Frequently Asked Questions
Who is January for?
January is designed for anyone who wants to build an application quickly and efficiently. This includes startups that want to bring their ideas to life, software development agencies that want to increase deliverables, and developers who want to speed up the development process.
Can it get me to 100%?
Yes and No. It depends on the requirements of your application. If you're building something atypical, January can only get you so far. That being said, January can get you 60% - 80% of the way there, and you can always extend it to meet your specific requirements or build the parts that January doesn't support and integrate them using HTTP extensions, for example.
How does January help with my idea/project?
January speeds up the development process by generating backend code for you. This means you can focus more on what you want your application to do, rather than how to make it do that. We split the task into two segments: Extensions and Declarative-Code. A comprehensive extension system allows seamless integration and configuration of various technologies. Declarative-Code provides a simple and intuitive way to define your backend API.
How different is it from traditional coding?
January takes care of generating your backend code, ensuring there are no typical errors or bugs that can occur with manual coding. It uses best practices in backend development, which means the generated code is robust and reliable. So, you can focus more on your application's functionality rather than troubleshooting and debugging code.
What if I want to do something that January does not support?
Please let us know and we will do our best to support it. However, you can always extend January by creating your own extensions. Use the HTTP extension to call other services or the code extension to write your own code.
Can I have more than one project?
January uses organization -> workspaces -> projects hierarchy. You can create multiple projects in a workspace. You can also create multiple workspaces in an organization. Each account gets one organization by default.
What technologies does January support?
Our vision is to support a wide range of technologies, including databases, programming languages, and frameworks. Currently, we support Node.js and a few routing frameworks. GoLang is in progress as well!
Can I use GitHub?
Git and GitHub are integral to January. You can connect your GitHub account to January and push your code directly to your repository. We will integrate other git providers like GitLab in the future.
How can I deploy my code?
You can deploy your code to any cloud provider you want. January simplifies the deployment process by providing set of deployment extensions that auto generate the deployment configuration for you.
Where will my data be stored?
You choose where your data will be stored by installing the database extension you want. We provide a set of database extensions, including PostgreSQL and MySQL.
How can I debug the code?
There is first-class support for Swagger and OpenAPI. Our compiler instantly offers you in-app Swagger documentation with the ability to test your endpoints directly from January with no prior deployment.
Is it open source?
That is the vision, at least to open-source what we can. We are still working on the details. Stay tuned!
Do you offer a self-hosted version?
We are considering this possibility and it is very likely to happen in the future.
Do I need to be a backend developer to use January?
The product is designed to be developer-friendly and intuitive so that developers from all backgrounds can use it.
Can non-coders use January?
You need to have some basic understanding of coding to use this product.
How much does January cost?
It is free to use during the beta phase. We are working on a pricing model that will be fair and affordable for everyone. We will announce the pricing model soon.
Can I use January now?
Currently, it is in a beta phase. We are working hard to ensure that all parts work together. That being said, you can try it now in the playground above.