Appwrite Has a Free Backend API That Competes with Firebase

#appwrite #backend #firebase #api

Appwrite is an open-source Firebase alternative with databases, auth, storage, functions, and messaging — all self-hosted with a polished REST API and SDKs.

Setup

docker run -it --rm \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 \
  -v appwrite:/storage \
  appwrite/appwrite

Database API

import { Client, Databases, ID, Query } from 'appwrite';

const client = new Client()
  .setEndpoint('https://your-appwrite.com/v1')
  .setProject('your-project-id');

const db = new Databases(client);

// Create document
const doc = await db.createDocument('mydb', 'posts', ID.unique(), {
  title: 'Hello World',
  content: 'First post!',
  published: true
});

// List with filters
const posts = await db.listDocuments('mydb', 'posts', [
  Query.equal('published', true),
  Query.orderDesc('$createdAt'),
  Query.limit(10)
]);

// Real-time
client.subscribe('databases.mydb.collections.posts.documents', (response) => {
  console.log('Change:', response.payload);
});

Authentication

import { Account, ID } from 'appwrite';

const account = new Account(client);

// Email signup
await account.create(ID.unique(), 'user@example.com', 'password', 'Alice');

// Login
const session = await account.createEmailPasswordSession('user@example.com', 'password');

// OAuth
account.createOAuth2Session('google', 'https://myapp.com/success', 'https://myapp.com/fail');

// Get current user
const user = await account.get();

Storage

import { Storage, ID } from 'appwrite';

const storage = new Storage(client);

// Upload
const file = await storage.createFile('bucket-id', ID.unique(), document.getElementById('file').files[0]);

// Get preview (auto-resized)
const preview = storage.getFilePreview('bucket-id', file.$id, 300, 300);

Cloud Functions

// functions/hello/src/main.js
export default async ({ req, res, log }) => {
  const { name } = JSON.parse(req.body);
  log(`Hello ${name}`);
  return res.json({ message: `Hello, ${name}!` });
};

Why This Matters

Self-hosted Firebase: Your data, your server
14+ SDKs: Flutter, React Native, iOS, Android, Web
Real-time: Built-in subscriptions on all resources
Functions: Deploy serverless functions in any language

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