What is the most widely used backend as a service software?

Among commercial products, Firebase draws the most Wikipedia readers, counting its maker's article when it has none of its own, followed by AWS Amplify and Convex.

What is the most popular open-source backend as a service software?

By GitHub stars, Supabase, with 114k. Appwrite and Parse Server follow.

Is there an open-source alternative to Firebase?

Yes. Supabase, Appwrite and Parse Server are open-source backend-as-a-service platforms people run instead of Firebase.

Backend-as-a-service platforms in 2026

3 commercial products, ranked by how many people read about each, or about its maker, on Wikipedia's mobile site. Of those with an article of their own, Firebase has the most readers, about 1.2k a month. 30 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Supabase leads with 114k stars, ahead of Appwrite. 23 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: MIT (12), Apache-2.0 (10) and BSD-3-Clause (7).

Commercial backend-as-a-service platforms

1
Firebase Google
Discover Firebase, Google’s mobile and web app development platform that helps developers build apps and games that users will love.

Framework or platform Production-ready You build a mobile or web app and want auth, data and push notifications without running a server.
1.2k readers a month Since 2010 Commercial
2
AWS Amplify Amazon Web Services
Accelerate your full-stack web and mobile app development with AWS Amplify. Easy to start, easy to scale. No cloud expertise needed.

Framework or platform Production-ready Your team is committed to AWS and wants a faster way to wire up app backends there.
Commercial
3
Convex Convex
All gas, no breakages. Convex is the reactive backend platform that keeps up with you and your agents.

Framework or platform Usable You build a realtime TypeScript app and want database, server functions and live sync in one place.
Commercial

Open-source backend-as-a-service platforms

Complete systems you can adopt 1

1
PocketHost pockethost
Open source multitenant PocketBase server

Complete system Usable You want to host many PocketBase backends yourself, or offer PocketBase hosting to others.
★ 1.4k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 21 days ago

Frameworks and platforms to build on 8

1
Supabase supabase
The Postgres development platform. Supabase gives you a dedicated Postgres database to build your web, mobile, and AI applications.

Framework or platform Production-ready You want Firebase-style speed of building but on standard Postgres, hosted or self-hosted.
★ 114k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
2
Appwrite appwrite
The open-source cloud for agents & devs. Including Auth, Databases, Storage, Functions, Messaging, Hosting, Realtime, WAF and more

Framework or platform Production-ready You are building web or mobile apps and want a Firebase-style backend you can self-host.
★ 58k BSD-3-Clause TypeScript Active, pushed today
3
Parse Server parse-community
Parse Server for Node.js / Express

Framework or platform Production-ready You want a mature, self-hosted app backend with SDKs for many platforms, or you are migrating an old Parse app.
★ 21k Apache-2.0 JavaScript Active, pushed today
4
Nhost nhost
The Open Source Firebase Alternative with GraphQL.

Framework or platform Production-ready You want a Postgres-backed app backend with an auto-generated GraphQL API.
★ 9.4k MIT Go Active, pushed today
5
Butterbase butterbase-ai
Open-source backend-as-a-service. Postgres, auth, storage, functions, AI gateway, MCP.

Framework or platform Experimental You want a Supabase-like backend designed to be driven by AI coding agents and are fine with a new project.
★ 3k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
6
Laf labring
Laf is a vibrant cloud development platform that provides essential tools like cloud functions, databases, and storage solutions. It enables developers to quickly unleash their creativity and bring innovative ideas to life with ease.

Framework or platform Experimental You want a self-hosted serverless back end and are comfortable with Chinese-language documentation and community.
★ 7.5k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Slowing, pushed 3 months ago
7
Daptin daptin
Self-hosted application server for schema-driven APIs, identity, files, automation, integrations, realtime, metering, and protocols.

Framework or platform Usable You want a self-hosted backend-as-a-service in one binary and prefer config over writing CRUD code.
★ 1.9k LGPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today
8
Conduit ConduitPlatform
Batteries-included backend that works with any stack.

Framework or platform Usable You want a self-hosted backend made of modules you can switch on as needed for a web or mobile app.
★ 925 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed today

Building blocks for your own system 1

1
pREST prest
Instant REST and MCP APIs for PostgreSQL and MySQL, on existing or new databases. CRUD, custom SQL routes, auth and ACL without writing a backend. Low-code, ⚡ realtime, high-performance. Native MySQL support since v2.5

Building block Usable You want an instant API over a database you already have without writing a backend, and Go-based single binary deployment suits you.
★ 4.6k MIT Go Active, pushed 3 days ago

All 30 open-source backend as a service projects

Looking for an alternative to

Firebase AWS Amplify

Open-source licenses

Permissive: 29. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
Weak copyleft: 1. Changes to the licensed files must be shared, but you can link them into a closed program.

Languages

TypeScript 12, Go 5, JavaScript 3, Java 3, Python 2, Dart 1, Kotlin 1, PHP 1 and Swift 1.

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