OKAY GUYS I NEED YOU. I have an idea for an app (bet you’ve heard that before haha) and I really want to make it.
I have to learn swift, so online tutorials are my go to (pls recommend material).

However, I’ve never really done backend before, and I’ll need it to make my project (accounts & stuff). Where do I start for swift/iOS backend programming? Do I need to buy a server? Where do I host the stuff?

Pls help

I wouldn't worry about paying for a server just yet. For now, you can code up your backend, and let it run on your machine, while running the app that will connect to it on the same OS.

Now where to learn iOS and Swift, that's a tough question. I found most of the materials online very boring (and I have a job as a dev). Maybe the Udacity course could be nice? ( https://eu.udacity.com/course/... )

I have also heard very nice things about this course - https://udemy.com/ios11-app-develop...

No personal experience with either though. I gave up on iOS dev quite quickly. But to answer your question, once you go live, if you need to communicate with a server, you'll have to pay for it of course. It can be a digital ocean droplet, or a Google Kubernetes instance, that'll run your infrastructure on the backend...

@piehole thank you!

@FlipFloop @piehole I have no backend experience though

@FlipFloop FYI, it goes without saying that for iOS development, you need a Mac. Alternatively, you could code it up in React Native, but I have no idea how that'd work. So if you don't have a way to run OS X, you're out of luck before you even begin.

PS: Don't worry about 'backend experience'... There are 12-year olds who code iOS apps. That doesn't mean it's ridiculously easy, it just means anyone can do it, with enough time and patience... :)

@piehole I do have a Mac

Maybe this course will be helpful https://udacity.com/course/...
Teaches about the backend development using swift

@FlipFloop if you don't need any specific core functions of the phone, I suggest you to use the PWA standard to archive your app goals. It is easier to learn than any native language like Swift for iOS or Java for Android - and it's cross platform compatible out of the box but some functions doesn't work properly on iOS. Just check it out if it fits to you.

For the Backend I suggest symfony to you.

@apokalipscke thx!