InstantDB
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 6 backend services by recommenders
Developers recommend it as an open source backend with real-time queries, sync and offline support. Caveat: last-write-wins conflicts and early-stage maturity.
Developers recommend it as an open source backend with real-time queries, sync and offline support. Caveat: last-write-wins conflicts and early-stage maturity.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Sync, real-time and offline out of the box
“Instant provides a nicer abstraction for working with agents and getting deligthful experiences like a sync engine out of the box”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Show HN: GETadb.com – every GET request creates a DB” “They actually deliver on the promise of "relational queries && real-time," which is no small feat.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” “you get real-time queries, offline mode, and optimistic updates out of the box”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” - Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps”
Open source and easy to self-host
“We're 100% open source and have instructions for getting the server up and running via docker”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” “The product is full open source, and we put a lot of work in making it easy to self-host.”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “The Instant team joins OpenAI” “Instant is 100% open source!”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” Easy API and good developer experience
“We indexed on making the API easy to understand so projects built with Instant are easy to maintain.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” “it was really easy to add that feature. Great dev experience”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” Agents and LLMs find it easy
“Instant gives you these out of the box, and the agents find it easier to write than CRUD code”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” “We've been around long enough that the LLMs already natively know how to use us!”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Vendor lock-in concerns
“would you want to vendor lock into some proprietary technology rather than build with tried and tested open source components?”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps” “the amount of lock-in or DSL was not my cup of tea”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “How's Linear so fast? A technical breakdown”
Other backend services people recommend
The four most recommended other backend services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PocketBase | 67 | 12 | 85% | 9 | — | Approved |
| InstantDBThis page | 23 | 10 | 70% | 6 | — | Approved |
| PostgREST | 12 | 3 | 80% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Sheet Ninja | 11 | 12 | 48% | 3 | — | — |
| Hasura | 7 | 1 | 88% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 53 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The product is full open source, and we put a lot of work in making it easy to self-host.”
“It was really good, albeit a bit unpolished.”
“the amount of lock-in or DSL was not my cup of tea”
“prod hackers to dive deeper and use Instant for startups”
“Instant provides a nicer abstraction for working with agents and getting deligthful experiences like a sync engine out of the box”
“Every cURL request to AGENTS.md spins up a new backend and splices in the credentials.”
“The "predefined patterns reduce token costs" framing resonates.”
“We indexed on making the API easy to understand so projects built with Instant are easy to maintain.”
“We use LWW on the attribute level which greatly reduces conflicts.”
“We've been around long enough that the LLMs already natively know how to use us!”
“a fun way to highlight the power of Instant”
“We're 100% open source and have instructions for getting the server up and running via docker”
“I wish I had something like this when I started.”
“In general, this sounds like a lot of things done right. It sounds VERY close to just what I wish existed.”
“it does look another awesome alternative”
“Not bad, but not much more attractive than the usual technology zoo any startup seems to end up with.”
“the demo-in-a-blogpost is really impressive”
“great to see it being launched finally”
“it was really easy to add that feature. Great dev experience”
“we think it's one the best ways to do permissions”
“InstantDB is a joy to work with. Granted, I've only ever built small toy projects with it, but it's my go-to.”
“you get real-time queries, offline mode, and optimistic updates out of the box”
“The sync engine feature looks very interesting to me.”
“Instant can run offline and comes with optimistic updates out of the box.”
“Would absolutely recommend this if it's good.”
“We built the backend to be multi-tenant, so we can give you unlimited free projects.”
“Instant gives you these out of the box, and the agents find it easier to write than CRUD code”
“this kind of UX comes very naturally with Instant”
“With Instant, you can make unlimited projects.”
“pairing Instant with Vercel works great too”
“Instant pushes handles more of the work on the frontend.”
“Would recommend doing bunx/pnpx/npx create-instant-app to scaffold a project too!”
“This is super cool and exactly what I've been looking for for personal projects”
“Instant is 100% open source!”
“would you want to vendor lock into some proprietary technology rather than build with tried and tested open source components?”
“They actually deliver on the promise of "relational queries && real-time," which is no small feat.”
“Looks very nice! I'll give it a spin for prototypes.”
“For me it feels faster, more intentional, and better when scanning lots of links.”
“it's last write wins so you have to be careful with it”
“instantdb seemed like a good fit but it's early days”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.