You know what I like about Gumby? You don't know what Gumby is? Kids, these days!

Gumby was a rubber toy that kids could stretch and flex and contort and do all kinds of crazy things with. Look at the picture. It's simple, but it's also flexible.

In software, flexible and simple are usually diametrically opposed. Amazon's AWS would probably say it's flexible. It can meet almost any need you throw at it. However, it is not simple. The more you strive for flexibility in software, the more you end up with complexity, not simplicity.

Pinata took this challenge to heart as we decided to replace AWS's S3 as the best solution for developers building apps that need file storage and retrieval. S3 is pretty flexible, but it is a nightmare. You know it it, but in case you forgot, here are some quotes from real developers who made the switch to Pinata from "traditional" storage providers like S3 and Google.

"Integrating Pinata for image storage was a huge time-saver. Pinning the images we needed to store was straightforward, and it eliminated the need to worry about the complexities of encoding and decoding typically required by traditional storage systems."

"[Pinata] seamlessly handled our storage needs, simplifying what could have been a complex process and allowing us to focus more on enhancing the overall user experience."

"It was actually really easy the whole way through - the routes needed to add metadata, search, and upload files at will were seamless enough that I was inspired to try using Pinata as not just a file hosting service but also a growing cache. To my surprise, it didn't take long to get that working - something I would not expect from something like Google Cloud or other big names."

And while we make everything easy, developers can build incredibly powerful apps with our built-in tools such as:

• Groups: organize files however you want
• KV Store: add key-value pairs to files to make querying dynamic and easy
• Hot swaps: replace the content of a file without losing its history
• Workspaces: collaborate with as many people on your team as you want
• Vector storage (soon): build the AI project of your dreams with vectorization at the time of upload

Flexibility and simplicity can live together in harmony. See if for yourself by trying any of Pinata's incredible features to build your app.