Our take
Pick Convex if typeScript app teams who will stay on Free $0 (1M function calls, 0.5 GB database, 1–6 developers) while they ship a prototype, then buy Professional at $25 per developer / month when they need 25M calls, log streaming, and daily backups. Pick PocketBase if indie and small-app teams who will self-host at $0 (one binary) while they open a first Admin log, then stay on that bill until they outgrow a
reactive TypeScript backend
single-binary backend desk
Best for
Convex A hosted backend you start at $0, then $25 per developer
PocketBase A backend you start at $0
Free plan
Convex $0 · /month. 1–6 developers. 1M function calls then $2.20/1M (Starter pay-as-you-go). 20 GB-hours of action compute then $0.33/GB-hour. 0.5 GB database then $0.22/GB. 1 GB files then $0.033/GB. 0.5 GB search then $0.55/GB. 1 GB database I/O then $0.22/GB. 3,000 search query-GBs then $0.11/1K. 1 GB egress then $0.132/GB. 40 deployments. 1,000 concurrent sessions. Query/mutation compute is free
PocketBase $0 · open source. Realtime database, authentication, file storage, admin dashboard. You run 127.0.0.1:8090
Lowest paid
Convex Business & Enterprise $2/mo
PocketBase Not published by the vendor
Next step up
Convex Professional $25
PocketBase
Runs where
Convex Hosted
PocketBase Hosted
Watch out
Convex Free is 1M function calls and 0.5 GB of database
PocketBase $0 is the license, not HA
Last checked
Convex 2026-10-22 · convex.dev/pricing
PocketBase 2026-10-23 · pocketbase.io
typeScript app teams who will stay on Free $0 (1M function calls, 0.5 GB database, 1–6 developers) while they ship a prototype, then buy Professional at $25 per developer / month when they need 25M calls, log streaming, and daily backups.
Read the Convex pageindie and small-app teams who will self-host at $0 (one binary) while they open a first Admin log, then stay on that bill until they outgrow a single-node backend.
Read the PocketBase page