Self-Hosted Firebase Alternative

Own your backend.
Not rent it.

23blocks is 20+ production-ready backend API blocks — auth, CRM, files, forms, products, search, and more — going fully open source on July 31, 2026. Run them yourself on your own infrastructure with our deployment recipes, or let us deploy and maintain them for you. Either way, the code is yours, and there's a real way out.

Your infrastructure
Open-source blocksNo lock-in
Zero-code exit
The structural difference

Backend platforms differ in structure, not just price

Prices and quotas change constantly, so we won't quote them here. What doesn't change is how the platform is built — and that's what determines whether you're ever locked in.

StructureTypical proprietary BaaS23blocks
Source codeClosed, proprietaryOpen source — every block, from July 31, 2026
What you getLow-level primitives — a database, an auth service, object storage — that you assemble yourselfFull backend blocks — auth, CRM, files, forms, products, search, ready to call
Where it runsOnly on the vendor's infrastructureShared platform, your own infrastructure, or both at once
Exit pathExport your data and rewrite against a new backendGraduate to your own infra with the same code — no rewrite
Adoption modelUsually all-in on one vendor's stackPer-block — adopt one, several, or all 20+
What you pay forThe software and the infrastructure, bundledOnly for running the platform — never for the software itself
What you get

A backend you can actually walk away with

Not primitives to assemble. Full blocks, open code, and an infrastructure path that's always yours to take.

20+ Backend Blocks, Not Primitives

Auth, CRM, files, forms, products, search, and more — ready-made API blocks, not a database and a bucket you have to wire together yourself. Adopt one or all of them.

Fully Open Source, July 31, 2026

Every block's code goes open source. Read it, audit it, fork it. No black box between you and what runs your data.

Run It Yourself, With Recipes

Buy our deployment recipes — the same production-grade infrastructure playbooks we use — and run the open-source blocks on your own cloud account, your own way.

Own-Your-Infra Graduation

Start on the shared platform for speed. Outgrow it, or want to be big from day zero? Move to infrastructure you own with a reversible migration and no code rewrite.

Don't want to run it yourself?

We'll deploy and maintain 23blocks on your own cloud account — updates, monitoring, and support included. Same open-source code, same infrastructure ownership, none of the operational burden. That's 23blocks in a Box.

Fair warning

When a proprietary BaaS is the right call

Open source and self-hosting aren't free of trade-offs. Here's when we'd tell you to look elsewhere.

  • You want zero operational surface, period. A fully-managed proprietary backend removes even the option to think about infrastructure. If that's genuinely what you want, even our shared platform is more than you need — go managed-only.
  • You're deep in one vendor's ecosystem already. If your mobile SDKs, analytics, and push notifications are already wired to one platform's primitives, ripping that out for a backend-blocks model may cost more than it saves right now.
  • You need a feature we don't ship yet. We cover 20+ common backend needs, but niche real-time primitives or highly specific mobile SDKs from established vendors may fit your case better today.

We'd rather you pick the right tool than force-fit 23blocks. If none of the above apply — and you care about owning your code, your infrastructure, and your exit path — that's exactly who we built this for.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Is 23blocks really open source?

Yes. As of July 31, 2026, all 20+ backend blocks are open source — the exact code that powers the shared platform. Read it, audit it, fork it, run it.

Can I self-host 23blocks instead of using the shared platform?

Yes. Run the open-source blocks yourself with our deployment recipes on your own cloud account, or have us deploy and maintain a dedicated copy for you — that's 23blocks in a Box.

What's the difference between 23blocks and Firebase?

23blocks ships complete backend blocks — auth, CRM, files, forms, products, search — instead of low-level primitives like a database, an auth service, and object storage you assemble yourself. And unlike Firebase, the code is open source with a real exit off the shared platform.

Do I have to migrate everything at once, or can it be hybrid?

It can be hybrid. Run some blocks on the shared platform and others on your own infrastructure at the same time — a supported, deliberate choice, not a workaround.

Build on a backend you can keep

Start free on the shared platform, run it yourself with our recipes, or have us deploy it on your own cloud. The code is always yours — and so is the exit.

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