8 Best Nhost Alternatives (2026)
The closest alternatives to Nhost are Appwrite, Convex, ElectricSQL and Firebase, with 4 more below. Each shares a comparison category with it, so every rationale here names both tools' real values. Nhost is 6th of 9 on Entry price ($25 /mo) — usually where a switch starts.
Why do people look for Nhost alternatives?
Most people searching for Nhost alternatives are not shopping — they already run it and something has stopped fitting. That something is usually a specific number rather than a feeling, so this page starts from the fields where Nhost genuinely trails the rosters it appears in, and only then covers the reasons that never show up in a table.
The measured reasons.
- Entry price — $25 /mo, 6th of 9. Firebase records $0 /mo.
- GitHub stars — 8,000, 6th of 10. Supabase records 90,000.
- Optimistic writes — No. Convex records Yes.
Any one of those is enough on its own if you sized your architecture around it. None of them is enough if you didn't — which is why the list is short and specific rather than a general case against Nhost.
The reasons that never make it into a table. A price rise after a funding round. A licence change that turns a self-host into a subscription. A region you now need and they do not have. An acquisition. A support experience that quietly degrades. None of those are fields, and all of them move teams — which is why every entry below links back to Convex alternatives, where the full field set and its sources live. The ones we catch get logged on the Nhost timeline.
How the shortlist is ordered. Every tool below shares at least one comparison category with Nhost, sorted by how many categories the two overlap in. There is no editorial ranking, no sponsorship and no affiliate link — the order is the overlap count, and the rationale under each is generated from the two tools' own cells, so it names real values rather than adjectives.
1.
Appwrite
Appwrite — Open-source backend platform: databases, auth, storage, functions, self-hostable. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on GitHub stars (52,000 against 8,000) and Entry price ($15 /mo against $25 /mo). What you give up: Transactions (none, where Nhost records mvcc) and Raw SQL (No, where Nhost records Yes). Best for teams that must run the whole backend on their own infrastructure. The most complete self-hostable batteries-included option, with the widest OAuth and SDK coverage here. Held back by a console-first model that keeps your schema out of your repo, and by the weakest transaction story on the page.
- Transactions
- noneNhost: mvcc Inferred
- Raw SQL
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Vector search
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Bulk export
- PartialNhost: Yes Inferred
- GitHub stars
- 52,000Nhost: 8,000 Inferred
- Full-text search
- PartialNhost: Yes Inferred
2.
Convex
Convex — Reactive TypeScript backend: database, functions and live queries in one project. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on Optimistic writes (Yes against No), Agent fit (5 against 3) and TS inference (Yes against Partial). What you give up: Raw SQL (No, where Nhost records Yes) and Exit cost (4, where Nhost records 2). Best for small teams shipping realtime-shaped product fast. The fastest path from empty repo to working realtime feature, and the clearest thinking about transactions on this page. It is also a 4 on exit cost with no SQL escape hatch — a bet worth making deliberately rather than by default.
- Exit cost
- 4Nhost: 2 Inferred
- Auth
- first-party-addonNhost: built-in Inferred
- Agent fit
- 5Nhost: 3 Inferred
3.
ElectricSQL
ElectricSQL — Postgres read-path sync: stream subsets of your own database to clients over HTTP. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on Local-first sync (Partial against No) and Optimistic writes (Partial against No). What you give up: Cron & scheduling (No, where Nhost records Yes) and Auth (bring-your-own, where Nhost records built-in). Best for existing Postgres apps that need live read data without a rewrite. The narrowest tool here and the best-behaved: read-path sync over a Postgres you already own, with an exit close to free. It solves a quarter of what Convex solves, and it is honest about which quarter.
- Cron & scheduling
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- MCP server
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- File storage
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Optimistic writes
- PartialNhost: No Inferred
4.
Firebase
Firebase — Google's app platform: Firestore documents, auth, functions, deep mobile SDKs. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on Optimistic writes (Yes against No), Entry price ($0 /mo against $25 /mo) and Local-first sync (Partial against No). What you give up: Self-hostable (No, where Nhost records Yes) and Exit cost (5, where Nhost records 2). Best for consumer mobile apps where offline behaviour is the product. Still the best offline story and the best mobile SDKs, and still the worst exit on this page by a distance. Reasonable for consumer apps that will never migrate; a liability for anything you expect to restructure later.
- Exit cost
- 5Nhost: 2 Inferred
- Raw SQL
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Optimistic writes
- YesNhost: No Inferred
5.
InstantDB
InstantDB — Client-side reactive database with a relational graph model and instant sync. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on Local-first sync (Yes against No), Optimistic writes (Yes against No) and TS inference (Yes against Partial). What you give up: Raw SQL (No, where Nhost records Yes) and Cron & scheduling (No, where Nhost records Yes). Best for multiplayer or collaborative UIs where every interaction must feel local. The most pleasant developer experience here for collaborative, instant-feeling UIs, and the smallest API surface. The absence of any server-side function runtime is the constraint people hit, usually around the third feature.
- Raw SQL
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Cron & scheduling
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Full-text search
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Vector search
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
6.
Neon + Drizzle
Neon + Drizzle — The DIY baseline: serverless Postgres, a typed SQL query builder, nothing else. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on TS inference (Yes against Partial), Exit cost (1 against 2) and Backing (big-tech against venture-backed). What you give up: Reactivity (manual, where Nhost records push) and Cron & scheduling (No, where Nhost records Yes). Best for teams that already know what backend they want to build. Not a competitor — the yardstick. You write the realtime layer, the auth, the file handling and the scheduler yourself, and in exchange nothing you build is owned by anyone else. Every exit-cost score here is measured against this row. Note that we carry Neon + Drizzle as the do-it-yourself baseline in that roster — the "what if we just ran this ourselves" reference point. The honest answer is usually that it is cheaper and considerably more work.
- Reactivity
- manualNhost: push Inferred
- Cron & scheduling
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Auth
- bring-your-ownNhost: built-in Inferred
- File storage
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Self-hostable
- PartialNhost: Yes Inferred
7.
PocketBase
PocketBase — One Go binary: SQLite database, auth, file storage, realtime and an admin UI. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on Entry price ($0 /mo against $25 /mo) and GitHub stars (48,000 against 8,000). What you give up: MCP server (No, where Nhost records Yes) and Egress metered (No, where Nhost records Yes). Best for internal tools and side projects where one VPS is plenty. Absurdly good value for single-machine workloads, and the easiest data extraction here — the store is a file you own. The ceiling is real: one writer, one box, and a bus factor of roughly one.
- MCP server
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Egress metered
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Vector search
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- Backing
- solo-maintainerNhost: venture-backed Community-reported
- Cron & scheduling
- PartialNhost: Yes Inferred
8.
Zero
Zero — Sync engine that puts a queryable client cache in front of your own Postgres. It meets Nhost in Convex alternatives. It is ahead on Local-first sync (Yes against No), Optimistic writes (Yes against No) and Entry price ($0 /mo against $25 /mo). What you give up: Cron & scheduling (No, where Nhost records Yes) and Auth (bring-your-own, where Nhost records built-in). Best for teams with an existing Postgres who want a UI that feels local. The most interesting shape on this page: instant local reads without surrendering the database. You still operate zero-cache and Postgres yourself, and you get no auth, storage or cron — this is a layer, not a platform.
- Cron & scheduling
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- MCP server
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
- File storage
- NoNhost: Yes Inferred
How this list was built
There is no editorial ranking on this page and no sponsorship behind it. The order is mechanical: every tool that shares a comparison category with Nhost, sorted by how many categories the two overlap in. A tool that meets Nhost in three rosters sits above one that meets it in a single roster, because more overlap means the comparison is more like-for-like.
The rationale under each entry is composed from the two tools' own cells. Where they differ on a field we score, the sentence names both values and the unit. Where they don't differ, it says so instead of manufacturing a distinction — which is why some entries are short.
Values, sources and verification dates all live on the category tables: Convex alternatives. If a figure here disagrees with a vendor's current pricing page, the vendor is right and we are stale.
Still deciding whether to move at all? The Nhost profile has the when-to-use and when-not-to-use blocks, and the Nhost timeline has the dated changes that usually trigger a migration.