Parse adds hosting product for its apps platform, says won’t ‘go away’ despite Facebook acquisition

Parse, the mobile backend as a service company recently acquired by Facebook, has unveiled a new product it calls Parse Hosting. With this, developers can have a spot to host their mobile apps without needing a contract with a company like Amazon Web Services or Rackspace.

Although it’s only been a week since the acquisition, the release of this hosting plan indicates that Parse isn’t ready to shut down and be absorbed by the social networking giant. Ilya Sukhar, the company’s CEO, says that Parse Hosting will make it “dead simple” for developers to establish a Web presence for their app. He also hinted that his company wasn’t going anywhere and that new things are coming in the coming months.

What might make this appealing to developers is the fact that hosting is free with Parse. The company tells us that developers who buy one of its other products will have hosting included.

The hosting environment can handle a landing page that can support a developer’s mobile app. The page can be coded in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, while also integrated with Cloud Code — something Parse says will make it feel like a truly “server-free mobile app development” environment.

Perhaps the usefulness of Parse Hosting originates from the fact that, as developers begin to create apps that are integrated with multiple services, having an environment that is compatible with all the different systems, whether it’s Twilio, Box, CrowdFlower, SendGrid, Stripe, Codecademy, or any other service, can be handy, especially if it’s managed by a company. It seems that Parse would rather have its service be considered a one-stop shop for all things related to mobile app development.

Having been acquired for an undisclosed account, and by Facebook no less, people were wondering about whether or not Parse would continue on. In a blog post, Sukhar sought to assuage any fear and denied that the company or any supported application would be affected. Rather, the goal was not to “go away”, but to “get better”.

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