Convex

Convex is a TypeScript-first backend-as-a-service from Convex that combines a realtime reactive database, serverless functions, scheduled jobs, and built-in auth into a single platform. It is open-source under the FSL licence (with a self-hostable Docker option) and ships with end-to-end type safety from the database schema through to the React client. The free tier is genuinely usable, and paid plans start at $25 per developer per month.

What Convex does:

• •Realtime reactive database changes propagate to every connected client without you writing websocket code, so collaborative apps and live dashboards work out of the box.
• •Type-safe serverless functions queries, mutations, and actions written in TypeScript with full type inference from the schema, so the backend and frontend stay in sync without code generation.
• •HTTP and REST API endpoints expose any function as a public HTTP API for webhooks, integrations, or non-React clients, with built-in CORS handling and request validation.
• •Built-in auth and identity Convex Auth ships with Google, GitHub, and email magic links, plus Clerk and WorkOS integrations for SSO and SAML.
• •Scheduled functions and crons cron syntax for recurring jobs and one-shot scheduling for delayed tasks like email digests, with full observability in the dashboard.
• •MCP support Convex exposes a Model Context Protocol server so AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) can query your database and call functions directly.
• •Convex CLI for local dev the CLI ships with hot-reload, schema migration tooling, environment variable management, and one-command production deploys.
• •Open-source and self-hostable the entire backend is open-source under FSL and ships as a Docker image, so you can run Convex on your own infrastructure for compliance or cost control.
• •File storage with signed URLs upload files via the SDK, store them in Convex's blob storage, and serve them with time-limited signed URLs without managing S3 yourself.
• •Components ecosystem pre-built modules for rate limiting, agents, RAG, workflows, and AI streaming that drop into any Convex app with a single import.

Pricing:

• •Free $0/month: enough usage for early-stage projects and side projects, no credit card required.
• •Professional $25/developer/month: higher resource limits, longer log retention, and priority support, scaled per developer seat.
• •Enterprise from $2,500/month: SAML/SSO, dedicated support, service SLAs, and custom resource ceilings, contact-sales billing.

Limitations:

• •Requires a developer to set up Convex is infrastructure for builders, not a no-code tool. You need someone comfortable with TypeScript to build and maintain anything on Convex.
• •No SQL or analytics layer Convex uses a document-style query language rather than SQL, so BI dashboards and analytics workloads need a separate pipe to a warehouse via Fivetran or Airbyte.
• •10-minute action cap long-running jobs like batch LLM calls or video processing must be broken into chunks or routed to an external worker, since actions time out at 10 minutes.