It's been a long time, and we want to thank everyone who's been waiting patiently. Parse Server version upgrades have been one of the most frequent requests on our Standard plan, and we're finally ready to take the next step forward together.

But before we dive into the what and when, let’s talk about the why. The path that brought us here is just as important as the milestone itself.

A Strategic Shift: Betting on Growth, Without Leaving Anyone Behind

Back in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw some of our customers unfortunately shut down, some hit a plateau, but many others began growing - and growing fast. That growth showed us where our platform could make the biggest difference and, at the same time, persist through the challenging times as a business ourselves. So we made a strategic choice to focus our efforts on supporting those customers who were positioned for rapid scale as the pandemic reshaped the market. In simple words, times were uncertain for all of us, and we chose to make a bet on where we saw growth potential, while continuing to deliver the same reliable service our customers count on.

What This Meant for Our Customers

These rapidly growing apps had specific infrastructure and feature requirements that couldn't be easily supported on the shared infrastructure offered in our standard offering. That led us to prioritize building dedicated, high-performance environments where we could provide more flexibility, faster updates, and hands-on support.

This is why new Parse Server versions were rolled out only on dedicated setups where this was explicitly requested over the past few years, as most of those customers had quite different requirements and priorities from one another.

We know this pause in version upgrades on Standard plan wasn’t ideal for everyone. For teams running stable apps without major growth spikes, newer versions of Parse Server still mattered. And yes, we lost a few customers due to this tradeoff. But we didn’t just sit on our hands all those times, and even though we had to make some difficult decisions, we managed to excel and persevere during a global disruption. We kept our services fully operational for thousands of apps, supported mission-critical workloads, and ensured consistent performance for businesses with spiking growth in those uncertain times.

What We Delivered in the Meantime

Despite the pause in version bumps, we also didn’t stop improving the platform:

• Maintaining the best pricing on the market, using the flexible pay-as-you-go model.
• Absorbing major cost increases - like 150%+ growth in DB hosting expenses - without raising your rates.
• Delivering 99.99% uptime, even during global disruptions like the supply chain crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• Flexible payment options for customers from countries where COVID and Russia-Ukranian conflict had an impact on the bank system
• Multiple infrastructure maintenance and upgrades without major service interruptions to ensure everything runs smoothly.
  

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

And a steady stream of platform upgrades at no extra cost, including:

• Micro CDN Upgrade - faster content delivery, better reliability.
• Increased File Upload Limits - from 20MB to 60MB, free on request up to 3 times per account.
• Push Notification Upgrade - support for Google FCM v1 API.
• MongoDB Server Enhancements - smoother DB operations.
• Custom Solutions and Dedicated Support - tailored help when you need it.

And last, but not least, we managed to protect our entire team(we didn’t cut costs by losing people) and remain a trusted partner to our customers during uncertain times like the COVID pandemic.

These foundational improvements laid the groundwork for the upgrades we’re releasing now - and the ones that are just around the corner.

What's Changing Now?

We’re excited to share that Parse Server Version 4.1.0 will be available in experimental mode on SashiDo's Standard plan by mid-September 2025. The update is compatible with the current infrastructure. This is a big step forward, and we appreciate the patience and understanding from everyone who’s asked about version upgrades over the past few years.

Photo by Ann H

What Does "Experimental Mode" Mean?

This release will be opt-in for standard plans and is intended for testing and feedback. Although it's technically in experimental mode, version 4.1.0 is stable and production-ready for most use cases. We're looking to validate its performance across a wide range of app configurations before making it the default.

Your feedback on how the new version performs in your environment is not just welcome, but valuable and highly-appreciated. It will help us move faster and ensure the update meets the high standards you expect.

What to Expect Next?

If your app runs on the standard plan and you’re ready to test Parse Server 4.1.0, keep an eye on your Dashboard and announcements. We’ll roll out opt-in access by mid-September 2025, and we'll be sending additional guidance on how to upgrade your apps as smoothly as possible.

Looking ahead, we’re also preparing support for a newer Parse Server Version that depends on enhancements in the underlying data infrastructure. These improvements will bring even greater stability, performance, and scalability, but they’ll require a bit more than just a version bump.

Once testing phase of the infrastructure is complete, we’re aiming for a full rollout of the latest stable Parse Server version by the end of Q1 2026.

We Appreciate Your Continued Partnership

We truly appreciate your trust and support through this journey. Your feedback and persistence have helped shape this update. During this experimental phase, we’d love to hear how 4.1.0 performs for your apps.

If you require newer versions sooner or want the perks coming with a custom setup, we can deploy the latest Parse Server versions on a dedicated environment upon request. Just fill in the official form, and our team will contact you with the details right away.

Happy Coding!

The SashiDo Team