Nhost
activeby Nhost AB · since 2020 · also known as Nhost Cloud
Open-source backend platform on Postgres with Hasura GraphQL, auth, storage and functions.
Overview
Nhost is an open-source backend platform that gives each project a dedicated PostgreSQL database exposed through the Hasura GraphQL Engine (queries, mutations, realtime subscriptions and event triggers with role-based permissions), plus authentication, file storage with image transformation, serverless functions and an AI toolkit with pgvector. It can be self-hosted with Docker or used as Nhost Cloud. It is a natural Firebase alternative for teams that want GraphQL and plain Postgres underneath rather than a proprietary document store.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Plain Postgres underneath, with direct SQL access
- +Instant GraphQL API with realtime subscriptions and row-level permissions
- +Auth, storage and functions bundled and open source
Trade-offs
- −Depends on Hasura, adding another component to learn and operate
- −Smaller community than Supabase or Firebase
- −No offline sync for clients
Great for
- +GraphQL-first web and mobile backends
- +Firebase replacement on Postgres
- +SaaS MVPs needing auth and storage quickly
Think twice for
- −Offline-first mobile apps
- −Teams that prefer REST-only stacks
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 11 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Medium · ≤ 10 TB
- Horizontal scaling
- None
- Multi-region
- No
- Transactions
- Full ACID
- Consistency
- Strong
- Schema
- Strict
- Architecture
- Client server
- Query languages
- GraphQL, SQL
One dedicated Postgres per project; scale vertically via compute add-ons.
Deployment
Ecosystem
Alternatives to Nhost
Open-source Postgres backend platform: database, auth, storage, realtime and edge functions in one project.
nhost vs supabase →Google's app platform: Firestore, Realtime Database and Data Connect, plus auth, functions and hosting.
nhost vs firebase →Open-source backend platform with databases, auth, storage, functions and realtime, self-hosted or cloud.
nhost vs appwrite →Open-source backend in one Go binary: SQLite database, auth, files, realtime and admin UI.
nhost vs pocketbase →Reactive TypeScript backend with a transactional document database, server functions and live queries.
nhost vs convex →Open-source Postgres platform with storage-level copy-on-write branching, scale-to-zero and anonymized clones.
nhost vs xata →Nhost FAQ
What is Nhost?
Nhost is a relational database by Nhost AB, first released in 2020. Nhost is an open-source backend platform that gives each project a dedicated PostgreSQL database exposed through the Hasura GraphQL Engine (queries, mutations, realtime subscriptions and event triggers with role-based permissions), plus authentication, file storage with image transformation, serverless functions and an AI toolkit with pgvector. It can be self-hosted with Docker or used as Nhost Cloud. It is a natural Firebase alternative for teams that want GraphQL and plain Postgres underneath rather than a proprietary document store.
Is Nhost open source?
Yes. Nhost is open source. License: MIT License.
Does Nhost support ACID transactions?
Yes. Nhost supports full ACID transactions, with strong consistency.
Does Nhost scale horizontally?
Nhost does not scale horizontally; it runs on a single node, so you scale it up rather than out. It is comfortable at medium scale (≤ 10 TB).
How can I run Nhost?
You can self-host it and use the vendor's managed cloud.
What is Nhost best for?
Nhost is a strong fit for GraphQL-first web and mobile backends; firebase replacement on Postgres; and SaaS MVPs needing auth and storage quickly. Think twice for offline-first mobile apps.
What are the best alternatives to Nhost?
Common alternatives to Nhost include Supabase, Firebase, Appwrite, PocketBase and Convex. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is Nhost?
Nhost ranks #244 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (13.8/100), and #76 among relational databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.