Commerce Talk

Front End as a Service Solutions: Pros & Cons

Jeff Schaffner from our business development team breaks down what front-end as a service, or FEaaS, solutions do for websites and website design.

Are you wondering about how front-end as a service (FEaaS) solutions work, their benefits, and their downfalls? Two minutes with Jeff will get you sorted.

Transcript

Hey everybody, Jeff Schaffner here with another episode of Commerce Talk.

Today, we're going to be discussing front-end as a service, or FEaaS. Not the best acronym, and a little bit difficult to say, so I think we'll just be using the full term throughout.

Let's start out with the official definition: Front End as a Service. It's a solution that allows businesses to quickly and easily create professional-looking websites or web applications without needing extensive knowledge of front-end development.

The best way to bring this one home is probably with an analogy, and we'll use a Lego house in this case. 

So, instead of, you know, the website being a Lego house and you crafting all of the pieces of plastic from scratch to be able to create the windows and the doors and, of course, just the block, in this case, you have a repository, or a bucket, of pre-made components. Simply put, you're going to be able to snap those pieces into place, and that's exactly what Front End as a Service is like. 

It's a pre-built customized front-end web component that integrates into the website, in particular the front end.

The pros, obviously, with the Lego analogy there, is time-saving. The pre-built components will speed up the development process, allowing you to shift and focus on other areas of the business and get information or products out quickly.

The cons are limited, but also common sense in this case. We have a repository of pre-made components. If those components don't exist, they may limit your ability to create unique services or a unique feel. In the event that you're like, well, we have to do this, you know, then you'd still have to have a developer in place to be able to make those custom components.

In summary, Front End as a Service is a fantastic solution for startups and small and medium businesses since it offers speed-to-market while having, you know, limited development chops or resources, maybe you don't have a large team behind you. Large companies can also find great success with Front End as a Service, but the provider that you would be working with would need to have a deep repository when it comes to scaling to the size of a large or enterprise-level client.

That's pretty much it. I hope the overview and your new understanding of Front End as a Service is crystal clear. 

I'm Jeff Schaffner this has been another episode of Commerce Talk. Thank you for tuning in.

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