Appwrite

Appwrite is an open-source, self-hostable backend platform for building web, mobile, and server applications. It provides a complete set of backend services — authentication, databases, file storage, serverless functions, real-time messaging, and push notifications — packaged as a single Docker container you can run anywhere.

Market opportunity

The backend-as-a-service market is worth $7B+ and growing at 20%+ annually. Firebase dominates mindshare, but its vendor lock-in, NoSQL-only database, and unpredictable billing are constant complaints among developers. Appwrite targets this exact frustration with an open-source, multi-database (document + SQL), self-hostable alternative that works for web, iOS, Android, and server-side apps simultaneously. With 46,000+ GitHub stars, it is one of the fastest-growing developer tools on GitHub.

Technical overview

• Stack: PHP backend, Docker-based, PostgreSQL for data, Redis for caching and queues.
• Auth: 30+ OAuth providers (Google, Apple, GitHub…), email/password, magic URLs, phone OTP, and JWT tokens.
• Databases: document model with collection-based schemas, rich query language, relationships, and indexes.
• Storage: file buckets with image transformations, encryption, anti-virus scanning, and access policies.
• Functions: serverless runtimes for Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, Swift, Kotlin, and more.
• SDKs: official SDKs for JavaScript, Flutter, iOS, Android, Python, PHP, Go, and 10+ more platforms.

Who's it for

Mobile app developers who need a Firebase replacement they own, full-stack developers building web apps without a backend team, indie hackers who want a complete backend in one Docker command, and companies with data sovereignty requirements.

Get started

Self-host (one command):

docker run -it --rm \
  --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  --volume "$(pwd)"/appwrite:/usr/src/code/appwrite:rw \
  --entrypoint="install" \
  appwrite/appwrite:latest

The installer asks a few questions and launches the full stack. Open the console at http://localhost, create your first project, and connect your app:

import { Client, Account, Databases } from 'appwrite';
const client = new Client()
  .setEndpoint('http://localhost/v1')
  .setProject('your-project-id');
const account = new Account(client);
const user = await account.create('unique()', 'user@email.com', 'password');

Or use cloud.appwrite.io for a managed version with a generous free tier.