🩺 Vitals
- 🟢 Last active: 2026-10-10
- 📦 Latest release: precompiled-2026-10-06-a3538c6 (2026-10-06)
- 🐞 Open issues: 243
- 🌟 Stars: 12.7k
What do these metrics mean?
- Last active: when code was last pushed, as of our last check. The dot is green when that was recent, grey otherwise. A long gap can mean a tool is finished and stable, not only unmaintained.
- Latest release: the most recent tagged, packaged version the maintainers published. Not every healthy project tags releases.
- Open issues: unresolved reports and requests. A high number is normal for a popular project and is not a warning on its own.
- Stars: how many people bookmarked the project on its forge. A rough popularity signal, not a measure of quality.
🏗️ Profile
- Official: convex.dev
- Source: github.com/get-convex/convex-backend
- License: Functional Source (FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0) (Source-available; each version converts to Apache-2.0 two years after release)
- Deployment: Docker
- Data Model: Reactive document store (embedded SQLite; optional Postgres/MySQL)
- Jurisdiction: USA 🇺🇸 (Convex, Inc.)
- Compliance (SaaS): HIPAA (Self-Assessed) | GDPR (Self-Assessed)
- Compliance (Self-Hosted): Self-Hosted (User Managed)
- Complexity: Low (2/5) - A Rust backend container with an embedded SQLite datastore, plus a dashboard container; optional external Postgres/MySQL
- Maintenance: Low (2/5) - Backend and dashboard image updates and datastore backups; no multi-service coordination
- User Management: Minimal (1/5) - The self-hosted deployment is administered through admin keys generated from one instance secret, with no individual user accounts; operator SSO/SAML, team RBAC and audit logging exist only in Convex Cloud
1. The Executive Summary
What is it? Convex is a reactive backend-as-a-service: a document database, a serverless function runtime, and real-time data subscriptions, all written and queried in TypeScript with end-to-end type safety. Where Supabase gives you managed PostgreSQL and SQL, Convex replaces the query language with TypeScript functions and makes reactivity the default: any query re-runs automatically when its underlying data changes, so live-updating UIs need no manual subscription plumbing. The self-hosted build runs the same backend the managed cloud runs, as a backend container on embedded SQLite plus a dashboard container, which makes it lighter to operate than the multi-service stacks of Supabase or Appwrite. It is the closest self-hostable analog to Firebase's Firestore-plus-Cloud-Functions model (a hosted database paired with serverless functions), aimed at TypeScript teams who want that reactive developer experience without Google's lock-in.
The Strategic Verdict:
- 🔴 For OSS-Procurement Purists: Caution. Convex is source-available under the FSL, not open source. The licence forbids building a competing hosted service, and each version only converts to Apache-2.0 two years after release, so the fully-open portion always trails the current code. Governance sits entirely with one venture-backed US corporation.
- 🟢 For TypeScript Teams Escaping Firebase: Strong fit. Reactive queries, a typed database, and serverless functions in one language remove the Firestore-plus-Functions glue code, and the two-container self-host footprint keeps operations light while native exports keep the data portable.
2. The "Hidden" Costs (TCO Analysis)
| Cost Component | Firebase (SaaS) | Convex (Self-Hosted) |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor Lock-in | High (proprietary Firestore + sync) | Low (native ZIP/stream export) |
| Scaling Costs | Spiky (reads / writes / egress) | Predictable (compute) |
| Real-Time Sync | Proprietary, cloud-only | Built-in, self-hostable |
| SSO / Team RBAC | Team access through Google accounts, with roles in Google Cloud IAM | Cloud only |
3. The "Day 2" Reality Check
🚀 Deployment & Operations
- Installation: A Docker Compose file runs two services, the Rust backend and its management dashboard; state lives in an embedded SQLite database by default, with Postgres or MySQL available for larger deployments. This is a two-container footprint, closer to PocketBase than to the many-service Supabase or Appwrite stacks.
- Scalability: The managed cloud is tuned for scale; the self-hosted build ships the free-tier backend features, without the cloud's team accounts and roles. The tooling is optimized for the hosted product, so teams committing to self-hosting should budget for a less-paved path, including manual setup steps that the CLI automates only for the cloud.
🛡️ Security & Governance (Risk Assessment)
- Jurisdiction & Geopolitics (USA): Convex, Inc. is a US venture-backed corporation, so its managed cloud falls under the US CLOUD Act; EU buyers with data-residency mandates should weigh that for the hosted tier. Self-hosting the backend on infrastructure you control removes that exposure entirely, since nothing transits Convex-operated systems.
- The Compliance Shift: Convex Cloud offers a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement and a published GDPR data processing agreement, and shares its SOC 2 report with customers on the Professional plan and above; none of these transfer to a self-hosted instance. The self-hosted build also ships no SSO, team RBAC, or audit logging, so an operator self-hosting for sovereignty inherits the full burden of access control and audit evidence, or must return to Convex Cloud for those controls (audit logging and SSO on paid plans).
- License & Governance Risk (FSL Trap): The FSL 1.1 restricts building a product that competes with Convex's hosted service, and each release converts to Apache-2.0 only two years after publication. Running strictly the converted-open code therefore means running software up to two years old. The conversion is a real escape hatch, guaranteeing eventual permissive licensing, but present-day control of the IP rests wholly with a single company that answers to no external governance body.
4. Market Landscape
🏢 Proprietary Incumbents
- Firebase: Google's managed backend with Firestore's NoSQL store and real-time sync; teams switch to Convex to keep the reactive developer model while escaping proprietary lock-in and egress-based pricing.
- AWS Amplify: A managed backend deeply tied to AWS services; Convex offers a comparable full-stack backend that runs on infrastructure you choose rather than one cloud.
🤝 Open Source Ecosystem
- Supabase: The relational alternative, built on standard PostgreSQL and SQL; choose it for a mature managed-cloud compliance story, at the cost of a heavier multi-service self-host.
- Appwrite: A multi-language microservices BaaS with a broad SDK surface and a conventional (non-reactive) data model; a fuller feature spread where Convex is a focused reactive core.