title: Is the Parse SDK worth it? (cost-effective?)
body: <p>I'm creating an iOS app that uses remote databases, sessions (login/registration), server side code, and push notifications.</p>
  <p>I found this SDK called <a href="https://www.parse.com/products" rel="noreferrer">Parse</a> that handles all of the server stuff like hosting, the database, cloud code, push notifications, sessions, etc... (so pretty much everything I need to do)</p>
  <p><strong>Is Parse SDK worth using (cost-wise) in general?</strong></p>
  <h1>NOTE - FTR, PARSE HAVE TOTALLY CHANGED THEIR PRICING PLANS (5/2014)</h1>
  <p>these are the old plans...</p>
  <ul>
  <li>With the <a href="https://www.parse.com/plans" rel="noreferrer">free version</a>, you get 1 million requests a month (I'm guessing this means requests to the database?), 1 million pushes a month, and the burst limit is 20/second.</li>
  <li>The <a href="https://www.parse.com/plans" rel="noreferrer">next version up</a> costs $199/month, you get 15 million requests a month, 5 million pushes, and the burst limit is 40/second.</li>
  </ul>
  <p>Do you think it will pay for itself if goes over 1 million requests / month, and I have to pay for the $199/month version? What if I plan on making money with my app via ads, will it earn enough?</p>
  <p>Let's say every person accesses the database 5 times a day, that's 150 times a month, that means it will take 6,666 people until I have to upgrade. On average, will ads pay for the $199/month if I have that many people viewing the ads a day? (also, take into account that Parse is taking care of security, the cost of the servers, and maintenance)</p>
  <p>Another thing to consider is, how difficult/costly is it to create (and maintain):</p>
  <ul>
  <li>Server side code</li>
  <li>Database management and security</li>
  <li>Push notifications</li>
  <li>Set up a host</li>
  <li>Session management and security</li>
  </ul>
  <p>Will the robustness, security, and ease of maintainability when using Parse will help pay for itself?</p>
  <p>Thanks!</p>