Open source alternatives to AWS Amplify

What AWS Amplify does

AWS Amplify combines an open source framework of libraries, UI components and a CLI with a console and hosting for static and server-rendered frontends. In the current generation, Gen 2, you describe the backend in TypeScript files for auth, data, storage and functions, and Amplify provisions it in your AWS account through the AWS Cloud Development Kit and CloudFormation. Data becomes a real-time GraphQL API on AWS AppSync with Amazon DynamoDB tables, auth deploys an Amazon Cognito user pool, files go to Amazon S3 and functions run on AWS Lambda. Each developer gets a cloud sandbox, shared environments follow Git branches, and pull requests can get preview deployments. Client libraries exist for JavaScript and TypeScript, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin and Java.

Why people look for an alternative

• The backend runs only on AWS. The Amplify framework is open source, but it provisions AWS services, so the backend cannot move to another cloud or your own servers without being rebuilt.
• Generation change. Amplify Gen 1, with Amplify Studio and the older CLI, is in maintenance mode and reaches end of life on 1 May 2027. Gen 1 and Gen 2 cannot be mixed in one app, and Gen 2 does not support DataStore.
• Usage-based billing across services. There is no monthly minimum, but Cognito, AppSync, DynamoDB, Lambda and S3 are each billed on usage with their own free tiers, which makes costs harder to predict than a single plan.
• Several services to understand. Debugging and extending an app means working with the underlying AWS services and writing CDK code once you go beyond Amplify’s built-in features.
• Data shaped for DynamoDB. Models are stored in DynamoDB behind AppSync, so moving to a SQL database means remodeling the data.

What to compare in an alternative

1. Data and API. SQL on Postgres or a document model, and whether you want REST, GraphQL or both.
2. Authorization rules. Equivalents for Amplify’s owner, group, signed-in and public rules.
3. Auth. Multi-factor login, social providers and how you will move existing Cognito users.
4. Functions. Supported runtimes, scheduled jobs and triggers on data changes.
5. Hosting and environments. Frontend hosting and branch or preview environments, if you rely on them.
6. Where it runs. An official cloud, self-hosting, or both.

Which one to choose

Supabase is the closest general replacement for Amplify’s backend: Postgres with auth, row-level security, REST and GraphQL APIs, realtime, storage and Deno edge functions, available as a hosted platform or self-hosted with Docker. Nhost suits teams that like Amplify’s GraphQL approach but want Postgres underneath, with permissions declared per table and role, Node.js functions and cron triggers. Appwrite goes furthest beyond the backend, with frontend hosting (Sites), messaging and functions in several languages, under a BSD license with matching cloud and self-hosted editions. The migration tools of Supabase and Appwrite cover Firebase and other sources but not Amplify, so plan to move Cognito users and DynamoDB data with your own scripts.