What are some of the options for implementing databases in iOS and their advantages/disadvantages?

ok Fred here we go,

Pros for core data;

[this link]("http://nshipster.com/nscoding/") perfectly says it, it is amazingly useful and great to use but... it is a major pain in the ass to implement, archiving on the other hand is easy, doesn't offer as much but in some cases it works great. also looks at userDefaults because that will help out for simple data.

Cons for core data;

core data, as I said, sucks to implement but besides that it's actually pretty good once it's going,

Pros of a backend;

backends are a great plus for your app and its user, they're relatively easy to implement and definitely pay off. which ones are best? I'd say parse as apposed to cloud kit because parse if you want to expand to other platforms allows you to do that but cloud kit is only iOS.

Cons of a backend;

at times they can be hard to maintain but besides that they're smooth sailing, but, if your app grows you will need to pay to keep getting more space.

let me know if there are any other things you want to know.

happy hacking, Kai.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something in your question but Parse and Core Data are fundamentally different (at the least the way Treehouse uses them).

It really depends on your intended use. Core Data is used when you need to store data in a database format on the local device. It can be difficult to setup and configure but once you've used it in a few projects it becomes easy.

On the other hand, Parse stores data remotely and would therefore not be right choice if your app has no need to share data with other users. That's why I'm a bit confused by your question.

It's not impossible to use both Parse and Core Data in the same app (I've had to do this in the past). Parse has recently introduced a new feature called "Parse Local Datastore" but I'm not aware Treehouse has covered this.