customization with cloud functions and plugin integrations, you may run into some specialized use cases where you need to do something that isn't supported. This is the flexibility tradeoff of BaaS; however, it’s not inherent, so you should determine the level of customizability needed and make sure that the provider you go with offers this.

Lack of full control is also a concern for some developers. For instance, performance and availability are completely out of your hands, and observability and debugging might not always have the level of granularity you would like. Proper vetting of BaaS tools before you start using them will also preempt these problems: look for platforms with global reach so they're ready for you when you scale, and make sure the provider has logging and auditing tools that satisfy your needs.

There is also a danger of vendor lock-in: Subscription or pay-as-you-go prices might increase suddenly, and certain features you're using may be discontinued. Depending on the provider, these issues can be difficult to solve, as you may be locked in by proprietary formats or syntax, which can make it difficult to migrate to a different solution. To avoid this, look for platforms that let you export your data in standard formats and that use widely supported programming languages like JavaScript or Python.

How to pick the right backend as a service

When picking the right BaaS, your preferences and project goals might differ in relation to others. You should thoroughly consider what features your product needs on the back end and check if the provider offers something customizable for your requirements. It's also good to confirm that it can integrate with any external tools you may require (payment processing, analytics, etc.).

Before making a decision, it's also a good idea to check out the pricing models to make sure your choice is competitive with other platforms. Also, check for hidden fees, like extra charges over a certain traffic volume, and make sure that you can afford them. You may also want to check out free trials or customer reviews to make sure that the platform is user-friendly and that it actually does what it claims.

Make sure that you verify security on the platform and the offering, and check the vendor's reputation. If you're making a long-term technical investment, you’ll want to make sure the BaaS provider will be around for a while.

Here are some popular backend-as-a-service providers for you to peruse:

The choice of custom logic is important because it determines how much flexibility and complexity you can add to your back end beyond standard operations. Most BaaS providers offer tools to accelerate development with prebuilt services like auth and database operations, but at some point, you might need to run business-specific logic.

Can you use backend as a service with a frontend as a service?

You can use front end as a service (FEaaS) in combination with backend-as-a-service providers to further speed up development. Front end as a service offers functionality including static site hosting, UI component libraries, routing, security compliance, and integrations. Just like BaaS, FEaaS maintains everything for you, making it an especially good option if you don't foresee any unsupported features needed for your app.

Prebuilt back ends for your use case

BaaS and PaaS tools cover a huge range of infrastructure and functionality — such as databases, authentication, APIs, and storage — that are all fully managed and ready to use. Using a composable architecture to assemble tools like BaaS and PaaS platforms into a fully functioning digital product has become best practice for many development teams working on bringing digital experiences to market faster, with better user experiences, and with lower costs over the lifetime of the project.

Below are some tools categorized by functionality to help you compose the right prebuilt services for your use case:

Among these, content management is often one of the most complex pieces to build from scratch, which is why Contentful is a great platform to help you out.

Contentful: Your content back end, already built

The Contentful Platform gives you a ready-to-use back end for managing and delivering content like text, images, and videos. You don’t need to develop and host a CMS or configure and deploy to a CDN. You can model and structure your content using our web app interface or our APIs, which are optimized for developer workflows and support structured content modeling. Then, deliver your content via our global CDN served over REST, GraphQL, or SDKs that integrate easily with other product as a service (PaaS) and backend as a service (BaaS) tools.

You can get a better ROI on your content by making it omnichannel and delivering it to multiple front ends. This includes websites, mobile apps, digital billboards, and even your users' voice assistants. Content drives engagement, no matter what kind of app, website, or other digital experience you're crafting — and with Contentful, your content back end is already built.

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