The ticking time bomb of Parse shutting down

A few days ago, I wrote about Parse shutting down:

Never heard of Parse? Not surprising. But no doubt you use it. Parse offers massive database services, making it easy for app developers to collect data while managing many of the details.

As an example, Parse offers tools that handle login registration as well as login verification. You hand your visitors over to Parse code, they login, then Parse gives them back to you, all logged in. You don’t have to store the data locally and you don’t have to reinvent the validation code. Parse handles it all.

But all that is about to end. And all those developers need to find another solution or shut down their apps.

Allen Pike, writing on his blog, points out the rude surprise waiting for many app users once Parse is turned off for good:

As much as Parse will try to get the word out that they’re shutting down, many apps’ owners don’t even know that they’re reliant on Parse. Parse’s overly generous free plan made them popular with freelancers and consultants building quick app backends for their clients. Many of those clients don’t know what Parse is, let alone that the little app they commissioned a couple years ago is a ticking time bomb.

Marco Arment, writing on his blog, gets at the source of the problem:

In particular, it’ll be problematic when possibly hundreds of thousands of iOS apps just stop working in a year because their developers have long since moved on, or their contracts expired, or they can’t afford to spend time on a significant update.

One of the most damaging side effects of unhealthy App Store economics is that developers have little motivation or resources to keep apps updated.

Is there a way to notify users of apps that are dependent on Parse, give them a chance to migrate elsewhere?

UPDATE: Here’s a starting place for developers who use Parse and want to migrate elsewhere. [H/T Dave Aiello]