100% agree. Building my first notification-based app right now and Parse seemed like the obvious and best choice. Thing is, after a bit of thinking something felt...off. Not with the service, but off with the idea of attaching this small little project to something so...out of my control.<p>I dug around the net and found a working solution I could install on my own server, and now that&#x27;s exactly what I&#x27;ve got: The experience of doing this on my own, the flexibility to grow as needed, and the code to implement again and again without needing anyone or anything else.<p>Building apps these days is a massive gamble for small guys like me. We often spend dozens of hours with little to no possibility of return.<p>Any action I can take that reduces stress points and increase my knowledge base, (and this would have been a massive stress point) I&#x27;ll take.