I'm working on a check-in app for my wife's business as a learning project. We want to shift her from using Google Sheets to a more user-friendly interface. The app will allow clients to post their weekly data (like fitness and eating habits) that my wife can read and provide feedback on. I'm using React for the frontend, but I'm not sure about the backend since I don't have much experience with databases. I've tried Supabase, but it pauses the database after a week of inactivity, which isn't great since I'm a new dad and can't commit to consistent updates right now. I also tried Render, but they do the same thing. I'm looking for a more accommodating service while I learn about databases. I do have WordPress hosting and could potentially set up a site for user management and custom database tables, but I've heard there are limitations. What are my options? Should I go for a cloud service, or try setting something up locally?
6 Answers
Have you checked out Pocketbase? It's a good option and pretty easy to set up for your needs.
Check out neon.tech. It's a serverless Postgres option that scales to zero when not in use but doesn’t get removed. I've used it for other projects, and the free tier is quite good!
Turso is another solid choice. It's easy to use and has enough storage for apps like yours on the free tier.
I recommend Appwrite! It's similar to Supabase, but you can self-host or use their cloud version without worrying about inactivity shutdowns. Really flexible!
I like MongoDB for its versatility, but it also shuts down after 60 days of inactivity. One way to keep it alive is to set up a cron job that pings the database every 59 days. For free, you can use a VPS service for that! If your schema doesn't change much, consider DynamoDB's free tier—25 GB of storage and no automatic shutdowns, although the queries can be tricky at first. I went with DynamoDB for my own project, and it's been good!
You could also write a simple script to keep Supabase or Render active. Just set it up in a cron job on a free service, and it should work fine.
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