I will give you a little background on my experience and the app to help paint a better picture of what I need out of the BaaS, and then tell you what choices I have narrowed it down to.
Me:
I am a pretty novice-intermediate programmer, and the entire app will be developed by me. I have developed and released a 2 mobile games, and started work on a Console/PC game using Unity. But I am self taught and have very minimal App coding experience. And I just started with Xamarin a month ago.
App/Web service:
The App/Web service would have to have similar functionality of an App/Web service like Eharmony. So it should be both a Mobile App (Android/iOS) and a Website. It should contain user data and then display a "feed" of other users based on certain criteria. So database storage that allows some algorithms to be run on it for sorting. I also would need secure login functionality. I would also need advertizing support. And would prefer to use AdMob, because I have some previous experience.
My Research:
From my findings I am thinking of going with Azure or Firebase.
AWS seems like it would be to complicated to set up for me to use, and sort of more power than I need or want, right now.
If I disregard compatibility I would want to go with Firebase as it just seems like it would be a better fit for me, and I love the Google ecosystem! If I am able to use Google sheets to do the filtering and what not that would be a big plus cause I have a lot of experience "coding" with Google Sheets. I also like the "live" updating that Firebase has, I don't need it but I would like the option cause I could create a messaging system inside the app/web service
But from what I have been reading the compatibility of Firebase and Xamarin is not very good. I am looking to make this as painless as possible, and I think Azure would be the easiest to implement.
I have heard of a few other BaaS and Kinvey also seemed like a good one, but I am weary because it's a smaller company/community and I don't want it to shut down like Parse.
Sorry for typing so much but I wanted to paint a decent picture of my situation. Thanks!
Another option, Ahhhh. Hahaha thanks for the info, I will definitely look into Kumulos
Answers
Hi there,
I'd recommend you check out Kumulos. We use it at Waracle and it works pretty well for us. Currently we have about 40 apps on the platform.
I reckon you could use their php sdk to share content from the web into the app.
It comes with an mBaaS, notifications, analytics, ASO and is rumored to be launching a crash mngt feature in the Fall.
The support guy I just spoke to also said that they will have a new Xamarin and Unity SDK out this month.
Just my 2 cents worth. Hope it helps and good luck with your app.
Bob
Another option, Ahhhh. Hahaha thanks for the info, I will definitely look into Kumulos