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Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

kinto.readthedocs.org

41–50 of 95 posts

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#41
post #38
post #32

Why not CouchDB + PouchDB? It's offline first and replicates over HTTP. For more fine-grained permissions and other features I'm also developing a small Go database compatible with PouchDB at https://github.com/fiatjaf/summadb I hope it will be able to sync through websockets soon.

I find it an ongoing mystery how many of these tools and services pop up that aren't based on Couch/PouchDB, don't reference Couch/PouchDB, aren't compatible with the Couch sync protocol, and don't even seem aware the Couch/PouchDB exist. I'm 100% waiting to be sold on "here's a new tool that does what CouchDB does, but is better in these specific ways", but if your sales pitch is just "we're working on writing an ex…

I am a little confused at why PouchDB isnt listed on the comparisons page, I am fairly certain they sent a comparison listing and asked me to review it at some point but in all fairness they did investigate and give reasons to not use PouchDB, this post is linked http://www.servicedenuages.fr/en/generic-storage-ecosystem

In my extremely biased position (as the maintainer of PouchDB) I would really have liked to still see this based on the CouchDB protocol / PouchDB codebase, it is true that neither Couch or PouchDB have particularly expressive and powerful permission systems (which is what the main downside looks to be) however I have been very aware of that building PouchDB and have made a lot of effort to ensure a powerful and flexible permissions system can be built on top of it (for example https://github.com/thaliproject/node_acl_pouchdb)

I do think that when you are tasked with providing cloud services for existing Mozilla products that there is a lot more risk involved in leveraging an existing established ecosystem like Couch / PouchDB however so its fairly likely that for Mozilla services this was the best choice (the same in reverse is true however also when looking at this as a generic library).

As for a disclaimer, I am a maintainer of PouchDB and a Mozilla developer. I have worked / talked to this team about Kinto, work on some features that use it and they are doing awesome stuff, some of which Pouch may possibly look to do as well.

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parse is HIPAA certified.

Regardless of this (assuming this is even true), I can't imagine that a finance company would want to store their data inside something like Firebase - The risk of data theft is too high and the value of the data is also too high. When you store everything in a big centralized system, the risk of that data being compromised increases greatly. Right now, the reason why no one is hacking Firebase is because the data wh…

> hospitals started storing data in Firebase

Is health data actually worth that much to hackers? Genuine question.

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#43

I'm not a big fan of offline storage for web apps. Any serious app will quickly exceed the localStorage limit which is only 5mb. I would also question the decision to use HTTP for this purpose instead of WebSockets.

WebSockets are for fast, low-overhead connections. If you end up making a new HTTP connection for every update, and there are a lot of updates happening, you should be using WebSockets instead.

Otherwise, HTTP works best. It has better tooling and will soon be even faster due to HTTP/2.

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#44
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of this (assuming this is even true), I can't imagine that a finance company would want to store their data inside something like Firebase - The risk of data theft is too high and the value of the data is also too high. When you store everything in a big centralized system, the risk of that data being compromised increases greatly. Right now, the reason why no one is hacking Firebase is because the data wh…

> hospitals started storing data in Firebase Is health data actually worth that much to hackers? Genuine question.

Media probably would pay a lot for health info on celebrities, politicians, ...

Scammers could use the info to find targets (Fake hospital bills, "new medications", ... are easier to sell with correct information. Financial scams might work better on families that are desperate to pay expensive bills)

Publicly shaming or attacking people with "bad" or "disgraceful" health issues. (HIV, gender operations, mental issues...)

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly. Kinto is a database with an API that you have to configure, deploy, manage and scale. It's not really an alternative to Parse/Firebase, as it is an alternative to Mongo.

main feature of firebase for me are the "realtime" updates

I recently tried Parse's Push Notification (which go through GCM on Android). I was shocked by how long the messages seems to take when on cellular.

If anyone has tips, I'm all ears.

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#47
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of this (assuming this is even true), I can't imagine that a finance company would want to store their data inside something like Firebase - The risk of data theft is too high and the value of the data is also too high. When you store everything in a big centralized system, the risk of that data being compromised increases greatly. Right now, the reason why no one is hacking Firebase is because the data wh…

> hospitals started storing data in Firebase Is health data actually worth that much to hackers? Genuine question.

Legal stuff in case it is stolen does.

Re: Kinto – open-source alternative to Firebase and Parse

#50
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of this (assuming this is even true), I can't imagine that a finance company would want to store their data inside something like Firebase - The risk of data theft is too high and the value of the data is also too high. When you store everything in a big centralized system, the risk of that data being compromised increases greatly. Right now, the reason why no one is hacking Firebase is because the data wh…

> hospitals started storing data in Firebase Is health data actually worth that much to hackers? Genuine question.

Yes, some types of data are highly valuable because it can be exploited by someone to make a lot of money.

Data related to a person's education/intelligence is valuable too.

If you could get a list of all emails of people in the world with IQ Also, someone's preference for particular adult content is highly valuable (for blackmail).

A person's location data might also be quite valuable (especially if that person is a politician/celebrity).

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