Case Study

What role does Backendless play in the app? Did you consider any alternatives before choosing us?

I considered a few other options, such as: building my own backend (deemed too much work); Parse (was shutting down); and AWS (too complicated). Backendless’ custom business logic associated with timers was the main drawcard. The ability to also send push notifications from the same service sealed the deal.

What challenges did you face while building your app with Backendless? How were you able to overcome them?

Backend servers were brand new to me when I discovered Backendless. It was a steep learning curve to get my business logic up and running. I decided to use Java to write the code, which I had never used before, so that took some time to get used to. Once I had a handle on the server code, it took quite a while to debug and test. The Backendless support team was quite helpful with this aspect as they provided examples and guidance.

Getting push notifications up and running was another challenging aspect. Due to the nature of the app, the business logic behind the push notifications is quite complex. A user creates an alert on their device by specifying criteria such as the price of a cryptocurrency, for example. This alert then needs to be synchronized with the server, with the user device information as well as the criteria they selected. The server code then has the periodically check if the criteria of any of the user alerts are met. When that happens, the alerts need to be sent to the correct users.

There weren’t many platforms that made this whole process relatively straightforward. It’s a big help having data tables and push notifications built into the one platform.

How did our platform help you expedite the development process?

Backendless has all the server features I need in a single platform. Business logic, data tables, cache memory, and push notifications. There are many aspects of my app that I can now tweak in real-time rather than having to deploy a new version to the App Store. The seamless connectivity between data tables and business logic and the ability to access the data tables easily from iOS SDK is very valuable. The SDK itself was straightforward to set up, for the most part.

Do you expect to continue using Backendless for your backend as your app continues to grow?

So far, Backendless has provided all of the tools necessary for my app in its current form. I have a lot of confidence that this will be the case moving forward.

Closing

In an industry where real-time data and numerical accuracy are critical, Backendless provides the resources to power a finance app with ease. The ease of use of the Backendless platform makes it possible for a team of one to build a highly complex app without dedicating extensive time and resources to the project. This allows the creator to focus on the frontend and user experience without getting bogged down in the technical minutia of the server side of the application.