Backend as a service platforms bundle a database, user login, file storage and server logic behind APIs, so a product team can ship before building servers.
This guide ranks twelve by ninety-day setup effort, the bill once storage, egress and seats grow, how your data leaves, vendor independence, and whether the platform suits apps, games, GraphQL layers or IoT sensors.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What backend as a service platforms do
Backend as a service platforms provide a managed database, authentication, file storage and serverless functions through APIs, so developers build client applications without running their own servers.
Setup effort, true cost, data portability, exit options and buyer fit are the five tests, applied in that order to every backend as a service platform here. Smaller challengers are placed in the top three wherever the category has them; the well-known brands come after. Why those five, and why there is no score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Free Spark plan with quotas; Blaze pay as you go; published per-product rates
Yes
Mobile teams already inside Google Cloud who accept metered billing
Buyers wanting a flat bill or an independent vendor
We list the country the vendor operates from or contracts through. That is not the same as the hosting region, and any difference is spelled out in the entry.
Backend toolkit with BSD licence and Docker or Kubernetes self-hosting
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourceSelf-hostablePublished pricingMiddle East
Appwrite earns first place on the exit test. The repository carries a BSD-3-Clause licence, and the self-hosting guide covers plain Docker and a Helm chart for Kubernetes, so the whole stack can move to your own servers.
On Pro, extra resources are bought automatically until a budget cap you set, and project migrations still export when limits are reached. Appwrite Code Ltd. is the named company, under Israeli law. Expect to prototype on Free, then pay before launch.
What stands out
Open source, BSD-3-Clause
Docker or Kubernetes
Budget cap on Pro
Where it costs you
A Free project that hits its limit freezes and the Console runs read-only.
The Free plan allows one organisation and 2 projects per account.
Right for
Teams wanting a portable backend they can run themselves if hosting stops fitting
Wrong for
Teams that cannot tolerate a frozen project at a free limit
IsraelFree plan with 2 projects; Pro plan with a budget cap; published database tiers
Swedish Postgres backend with instant GraphQL and Git deployments
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingEurope
Nhost fits front-end teams that already think in GraphQL. The database is Postgres, the API is generated from your tables, and deployments follow Git commits.
Pricing is per organisation, with Pro charging metered overages beyond 10 GB of database and 50 GB of storage, and custom domains billed per project. Compliance such as SOC 2 Type II and external database connections starts on Team, so a regulated buyer jumps from the entry paid tier to a much larger bill.
What stands out
Postgres with GraphQL
Git-based deployments
Self-host support agreement
Where it costs you
The homepage names no licence, so the legal basis for self-hosting must be asked about.
Starter is capped at 5 GB of egress and 10 functions.
Right for
GraphQL-minded teams who want Postgres and a push-to-deploy flow from a small vendor
Wrong for
Buyers who need a stated open licence before they sign
SwedenFree Starter plan; Pro and Team per organisation per month plus usage; Enterprise custom
In this market Supabase is the Postgres default. Because each project is a normal database, an exit can start from standard Postgres tooling, and the Apache-2.0 repository backs the self-hosting guide. Docker is the recommended route.
Pro starts from a flat monthly fee with compute credits, per-GB charges follow beyond included disk and egress, and Team, the tier with SSO and backup control, starts far higher. Budget for that step if audits are coming.
What stands out
Dedicated Postgres per project
Apache-2.0 code
Firebase migration guides
Where it costs you
Free projects pause after one week of inactivity, which suits demos less than live apps.
Self-hosted Supabase gives up managed backups, branching and the Management API.
Right for
Teams moving off a document database who want plain Postgres underneath
Wrong for
Buyers who expect a full-featured self-hosted copy of the cloud
SingaporeFree plan with 2 projects; Pro and Team flat monthly fees plus usage; published add-ons
Backend with a cloud, a self-hosted edition and a managed tier
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
Backendless is the one platform here that treats hosting as a menu. The cloud has a free entry plan, Pro runs on infrastructure you control and is described as having no functional limitations in its core, and Managed Backendless adds round-the-clock monitoring for a fee.
That makes the exit test easy to pass. The gap is cost visibility: paid cloud tiers are priced elsewhere, and Managed carries no figure on the page, so total cost stays unknown.
What stands out
Self-hosted Pro
Managed option
Free cloud plan
Where it costs you
The pricing page lists no paid prices, currency or limits, so a real quote takes a second page.
The privacy policy places cloud data in the United States after transfer.
Right for
Teams that want to start hosted and keep a self-run option in reserve
Wrong for
Buyers who must see paid prices and limits on one page
United StatesFree cloud plan; paid tiers priced on a separate page; self-hosted Pro with free licensing
Parse-style hosted backend with auto-generated GraphQL and REST endpoints
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
Back4app suits a team with one app and a predictable request volume. The free tier gives 25K requests and 1 GB of transfer a month, the MVP tier raises requests to 500K, and the Pay as you go tier raises them to 5M.
Overages are itemised, from storage by the gigabyte to extra requests per 100K, so a spike is easy to price. The per-app model is the cost risk: a portfolio of apps multiplies every plan fee.
What stands out
Parse-compatible
Per-app plans
GDPR-compliant hosting
Where it costs you
Plans are priced per app, so a company with several apps pays several times.
The homepage does not state self-hosting, which leaves portability to Parse compatibility.
Right for
Small teams shipping one or two apps that already know Parse
Wrong for
Agencies running many small apps under one budget
United StatesFree plan without a card; paid plans per app per month billed annually; published overage rates
Reactive database backend with TypeScript functions and documented exports
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
Convex is built around one idea, a database whose queries stay live in the client, and its pricing follows the team rather than the traffic. Professional charges per developer each month, while the Business and Enterprise tier carries a minimum monthly commitment.
Export is better documented than at most rivals, with both a zip and a streaming route. The licence is the thing to read: FSL Apache 2.0 allows self-hosting but not resale as a competing service.
What stands out
Reactive database
Fair-source licence
CLI data export
Where it costs you
Streaming exports, log streaming and daily backups begin on Professional.
The self-hosting licence bars building a competing hosted product, and it converts to Apache-2.0 only after two years.
Right for
Product teams that want live-updating queries and a scripted way out
Wrong for
Companies needing an OSI-approved licence from day one
United StatesFree and Starter pay-as-you-go plan; Professional per developer per month; Business from a monthly minimum
Backend builder with workspace, seat and database-size plan steps
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Xano charges for capacity in steps. Free gives 1 seat and 1 GB; Essential adds 5 seats, automatic backups and custom domains; Pro adds load balancing and role-based permissions. Extras such as CPU and Autoscale boost are separate monthly add-ons.
On the engineering side, the site lists CLI workflow tests, versioned deploys with instant rollback, built-in observability and SAML sign-in. The trade-off is that a growing team meets seat limits before storage limits.
What stands out
Plan steps by workspace
CLI workflow tests
Versioned deploys
Where it costs you
The Free plan allows 10 API requests per 20 seconds and 100,000 records.
HIPAA and BAA cover cost an add-on on top of the plan.
Right for
Teams that want to model a backend visually and deploy with rollbacks
Wrong for
Buyers who want to run the code on their own servers
United StatesFree plan; Essential and Pro billed monthly or annually; priced add-ons; custom plan quoted
Backend framework provisioning services inside your own AWS or GCP account
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Encore is a code-first option, so ranking it against dashboard platforms needs care. Pro bills per team member, then adds a charge for each AWS or GCP environment and a smaller one per resource, metered hourly.
Preview environments per pull request come with Pro. Because the services live in your cloud account, nobody holds your data hostage, but you pay the cloud provider as well. The SDK sits on GitHub, though the page names no licence.
What stands out
Your own AWS or GCP
Preview environments per PR
Fair-use limits
Where it costs you
Every plan carries fair-use caps, such as 1 GB of database and 100,000 requests a day per app.
Pro adds per-environment and per-resource fees on top of the per-member fee.
Right for
Engineering teams that want infrastructure to land in their own cloud account
Wrong for
Non-developers who want to configure a backend from a dashboard
SwedenFree Starter plan; Pro per team member plus per-environment fees; 14-day trial; Enterprise custom
Data Delivery Network and GraphQL layer billed per active model
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Hasura answers a narrower question than the platforms above it. It exposes data you already hold as an API, and its pricing counts active models instead of projects or seats.
Base adds 30-day observability retention and unlimited supergraph developers; Advanced adds federated collaboration, multi-team CI/CD and team access controls. Hosting connectors is optional and metered per vCPU-hour and per GiB-hour. A team starting from nothing will still need a database and a login service.
What stands out
GraphQL and API layer
Per active model billing
Optional connector hosting
Where it costs you
The homepage lists no file storage or authentication product, so a team needs other services.
DDN Free keeps trace data for only 15 minutes.
Right for
Teams with existing databases who need a governed GraphQL or API layer on top
Wrong for
Teams wanting login, storage and a database from one vendor
United StatesFree DDN plan; Base and Advanced billed per active model per month; hosting metered by vCPU-hour
Game backend with Nakama servers, Satori LiveOps and Hiro economy tooling
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Heroic Labs is a specialist, so it ranks below the general platforms. Nakama on Heroic Cloud is billed monthly by Nakama CPU and database CPU tier, Satori starts at a monthly rate based on event ingestion, and support tiers add a further fee.
The self-host route exists through Nakama OSS and Docker, although the page names no licence. For a studio, the economy and LiveOps tooling is the reason to buy; for anyone else it is dead weight.
What stands out
Games backend
Nakama OSS download
Satori LiveOps
Where it costs you
The pricing page names a smaller development tier but gives no price or terms for it.
Studio support tiers are published at four-figure monthly rates, which weighs on small studios.
Right for
Game studios needing live operations, player economy and self-hostable servers
Wrong for
Teams building business apps rather than multiplayer games
United StatesMonthly Heroic Cloud tiers sized by CPU; published Satori start rate; published support tiers
IoT-oriented backend from Montpellier with an open source download
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePricing on requestEurope
Kuzzle's own pages describe industrial use cases, with sensors, PLCs and ERP or CMMS integrations, instead of app-backend features such as login or file storage. The company states that Kuzzle is part of Agora Makers without explaining the relationship.
Support is sold as Community, Starter and Business plans, and none carries a price on the pages read. A buyer should treat the open source claim as a starting point, then ask for the licence before building on the download.
What stands out
IoT focus
Open source backend
Support plans
Where it costs you
No plan prices, limits or free-plan details appear on the pricing pages read.
No licence name or self-hosting terms are stated alongside the download.
Right for
IoT and smart-building projects that need integrations with PLC and ERP systems
Wrong for
Teams wanting a general mobile or web app backend
FranceQuoted per organisation; plans named Community, Starter and Business without prices
Google-run backend with a no-cost Spark plan and pay-as-you-go Blaze
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best Backend as a Service Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Firebase starts easy and ends metered. Spark is a no-cost plan with daily Firestore quotas, so a prototype runs without a card. Anything with server code moves to Blaze, which is pay as you go, and so does the managed export that writes to a Cloud Storage bucket.
Credit of up to $300 is offered if eligible. Contracts follow Google Cloud terms under US law, which a smaller, single-product vendor ranked higher would not bring.
What stands out
Spark no-cost plan
Blaze pay as you go
Google Cloud terms
Where it costs you
Managed Firestore export and import need the Blaze plan.
Cloud Functions show as not applicable on Spark.
Right for
Mobile teams already inside Google Cloud who accept metered billing
Wrong for
Buyers wanting a flat bill or an independent vendor
United StatesFree Spark plan with quotas; Blaze pay as you go; published per-product rates
Backend as a service platforms provide a managed database, authentication, file storage and serverless functions through APIs, so developers build client applications without running their own servers. What separates these products is rarely a feature. Work through the steps below.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
1 vendors on this page sell by quote, while 11 publish a pricing model you can read today: Appwrite, Nhost, Supabase, Backendless, Back4app, Convex, Xano, Encore, Hasura, Heroic Labs, Firebase.
02
Weigh the vendor's home jurisdiction
The 12 companies behind this list are established in 5 countries, by region North America 7, Europe 3, Asia-Pacific 1, Middle East 1. Disclosure obligations attach to the company, so they travel with the vendor even when the servers stay at home.
03
Check the open source options
Source code is available for Appwrite, Kuzzle. Running it yourself swaps the licence fee for your own upkeep.
Backend as a service platforms: which data model are you buying?
The first decision is the database underneath, because it shapes every later move. Supabase and Nhost sit on Postgres, so tables, SQL and standard tooling carry over if you leave. Convex offers a reactive database whose queries update live in the client, which is convenient but specific to Convex. Firebase uses Firestore, and Supabase publishes migration guides for people leaving it.
Back4app is Parse-compatible, Hasura layers GraphQL over data you already hold, and Xano builds the backend from visual workspaces. Pick by what you already know, then ask how a full export would look on day one, not on the day you want to leave. Kuzzle and Heroic Labs are aimed at IoT projects and games, so their data tools follow those jobs.
Name the database model before comparing prices
Check that the vendor documents a full export
Ask whether the query language exists outside the vendor
Free plans and what happens when you hit the limit
Every vendor here has an entry plan, and what they do at the limit differs sharply. Supabase pauses free projects after a week of inactivity. Appwrite freezes the project and turns the Console read-only. Firebase Spark has a no-cost quota but shows Cloud Functions as not applicable, so server code forces an upgrade to Blaze.
Back4app Free stops at 1 app and 25K requests a month, while Encore applies fair-use caps on daily requests per app on every plan. A prototype that survives the limit may still fail the launch. Test the behaviour at the cap before real users arrive. Xano Free also caps API calls at 10 requests per 20 seconds.
Find out whether the cap pauses, freezes or bills you
Check which server features are missing on the entry plan
Price the first paid step, not only the free one
Leaving a backend: exports, licences and self-hosting
Backend lock-in is mostly about how the data and the server logic leave. Convex documents a zip export with the convex export command plus streaming export on Professional. Firebase needs the Blaze plan for managed Firestore export. Appwrite is BSD-3-Clause and runs on Docker or Kubernetes, and Backendless Pro is installable on infrastructure you control.
Supabase self-hosting works, yet it covers one project and drops managed backups and branching, so it is no copy of the cloud. Heroic Labs offers Nakama OSS with a Docker guide. Read the licence and the list of missing features before you plan an exit. Kuzzle describes an open source backend but states no licence.
Run a test export before you commit data
Read the licence for limits on hosting it yourself
List the managed features missing when self-hosted
Per developer, per app or per environment: how bills grow
Backend pricing units differ so much that two quotes can not be compared directly. Convex Professional charges per developer. Back4app charges per app, so five small apps mean five plan fees. Encore charges per team member, then per AWS or GCP environment and per resource. Hasura counts active models, a unit tied to access volume, and Xano steps by workspace, seat and storage tiers.
Nhost and Supabase bill per organisation or project with usage charges for storage and egress. Write down your developers, apps, environments and expected traffic, then price each vendor on the same sheet. Preview environments count as environments on Encore, so extra test setups raise the bill.
Count developers, apps and environments before asking for quotes
Model the cost of a preview or staging copy
Check overage rates for storage, egress and requests
What goes wrong most often when buying backend as a service platforms
Choosing on the free plan alone, then finding that the project pauses, freezes or loses server functions at the limit.
Assuming a self-hosted copy matches the cloud product, when Supabase self-hosting gives up backups, branching and the Management API.
Treating a per-app or per-environment price as a total, when Back4app and Encore bills multiply with every extra app or environment.
Picking a GraphQL layer such as Hasura when the project also needs login and file storage that the layer does not list.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What are the best backend as a service platforms in 2026?
First of 12 on this page is Appwrite. Appwrite puts the same platform toolkit on every plan, publishes its code as open source under BSD-3-Clause, and documents self-hosting on any machine with a Docker CLI or on Kubernetes through the official Helm chart.
That makes leaving the hosted service a documented route. The weak spot is the Free plan: at its limit the project freezes and the Console turns read-only, and extra resources cannot be bought there.
Which backend as a service platforms publish their pricing?
The ones that do, with the model each states:
Appwrite: Free plan with 2 projects; Pro plan with a budget cap; published database tiers.
Nhost: Free Starter plan; Pro and Team per organisation per month plus usage; Enterprise custom.
Supabase: Free plan with 2 projects; Pro and Team flat monthly fees plus usage; published add-ons.
Backendless: Free cloud plan; paid tiers priced on a separate page; self-hosted Pro with free licensing.
Back4app: Free plan without a card; paid plans per app per month billed annually; published overage rates.
Convex: Free and Starter pay-as-you-go plan; Professional per developer per month; Business from a monthly minimum.
Xano: Free plan; Essential and Pro billed monthly or annually; priced add-ons; custom plan quoted.
Encore: Free Starter plan; Pro per team member plus per-environment fees; 14-day trial; Enterprise custom.
Hasura: Free DDN plan; Base and Advanced billed per active model per month; hosting metered by vCPU-hour.
Heroic Labs: Monthly Heroic Cloud tiers sized by CPU; published Satori start rate; published support tiers.
Firebase: Free Spark plan with quotas; Blaze pay as you go; published per-product rates.
The other 1 quote per organisation.
Is there a free backend as a service platform?
Appwrite, Nhost, Supabase, Backendless, Back4app, Convex, Xano, Encore, Hasura, Firebase have a free plan or free self-hosted edition.
Where are these backend as a service platform vendors established?
The headquarters are spread over 5 countries and 4 regions, North America 7, Europe 3, Asia-Pacific 1, Middle East 1:
Appwrite: Israel.
Nhost: Sweden.
Supabase: Singapore.
Backendless: United States.
Back4app: United States.
Convex: United States.
Xano: United States.
Encore: Sweden.
Hasura: United States.
Heroic Labs: United States.
Kuzzle: France.
Firebase: United States.
Which backend as a service platforms are open source?
Appwrite, Kuzzle.
Which backend as a service platforms can you host yourself?
Nhost and Supabase are the next two on this page. Nhost is for GraphQL-minded teams who want Postgres and a push-to-deploy flow from a small vendor; Supabase is for teams moving off a document database who want plain Postgres underneath.
Who should not buy Appwrite?
Teams that cannot tolerate a frozen project at a free limit. A Free project that hits its limit freezes and the Console runs read-only..
Vendors who think their backend as a service platforms product should be here can tell us about it: what it does, who it is for. The call is ours, and software advice sets out what being listed means.
