Bazaar vs. the backends you know. Including where they win.
The difference isn't the feature list. It's whose database it is. Most backends give the app maker one database for everyone; Bazaar gives each user their own.
| Aspect | BAZAAR | FIREBASE | SUPABASE | POCKETBASE | SOLID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users' data lives in | Each user's own account | Your project | Your Postgres | Your server | Each user's pod |
| Storage paid by | Each user, free tier first | You | You | You | User or pod provider |
| Access decided by | The data's owner, by grant | Rules you write | Row-level policies you write | API rules you write | The pod's owner |
| Users sign up with | A Bazaar account | Your app | Your app | Your app | A pod provider |
| Realtime | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Varies by server |
| Ease of use | One SDK, plain JSON. Sign-in, sharing and sync built in | Easy, big SDK; you write the security rules | Easy if you know SQL and policies | Easy; you run the server | Steep: RDF, vocabularies, raw HTTP |
| Social | Contacts, invite links, sharing per document | Build it yourself | Build it yourself | Build it yourself | Sharing per document; no contacts or invites |
| Payments | Built in. A purchase unlocks data by permission (Beta) | Stripe extension | Stripe, wired up yourself | Stripe, wired up yourself | None |
| Server code | Not planned | Yes | Yes | Yes (hooks) | Your own, if any |
| Queries across users | No, by design | Yes | Yes, SQL | Yes | Hard |
| End-to-end encryption | Coming soon | No | No | No | No |
| Self-host | Coming soon: bring your own backend. Source-available (O'Saasy) | No | Yes | Yes, that's the point | Yes |
| Maturity | New, small team | Very mature | Mature | Established | Open standard, smaller ecosystem |
Pick them when you need this.
Firebase Server functions, push notifications, analytics, huge scale and a decade of answers online.
Supabase Real SQL and joins across all users, open-source self-hosting, a big ecosystem.
PocketBase One binary on your own box, full control, no vendor at all.
Solid An open standard with many providers. The purest form of user-owned data.
Pick Bazaar if
You'd rather not hold your users' data, or be the reason it disappears.Your app's logic can run in the browser.You want Firebase-like ease with user ownership, not a research project.You'd like your app's popularity never to be your bill.
Pick something else if
You need analytics or queries across all users.You need scheduled jobs, webhooks or push today.Your users can't be asked to make a Bazaar account.You need a DPA or certifications now.