Turso Has a Free API — Here's How to Build Edge-First Apps with Embedded SQLite

#turso #sqlite #database #edge

Why Turso?

Turso brings SQLite to the edge. It's libSQL (a fork of SQLite) hosted globally with replication to 30+ locations. Your database is literally milliseconds from your users — everywhere.

Free tier: 9 GB storage, 500 databases, 25M row reads/month, 5 locations.

Getting Started

Install CLI

# macOS
brew install tursodatabase/tap/turso

# Linux
curl -sSfL https://get.tur.so/install.sh | bash

turso auth login

Create Database

turso db create my-app
turso db show my-app --url
# libsql://my-app-yourname.turso.io

turso db tokens create my-app
# Your auth token

TypeScript (with Drizzle ORM)

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/libsql";
import { createClient } from "@libsql/client";
import { sqliteTable, text, integer } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
import { eq, desc, sql } from "drizzle-orm";

const client = createClient({
  url: "libsql://my-app-yourname.turso.io",
  authToken: "YOUR_TOKEN"
});

const db = drizzle(client);

// Define schema
const users = sqliteTable("users", {
  id: integer("id").primaryKey({ autoIncrement: true }),
  name: text("name").notNull(),
  email: text("email").unique().notNull(),
  plan: text("plan").default("free")
});

const posts = sqliteTable("posts", {
  id: integer("id").primaryKey({ autoIncrement: true }),
  title: text("title").notNull(),
  content: text("content"),
  authorId: integer("author_id").references(() => users.id),
  views: integer("views").default(0)
});

// Query
const topPosts = await db.select({
  title: posts.title,
  views: posts.views,
  author: users.name
}).from(posts)
  .innerJoin(users, eq(posts.authorId, users.id))
  .orderBy(desc(posts.views))
  .limit(10);

topPosts.forEach(p => console.log(`${p.title} by ${p.author} (${p.views} views)`));

Python

import libsql_experimental as libsql

conn = libsql.connect("my-app",
    sync_url="libsql://my-app-yourname.turso.io",
    auth_token="YOUR_TOKEN")
conn.sync()

# Create table
conn.execute("""
    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS products (
        id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
        name TEXT NOT NULL,
        price REAL NOT NULL,
        category TEXT,
        in_stock INTEGER DEFAULT 1
    )
""")

# Insert
conn.executemany(
    "INSERT INTO products (name, price, category) VALUES (?, ?, ?)",
    [("Widget", 9.99, "tools"), ("Gadget", 24.99, "electronics"), ("Doohickey", 14.99, "tools")]
)
conn.commit()
conn.sync()  # Sync to cloud

# Query
results = conn.execute("""
    SELECT category, COUNT(*) as count, AVG(price) as avg_price
    FROM products WHERE in_stock = 1
    GROUP BY category ORDER BY avg_price DESC
""").fetchall()

for row in results:
    print(f"{row[0]}: {row[1]} products, avg ${row[2]:.2f}")

Embedded Replicas (Killer Feature)

import { createClient } from "@libsql/client";

// Local SQLite file synced with Turso cloud!
const client = createClient({
  url: "file:local-replica.db",
  syncUrl: "libsql://my-app-yourname.turso.io",
  authToken: "YOUR_TOKEN",
  syncInterval: 60 // sync every 60 seconds
});

// Reads are LOCAL (0ms latency!)
const result = await client.execute("SELECT * FROM products WHERE category = 'tools'");

// Writes go to cloud and sync back
await client.execute({ sql: "INSERT INTO products (name, price) VALUES (?, ?)", args: ["Thingamajig", 19.99] });

Turso vs Alternatives

Feature	Turso	Supabase	PlanetScale	D1
Engine	SQLite	PostgreSQL	MySQL	SQLite
Edge replicas	Yes	No	No	Yes
Embedded mode	Yes	No	No	No
Free storage	9 GB	500 MB	5 GB	5 GB
Locations	30+	1	3+	300+

Need data for your Turso-powered app? I build production-ready scrapers. Check out my Apify actors or email spinov001@gmail.com for custom data pipelines.

Using Turso? How are embedded replicas working for you? Share below!

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