[6thSigma]

Parse is a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS). A BaaS is a great solution to connect your app to a backend server without having to build the backend yourself.

Why would you want your app to connect to a backend? Without a backend, you can only store data from a user in a database on their local device; which means that data is only available on that device.

If you need to do a login system, any kind of social interaction (sharing data between users), a leaderboard, syncing data across devices, etc. - you will need a backend. Parse helps you with that by providing you APIs to do all of those things.

I'm actually building an open source BaaS. Email me if you have any more questions.