About slonbase

slonbase is an open-source backend platform on PostgreSQL. One Rust binary gives you a REST and realtime API, authentication with roles, file storage, JavaScript hooks and an admin dashboard that manages many projects, with every collection kept as a real PostgreSQL table. It is self-hosted, runs as several instances behind a load balancer (see scaling), and works with the PocketBase SDKs.

#What it is for

You define your data in a dashboard (or in SQL) and get the backend of an app without writing one: sign-in, access rules, an API, realtime updates, files, emails and an admin interface. The data stays in a PostgreSQL database you own, so you can query it with SQL, back it up with pg_dump, replicate it and connect your reporting tools to it.

It suits teams and developers who:

• want a backend they host themselves, on their own PostgreSQL (or a managed one);
• build several apps or client projects and want one place to run and manage them;
• want one small program to deploy instead of a set of services;
• already use, or want to use, PocketBase's client SDKs and hooks.

#What it is not

• Not a database. It stores your data in PostgreSQL 14 or newer, which it doesn't bundle.
• Not a hosted service. You run it; there is no account to create. (Managed PostgreSQL services work as the database.)
• Not a clone or a fork of PocketBase. See slonbase and PocketBase.
• Not Solbase, the unrelated tool for deploying tokens on the Solana and Base networks.

#Where it came from

The idea began with PocketBase, which showed how good a whole backend in one file can feel, and with wanting that on PostgreSQL. slonbase is a separate codebase, written from scratch in Rust with its own design, dashboard and features. It keeps PocketBase's API shape on purpose, so existing SDK code, hooks and data carry over (migrating), and it has grown well beyond that: projects, roles, an SQL console, designers for emails and the sign-in page, realtime for every change and scale-out across instances. The name is slon (elephant, for PostgreSQL's mascot) and base.

#Who builds it

slonbase is built and maintained by Ayesh Rodrigo, a software engineer, as an independent open-source project under the Apache License 2.0. The source, issues and releases are on GitHub. PocketBase is a separate project by Gani Georgiev; slonbase isn't affiliated with it.

#Facts

Next: the features, the quickstart and the benchmarks.