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Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

userapp.io

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Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#61

Post by throwaway420 »

alecsmart1 wrote: post #48

This is a great idea. I've been thinking of developing something similar. But you cannot sell it as SaaS. It needs to be a one-time self hosted project so that startups and download, install and be ready in minutes. At the same time there are no security/privacy issues that most users here are worried about.

I agree strongly. Ideally this would be a self-hosted project.

This would eliminate most of the potential privacy issues that might inhibit usage of this.

I'd love to see something like this take off because its time wasted that prevents you from working on a core product idea.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#62

Post by sologoub »

jumpbug wrote: post #32
WA wrote: 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…

I don't have a dog in this fight, but sometimes, companies are left with no other solutions. We had some websites hosted with Wordpress VIP. Because of their full page caching and just general restrictions, creating a login and user registration system like we wanted was not possible. We had to use a 3rd party hosted solutions that loaded with javascript(we used Gigya). Before that, I thought exactly as you do. There…

Gigya looks to be a lot closer to a DMP in an advertising world than a SaaS login service. They help getting visitors to identify themselves, that's a completely different positioning and feature set.

Knowing my audience and being able to monetize that is not the same as managing billing.

That said, it does sound kind of interesting, but from my own experience, I'd probably choose to build payments and billing myself.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#64

Post by nmcfarl »

jonahx wrote: post #59
nmcfarl wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is an expensive way to run a company. Very few startup start with their own server rooms, because part of the "failing fast" is failing cheap. And if you are making infrastructure investments before you find product market fit - well you aren't failing cheap. I do think there is inherent value in controlling your whole stack, and running all things on your own servers, but I think this is a bit of a luxury most…

I don't understand this comment. On digitalocean you can get 4G RAM for 40/month, 8G for 80. Running nginx and your favorite backend of choice, you will be able to handle any traffic your startup is getting. If you can't, you are already so successful that paying more won't matter....

This is a simple enough misunderstanding

I don't think that you own a digital ocean or ec2 instance - you rent them the same way you are renting the service this thread talking about. Given that chrismonsanto, is taking an even more hard line approach to controlling his stack than I do, I'm assuming he agrees (I know - dangerous).

When I talk about my servers I'm talking about things sitting in my racks (possibly in my server room), that I can rip components out of and upgrade. I'm talking about very expensive things, if not in terms of purchase price, certainly in terms of care and maintenance.

--

And to tie it back up to my other comment, I think there is value in owning your own servers, and in coding your stack from top to bottom, and having no external dependencies. But I think these are both very expensive choices - and the kinds of choices, most startups don't have the time/money for.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#65

Post by jjoe »

My gut's telling me this tool is going to be successful. But you'll definitely need to grow some thicker skin. Disregard skeptics (unless it's constructive criticism), keep building your product, and keep pushing.

Good luck.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#66

Post by jonahx »

nmcfarl wrote: post #64
jonahx wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this comment. On digitalocean you can get 4G RAM for 40/month, 8G for 80. Running nginx and your favorite backend of choice, you will be able to handle any traffic your startup is getting. If you can't, you are already so successful that paying more won't matter....

This is a simple enough misunderstanding I don't think that you own a digital ocean or ec2 instance - you rent them the same way you are renting the service this thread talking about. Given that chrismonsanto, is taking an even more hard line approach to controlling his stack than I do, I'm assuming he agrees (I know - dangerous). When I talk about my servers I'm talking about things sitting in my racks (possibly in…

Ah, okay I get it. Thanks for explaining.

Of course, there are levels of dependence, and I think hosting on amazon or DO represents a much, much smaller risk than outsourcing your user management to a startup (or even a well-established company, for that matter).

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#67

Post by chrismonsanto »

nmcfarl wrote: post #64
jonahx wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this comment. On digitalocean you can get 4G RAM for 40/month, 8G for 80. Running nginx and your favorite backend of choice, you will be able to handle any traffic your startup is getting. If you can't, you are already so successful that paying more won't matter....

This is a simple enough misunderstanding I don't think that you own a digital ocean or ec2 instance - you rent them the same way you are renting the service this thread talking about. Given that chrismonsanto, is taking an even more hard line approach to controlling his stack than I do, I'm assuming he agrees (I know - dangerous). When I talk about my servers I'm talking about things sitting in my racks (possibly in…

> Given that chrismonsanto, is taking an even more hard line approach to controlling his stack than I do, I'm assuming he agrees (I know - dangerous).

I'm actually OK with using something like EC2, because I control what runs on it. If I feel I can't trust EC2, or that it is too expensive, I can purchase my own hardware and move my stack to that. However, if I outsource my user management, I imagine the interfaces will be proprietary, and I will have to tear up my stack quite a bit to switch. I don't like that risk.

> I think there is value ... in coding your stack from top to bottom, and having no external dependencies

I'm also OK with having dependencies on other people's work, I just want the source code available so I can fix up things if necessary. I don't even require that the software is 'open source' or 'free software', since I don't plan to redistribute my changes. I do currently have one component in my stack that is proprietary (with source) and I have very much appreciated the ability to fix up things that didn't fully integrate with the rest of my service.

Re: Cloud-based User Management for Web Apps

#68

Post by jedireza »

Since I've built user/admin systems for the majority of my career, this is really interesting to me. The site looks great and the Family Guy stuff is funny ("No,n0_p4ssword!") Hah.

I agree with the lion share of what WA said.

The MVP/prototype argument is a valid one, but remembering that nothing lasts forever, it's probably wise to think of these services as temporary tools and not permanent solutions.

I believe that user management is such an important (and basic) thing, that you should own it. For the hackers out there, feel free to checkout my Drywall project, which is a website user system build for node. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4951605

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