# backend

"A 57k-star, BSD-3-Clause backend platform that bundles auth, databases, storage, functions, messaging, and realtime into one Docker stack you own. A deep dive into what it costs, where your data lands, and where it quietly falls short."

Directus is a 37k-star platform that wraps any SQL database in instant REST and GraphQL APIs, a no-code Studio, and field-level RBAC. A 5,000-word teardown of the database-first model, its Flows and MCP server, the hard cost of its 2026 license change to the source-available MSCL 1.0 (free under $5M revenue, commercial beyond), and exactly where your data lives.

Supabase is the Apache-2.0, Postgres-first backend platform with 106,000+ stars. Here's how the component model works, why RLS changes where authorization lives, what self-hosting really costs, and the production-hardening the docs insist you do yourself.