Note: I do not get sponsored by Appwrite in any way.
Hello everyone!
In this article I will be talking about Appwrite, a relatively new Open-Source alternative to Firebase.
Recently (September, 2021), they have raised $10M in a seed round [https://appwrite.io/seed].
This is exactly why I’d like to take a closer look at the features and potential of this platform.
So without hesitation, let’s get started.
What is Appwrite?
Appwrite offers a Real-time database which allows you to subscribe to data.
This means that a Websocket connection gets opened which quickly updates the subscription with new data whenever something changes.
You can think of the typical use cases here like chat applications, cooperative platforms (Google Slides, Figma etc.), and other applications that needs instant updates.
You can also use server functions with Appwrite.
This means you can execute custom code when an event happens, like account creation, user login, or document updates.
It also allows you to schedule these functions so they run on a CRON schedule.
On top of that, they offer some more sweet features:
- Easy user authentication
- Email verification and confirmation
- Account deletion
- Team creation and management
- Localization
- Health service
- Avatars API
I would like to briefly elaborate on the Avatars API because it is a pretty interesting feature that I haven’t come across before.
With the Avatars service you can fetch country flags, browser icons, payment methods logos, remote website favicons, QR codes for strings, user initials (like Google uses), and remote images.
These all get returned as images, which you can resize by passing a width/height prop to the request.
How Appwrite is built
Appwrite is completely open source and using the BSD-3-Clause License, which allows for complete redistribution of the source/binary code as long as the names/brands of copyright holders or Appwrite are not used to promote it.
This gives a lot of freedom for developers to fork the repository and create their own version if Appwrite doesn’t evolve in the way they want to.
Appwrite also gets a lot of help from open source contributors with a total of 207 contributors on their GitHub with 7 of those being developers working for Appwrite.
Combine this community with Appwrite’s $10M seeding round, and I’m sure we can expect some big things from this platform.
At the moment of writing, the main Appwrite repository is made up of the following languages:
Language Support
Like they show on their website, Appwrite can be used with many different languages.
They have addressed some of the main languages used in web development, IOS, Android, and back end development.
Is Appwrite production ready?
This is a big question, because an alternative to Firebase is nice and all, but for it to win some ground it will have to actually get used by applications.
Currently it does not seem to be used by any big companies, but my guess is that the $10M investment will give companies more trust in their capability to create a stable platform.
As features go, Appwrite has everything required for a full, multi platform, application.
I’d love to hear what you think, do you think you will be using Appwrite in any of your upcoming projects?
Thanks for reading and make sure you ask any questions down below!
