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Backend-as-a-Service 4 alternatives tracked

Open-source alternatives to Firebase

Firebase is Google's Backend-as-a-Service platform providing Firestore (NoSQL database), Authentication, Storage, Cloud Functions, Hosting, and Realtime Database for web and mobile apps. Developers use it to build and deploy full-stack applications without managing server infrastructure. Its tight Google ecosystem integration (Google Sign-In, Analytics, Crashlytics) is a primary driver for adoption.

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The alternatives

supabase

★ 101,921 TypeScript Apache-2.0

The Postgres development platform. Supabase gives you a dedicated Postgres database to build your web, mobile, and AI applications.

supabase/supabase Updated 2026-05-06

pocketbase

★ 58,148 Go MIT

Open Source realtime backend in 1 file

pocketbase/pocketbase Updated 2026-05-05

appwrite

★ 55,987 TypeScript BSD-3-Clause

Appwrite® - complete cloud infrastructure for your web, mobile and AI apps. Including Auth, Databases, Storage, Functions, Messaging, Hosting, Realtime and more

appwrite/appwrite Updated 2026-05-06

nhost

★ 9,146 TypeScript MIT

The Open Source Firebase Alternative with GraphQL.

nhost/nhost Updated 2026-05-06

Comparison notes

Supabase is the most feature-complete OSS Firebase alternative, providing Postgres instead of NoSQL, authentication, storage, real-time subscriptions, and serverless functions — self-hostable or managed. PocketBase is a single Go binary with a built-in SQLite backend covering auth, storage, and real-time for smaller projects. Appwrite provides a comparable feature set with multi-platform SDK support. The main gaps: Firebase's Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, and A/B Testing features have no direct OSS equivalents. Firestore's NoSQL data model requires data model changes when migrating to Supabase's Postgres; this is the largest migration challenge.

Migration tips

  • Export Firestore data using firebase-tools (firebase firestore:export) to a JSON/NDJSON format
  • Write a migration script to convert Firestore's document-collection model to Supabase's relational tables — this requires schema design decisions
  • Migrate Firebase Authentication users via the Auth REST API export and import into your OSS tool's auth system
  • Recreate Firebase Cloud Functions as Supabase Edge Functions or Appwrite Functions — function logic ports but API surface differs
  • Update all client SDKs from Firebase SDK to your target's SDK and test each auth flow, real-time listener, and storage operation

FAQ

Can I fully replace Firebase with an OSS tool?

Feature parity varies. Most OSS alternatives cover 70-90% of core workflows, but may lack polish, integrations, or specialized features. Pilot the alternative with a subset of your team before fully committing.

What's the cost of self-hosting?

Plan for ~$5-50/month in VPS costs (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, etc.) plus 2-8 hours/month in maintenance. For a team of 20+, self-hosting usually breaks even against SaaS pricing within 6-12 months.

Which alternative should I pick?

Sort by GitHub stars (a proxy for community health), check the last-pushed date (avoid unmaintained projects), and read recent issues to gauge responsiveness.