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Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

userapp.io

11–20 of 82 posts

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#11

Looks intriguing and I can tell you guys have spent a lot of time on the feature-set. But the biggest thing that will hold me back(and may be others) is a lack of clarity about security and my data(what happens in the event that you are down? in the event that you close shop?)

Exactly what I thought! I find it nice, but why would I let a third party manage the most critical part of my platform : my users? You close shop unexpectedly, I close shop. You are down? I am down too.

The dependency between my system and this one would be way too great to consider the option.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#13

Looks intriguing and I can tell you guys have spent a lot of time on the feature-set. But the biggest thing that will hold me back(and may be others) is a lack of clarity about security and my data(what happens in the event that you are down? in the event that you close shop?)

Yes, same here. Where and how is the data stored, whats about security? After all, their business model means that they are dealing with one of the most precious parts of other businesses, so I would expect way more information here.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#14
Why? Honestly, how can you "outsource" such a vital part of your web app to a third party? Not only is this a privacy disaster but also, if this user service goes down or has a temporary downtime, your own business is effectively unusable.

I understand that it makes sense to not write these types of user functions and management things over and over again. The solution however, is not a SaaS, but a library or a little framework. And from what I remember, major Web development frameworks offer exactly these types of functionality.

I don't want to be a downer and you guys probably spend a lot of time on the product, but from my perspective, any business owner using a third party to handle user data acts irresponsibly. You OWE it to your users to keep their data as tight and as centralized in one spot as possible – a spot only you and employees have access to and servers only you rented and have access to and not a third party.

I'd even rather use Wordpress as a basic user management platform than use a third party service. This way, it is at least fully under my control and I'm the only one responsible if things get broken or data gets stolen.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#15

We just launched UserApp after 9 months of hard work. Please try it out and let us know what you think :)

I suggest that you provide easy one year purchases. It is much easier for my manager to sign off on one purchase than a recurring bill. Also, number of users is unlikely to be my purchase level decider. Perhaps you could differentiate the levels on another factor to get me out of your lowest tier.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#16

Looks intriguing and I can tell you guys have spent a lot of time on the feature-set. But the biggest thing that will hold me back(and may be others) is a lack of clarity about security and my data(what happens in the event that you are down? in the event that you close shop?)

OP here.

This is something that we are very aware of. We only have good intentions and want our users to feel 100% secure with us. If you don't, please let us know how we can change that! :) We don't have it now, but we will make it possible to export all of the data in UserApp at any time.

Regarding security and privacy we have written a section about it here: https://help.userapp.io/customer/portal/topics/550128-securi...

Additionally, everything is SSL and passwords are stored using bcrypt. And we will make it possible to login using 3rd party providers later (OAuth). From a personal perspective, we will run this ship to the end of the world if we have to. Since we're developing quite a few other services (www.amail.io to mention one) we are also basing all our services on UserApp.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#19

good idea, but coming from a privacy startup this is obviously a no-go.. and distributing a web-app would equal to just open source it.. I know, it's a dilemna

I need to integrate something like this in an open source platform. Is there anything even close as an open source project? Or do we need to develop the same thing as FOSS ourselves?

OpenAM

edit: I seem to have been voted down. It was a serious suggestion though - did I misunderstand the question?

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#20
post #14

Why? Honestly, how can you "outsource" such a vital part of your web app to a third party? Not only is this a privacy disaster but also, if this user service goes down or has a temporary downtime, your own business is effectively unusable. I understand that it makes sense to not write these types of user functions and management things over and over again. The solution however, is not a SaaS, but a library or a littl…

OP here.

Exactly because of this reason, you should use us. We have built a low-latency HA platform. And it's our core business. This means that we will do it the best way possible.

I can understand your concerns, but you could try us out on a smaller project to begin with. Or wait until we launch our licensed version which will allow you to install the system in your own environment. I.e. keeping the data safe with you and under your control :)

But it might cost a little bit more than $9 :)

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