Appwrite

A self-hosted backend-as-a-service. Database, auth, storage, and functions without Firebase's vendor lock-in.

⏱ 30 min ◆◆◇ some copy-pasting ↺ reversible

What it does

A complete backend: database, authentication, file storage, cloud functions, and real-time messaging. Build web and mobile apps without managing servers. 13+ official SDKs including web, Flutter, React Native, Swift, Kotlin.

Why it's on the shelf

Firebase's free tier is generous but the paid tier scales brutally - 1GB database reads cost $0.18, and a moderately popular app can rack up $100+/month. Appwrite self-hosted gives you unlimited everything for $10/month. The trade-off: you manage the infrastructure, but Appwrite's Docker setup is well-documented.

What it replaces

Firebase, Supabase Cloud, Appwrite Cloud, AWS Amplify. Whatever you pay for that today is what this page is here to delete. Worth being honest with yourself first though: if the bill is already small, the answer may still be that this isn't worth your Saturday.

Skip this one if... You don't want a server you're responsible for. Appwrite runs on your own box, which is what makes it free and what makes it yours - but it also means the backups, the updates and the 11pm restart are on you. If that's a no, close the tab; it'll cost you 30 min to find out the hard way.

Setting it up

These are the steps in order. The time on the bar above is what this took us end to end, including the reading.

Provision a VPS with at least 2GB RAM
Install Docker
Run the Appwrite installer: docker run appwrite/appwrite:0.15.3
Follow the on-screen setup prompts
Create your first project and database collection

The code

The actual configuration, not a sketch of one. The highlighted lines are the ones you have to change.

What this doesAppwrite's one-command installer. It generates a full docker-compose.yml for you.

terminal

# Run the installerdocker run -it --rm \  --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \  --volume "$(pwd)"/appwrite:/usr/src-code/appwrite:rw \  appwrite/appwrite:1.5.0  ← check latest version# The installer asks for your domain and generates# a full docker-compose.yml with all services

Before you run this Major version upgrades can require database migrations. Read the release notes before updating. The project is very actively maintained.

What it costs to run

Needs a $10-12/month VPS (2GB RAM minimum, 4GB recommended).

This keeps working without us Appwrite runs on your own box under the BSD-3-Clause, with your data in your own database. If Growth Dudes stops existing tomorrow, nothing on this page stops working. That is deliberate, and it's the only promise here we can actually keep.

Field notes

What people found when they actually ran it - dated, named and specific, including the times our setup number turned out to be optimistic.

Nobody has posted one for Appwrite yet.

We're not going to invent them. Run it, then tell the room what actually happened - the time you got, and the step that wasn't in the instructions.

Join and post one

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