If you love hasura and want something like firebase, please check out the tutorial with hasura + RxDB. It is like having a firebase with better offline-first and more features and of course without vendor lock-in.

https://hasura.io/blog/building-an-offline-first-web-app-wit...

What I liked with Firebase was how easy and fast everything was. One-click create a new project and everything was ready to use.

It's this developer experience I want to mimic with Nhost. By providing a managed backend with simple to use js-sdk (https://github.com/nhost/nhost-js-sdk).

I'm a web entrepreneur and for my project i've been using Parse server project (1) implementation by Back4app (2). For the non initiated, Parse server is a API server module for Node/Express + mongo + websocket and stuff you need to run a commercial app like auth, role management et all.

We chose this because :

1.Open source (no vendor locking although now i'm sure if i had to move from b4a it would be a small PITA 2. Ready to use 3. actively maintained (graphQL have been implemented although we have not used it yet) (3)

My question is : should i invest time on discovering nhost for my next POC ?

(1) : https://github.com/parse-community (2) : https://www.back4app.com/ (3) : https://docs.parseplatform.org/graphql/guide/

Yes! The main advantages for me with the Hasura/Nhost stack is:

1. SQL (Thanks PostgreSQL)

2. Instant realtime GraphQL (Thanks Hasura)

3. Zero vendor lock-in

> 3. Zero vendor lock-in

This is wrong. For basic features that are absolutely needed for a real-life app you will need the "Pro" hasura license.

No you don't.

I had the opposite experience with Firebase.

Amazing at first, but quickly fell apart when I had to implement any sort of meaningful business logic.

Yes I agree with you. With Hasura there are 3 main ways to handle business logic. We use the first one at Nhost and it's working (and scale) very well.

1. https://3factor.app/

2. Actions - https://hasura.io/docs/1.0/graphql/manual/actions/index.html

3. Remote Schema - https://hasura.nhost.io/console/remote-schemas/manage/schema...

I know Hasura is actively working on this exact issue and they just released Actions (second option) and I think we will start to see a standard/best practice approach to business logic soon.

Having tried remote schemas and reading about actions - I should say it doesn't feel right.

@elitan - just checking nhost. Features sounds promising.

Did you use hasura for building nhost's backend as well ?

Yes Nhost is built on the same stack you get with a new Nhost project.

I spent 3 days setting up Hasura a few weeks ago and I wish I'd known about Nhost.

Do you know why Hasura don't provide a managed service themselves?

Also, I wonder if Hasura will eventually move to a MongoDB-like license.

i have heard (from multiple founders in the space) that the hosted db business is a difficult one to be in. see for reference graphcool's switch to prisma.

i suspect that mainly applies to venture backed businesses - it could be a great lifestyle biz

I'm sorry that we are not doing a better job marketing Nhost. We have been very focused on the product but we hope to get the word out better in the future. Because you are not alone. There are lots of developers with the same problem, that just want things to work.

Hopefully, we will be mentioned in the documentation for Hasura.

Hasura does provide a hosted version (EDIT: not a hosted version) (Hasura Pro). You can read more about it here: https://hasura.io/hasura-pro

Hey!

1. We're working on adding nhost to the Hasura docs as a deployment guide for when you'd like authn + files + hosted postgres in one neat place. Johan just did a slick demo in the community call right now :)

2. To clarify: Hasura Pro is not a hosted version of Hasura. It's an agent that is added to wherever Hasura happens to be running for enabling monitoring/testing features.

Just tried hasura, it is amazing to get all crud graphql apis out of box.

How do we add business logic ?

Folks @hasura, where do we learn about haskell ? any helpful pointers much appreciated.

For business logic, there are a few alternatives.

1. Actions - https://hasura.io/docs/1.0/graphql/manual/actions/index.html

2. https://3factor.app/

3. Remote schemas - https://hasura.io/docs/1.0/graphql/manual/remote-schemas/ind...

I'm running a full production algorithmic trading platform, and our frontend interactions are handled by Hasura. For me, the appeal was in writing all the business logic as Postgresql triggers, which (provided they're written as true SQL and not plpgsql), scale beautifully with load. Hasura has a real appeal when you're keen to do your important logic in SQL.

Check out the result here: http://www.hedgecheap.com

I'm considering trying Hasura (or preferably something that can run on SQL Server as that's what we use in production. For me it feels as if trying to do the entire app through Hasura is the wrong approach. But, if we apply CQRS and treat reads different than writes then if we just use it for all of the reads in the system it could eliminate a tonne of code for us. The transactional code can still all go through entity framework and rest APIs.

You may enjoy the work done by Julie Moronuki and Chris Martin. They do lots of great learning stuff related to haskell.

> How do we add business logic ?

Awkwardly. Good luck

I've been shopping around all the BAAS offerings and nhost is really intriguing. Thanks for sharing.

Happy to hear. Let me know if you got some advice for us to improve the product.

I'm reading through the docs now. They are pretty good! I assume I could just use say Apollo on the client? Maybe that part of the docs could use some additional info.

You are correct. You can use any GraphQL Client. Hasura has done an awesome job with tutorials here that you should look at:

https://hasura.io/learn/

Ah that makes sense, didn't even think to look there. Awesome, thanks for the help!

Hi elitan -- since you asked, let me throw out my two cents.

I'm comparing you to Heroku, sorry if that's not your ideal comparison.

I think you need some different price points; the $4/month is great to get started, but the $40/month with 15M just really pales in comparison with Heroku's $50/month for 64G... particularly when I compare it with your $139/month for 5G of database.

Thanks for a great looking product, though!

Good point! We will evaluate our pricing next month and make it more competitive and attractive while at the same time keep the business healthy.

Early nhost user here! Elitan's platform is a great way to get started quickly with Hasura, and he was also fantastic with helping me out on some then-undocumented components. Always grateful when a developer takes time to do a 1:1 call.

Thanks again!

Thank you soooo much for your kind words ️

Firebase user here. I love Firebase because it offers so many components that (usually) play well together: Databases, Authentication, Machine Learning, Storage, Crash Reporting, Analytics, Messaging etc.

Which parts of Firebase is Nhost replacing?

Nhost provides: Database, API, Auth, Storage.

Next on the road map: Cloud Functions, Hosting, Crash Reporting.

We try to go from the core and outwards. Hope it makes sense.

@elithan this looks awesome man. The one thing keeping me in the firebase ecosystem is the firestore rules (basically quick CRUD permissions). Does nhost provide something similar?

Yes. Hasura handles this in their permission system and they do an excellent job. Super easy to get started with.

Together with Nhost's auth system and Hasura, it's easier than Firebase.

Do you offer rate and depth limiting?

Hasura has this feature, but unfortunately it seems like its part of their "pro/enterprise" offering and not the OS version. https://hasura.io/hasura-pro