Philosophy

The core approach behind each backend-as-a-service platform.

Supabase

Positions itself as “the open-source Firebase alternative” — a Postgres database plus auth, storage, and realtime, built entirely on open-source pieces so the whole stack can be self-hosted rather than trusting a single vendor’s proprietary runtime.

Firebase

Google’s original mobile/web BaaS, prioritizing a fully managed, batteries-included experience with a NoSQL document model — optimized for fast client-side integration over relational data modeling or self-hosting.

Appwrite

An open-source, self-hostable BaaS aiming to match Firebase’s breadth of features (auth, database, storage, functions) while giving teams full control over where and how it runs.

Convex

A reactive backend platform where the database, server functions, and client subscriptions are unified around one idea: queries automatically re-run and push updates whenever their underlying data changes, with the whole backend defined in TypeScript.

PocketBase

Radically minimal by design — a single ~15MB Go executable bundling a SQLite database, auth, file storage, and realtime subscriptions, aimed at solo developers and small projects that don’t want any infrastructure to manage.

Nhost

Built specifically to pair Postgres with Hasura’s auto-generated GraphQL API, prioritizing an instant, schema-driven GraphQL backend over hand-rolled REST endpoints.

AWS Amplify

An opinionated toolkit for wiring frontend apps to AWS’s underlying managed services (Cognito, AppSync, DynamoDB, S3, Lambda), prioritizing deep AWS integration over an independent, self-contained backend runtime.

Hasura

Not a full backend by itself — it’s a GraphQL engine that bolts onto an existing Postgres database and auto-generates a complete GraphQL API from your schema, leaving auth, storage, and business logic to be composed separately.