My rollercoaster journey from $0 to $1k/mo, all the way to $30k/mo, and then failure (back to $0/mo)

[roxanneadam]

@miles77 Totally agree, even the hosting has big platform risks this days.
I've streamline my development with Firebase and i'm running the risk of Google shutting Firebase down like they've done with other valuable services in the past.
There's probably allot of money to be made using this tools and platforms but the risk of catasptrophic failure is ever present. The alternative is usually doing it all yourself which would be time consuming, costly or imposible.

 

[miles77]

@roxanneadam How does Firebase work?

Does it allow you to port over your app/data to your own server or somewhere else like Heroku?

 

[roxanneadam]

@miles77 Firebase is a closed source managed database, hosting and authentication service. The only way to port it is to rewrite the front end and backend to connect with a new authentication service and database. After doing that you have to manually export everything using scripts to your new service which I don’t even know how it would work with the authentication of third party login (fb apple, gmail, etc,). A complex system would probably need a complete rewrite of everything in the backend/database/authentication/servers and functions when taking into account Stripe and other dependencies

 

[miles77]

@roxanneadam Damn, why would people use Firebase then?

What benefits does it offer that would make up for this vendor lock-in?

 

[roxanneadam]

@miles77 Free tier for small projects and comes with everything out of the box. The infrastructure is managed by a single provider (don't have to setup managed services by different providers of authentication, database, messaging, hosting, storage, analytics, etc.).

You can download a coding template and all those features are ready to use after you setup your project on their website. Its great for a quick MVP but you're locked in with them.

 

[reallyornery]

@miles77 Use Supabase instead, it’s like firebase but uses SQL instead of nosql and it has an option to self host so you are never locked in.

 

[nevadabest]

@roxanneadam Isn’t Supabase a drop in open source replacement?

 

[roxanneadam]

@nevadabest The Firebase code doesn’t connect to a Supabase instance, everything has to be rewritten to connect to Supabase. Supabase is the open source alternative but I wouldn’t call it a drop since you have to do a custom data migration, rewrite queries, rewrite backend and front end code (to connect to auth, database and messaging system)

 

[xmiscreantx]

@roxanneadam Supabase developer here. You're absolutely correct here. Supabase is an alternative to Firebase, but is not a drop-in replacement. We use a SQL-based db (PostgreSQL) vs. Firebase's NoSQL offerings (RealtimeDB, Firestore) so things are quite different, and even though we provide migration guides (i.e. https://supabase.com/docs/guides/resources/migrating-to-supabase/firebase-auth) the two systems are still very different.

One major point, however, is that Supabase is open-source and can be self-hosted (so you don't have to worry about Supabase shutting down.) In addition, being built on open-source tools means moving data into and out of Supabase is a lot easier -- PostgreSQL is standard SQL so it's very easy to back up your data, move it around, etc.

 

[nevadabest]

@xmiscreantx Seems I had a misunderstanding. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[xmiscreantx]

@nevadabest No worries! Happy to answer any questions you have at any time.

 

[jamiekay]

@miles77 Interesting post - thanks for sharing. I sell about $5k a month on gumroad. 10% is a bit annoying but honestly, they make it so easy that I don’t mind that much. I wouldn’t change to another platform for 5%.

 

[miles77]

@jamiekay Thank you for your honest comment.

This is actually what I've gathered from most Gumroad sellers.

Everyone complains about Gumroad, but their actions are never aligned with their words -- they go on and on about alternatives like LemonSqueezy, etc., but nobody uses them.

If I may pick your brain, what would you think would radically improve your experience on Gumroad, or are you 100% satisfied?

 

[jamiekay]

@miles77 Good question. I’ve become so familiar with gumroad that I’ll probably start selling a course on how to succeed on gumroad…on gumroad. Honestly they get a lot of things right. It would be nice to have multiple preview thumbnail options (at the moment you must have rows of 3 and there’s no other option).

 

[zekt]

@miles77 Wow, really appreciate everything you posted here!

Developer here. I'm in the middle of building my first Saas, been going for about 2 months and close to pre launching to start gathering emails and interest.

What you said about being dependent on one platform. That's exactly what my Saas is right now. But you got me thinking on how I could expand that to other platforms

Also, your copyright in your new Saas is ON POINT. If you don't mind, I'll grab some of that and translate it into mine o.o

 

[miles77]

@zekt What is your product?

Share it here, or at least describe it, I can offer my input on it if you'd like, especially on whether your platform risk is actually great or if you're just overworrying.

And do you mean copywriting?

Yeah sure, take what you need, you have my permission.

 

[mamadukez]

@miles77 Why didn't you increase your pricing to make up for the api fees?

 

[miles77]

@mamadukez Nah, that would be throwing good money after bad.

Twitter had become a completely-unpredictable platform to build on.

I've lost trust in it, who knows if they'll raise the price again tomorrow or completely just turn off the API spigot?

Either case is just as likely.

I was better off just moving on and not be too attached to a good business gone bad.

 

[bryrene]

@miles77 banger journey .... this is inspirational