Fauna Has a Free API — Here's How to Build Globally Distributed Apps with Zero Ops

#fauna #database #serverless #javascript

Why Fauna?

Fauna is a serverless, globally distributed document-relational database. It combines the flexibility of documents with relational features like joins, indexes, and ACID transactions — all via an API. No servers to manage, no connection pools.

Free tier: 100K read ops, 50K write ops, 5GB storage per day.

Getting Started

1. Create Free Account

2. Install the Shell

npm install -g fauna-shell
fauna cloud-login
fauna create-database my-app

3. Define Schema (FQL v10)

// Create collections
Collection.create({ name: "users" })
Collection.create({ name: "orders" })

// Define fields with types
users.definition.replace({
  fields: {
    name: { signature: "String" },
    email: { signature: "String", unique: true },
    plan: { signature: "String" }
  }
})

JavaScript SDK

import { Client, fql } from "fauna";

const client = new Client({ secret: "YOUR_FAUNA_SECRET" });

// Create a user
const user = await client.query(fql`
  users.create({
    name: "Alice",
    email: "alice@example.com",
    plan: "pro"
  })
`);
console.log(user.data);

// Query with filters
const proUsers = await client.query(fql`
  users.where(.plan == "pro").order(desc(.ts))
`);

for (const u of proUsers.data.data) {
  console.log(`${u.name} (${u.email})`);
}

// Transaction (ACID — globally consistent)
const result = await client.query(fql`
  let buyer = users.byId("123")
  let seller = users.byId("456")

  let order = orders.create({
    buyer: buyer,
    seller: seller,
    total: 99.99,
    status: "paid"
  })

  order
`);

Python Client

from fauna import fql
from fauna.client import Client

client = Client(secret="YOUR_FAUNA_SECRET")

# Create documents
result = client.query(fql("""
  users.create({
    name: "Bob",
    email: "bob@example.com",
    plan: "free"
  })
"""))
print(f"Created: {result.data}")

# Aggregation
result = client.query(fql("""
  let plans = users.all().map(u => u.plan)
  {
    total: users.all().count(),
    pro: users.where(.plan == "pro").count(),
    free: users.where(.plan == "free").count()
  }
"""))
print(result.data)

REST API (HTTP)

curl -X POST https://db.fauna.com/query/1 \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query": "users.all().take(10)"}'

Fauna vs Alternatives

Feature	Fauna	MongoDB Atlas	DynamoDB
Global distribution	Built-in	Manual	Per-region
ACID transactions	Yes, global	Yes, local	Limited
Relational joins	Yes	Lookup only	No
Serverless	True	Semi	True
Free tier	100K reads/day	512 MB	25 WCU/RCU

Need to populate Fauna with web data? I build production-ready scrapers. Check out my Apify actors or email spinov001@gmail.com for custom data pipelines.

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