Tool profile
Realtime app backend with database, auth, permissions, storage, presence, streams, and offline sync for AI-coded apps.
Realtime app backends
Instant is a realtime backend that gives frontend-heavy teams and AI coding workflows a real application data layer without building every endpoint by hand. It combines a realtime database, auth, permissions, storage, presence, streams, and offline-first sync so applications can feel collaborative and responsive from the first implementation.
The product is especially well positioned for AI-assisted app building because it gives agents a concrete backend surface instead of asking them to invent brittle API glue. Instant is not a drop-in replacement for every relational database architecture, and teams with complex existing Postgres systems may prefer sync tools that preserve their current write path. But for greenfield collaborative apps, prototypes, internal tools, and products where realtime UX is core, Instant can remove a lot of backend assembly work.
Quick fit
Editorial take
Instant is most compelling when the app experience needs multiplayer, presence, optimistic interaction, or offline resilience early. If you are mostly building traditional server-rendered CRUD over an existing relational database, judge it against migration and data-ownership needs carefully.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
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Pricing snapshot
Instant lists Free at $0/month, Pro at $30/month, Startup at $600/month, and Enterprise as custom pricing. Free includes unlimited API requests, 1GB database space, community support, one team member per app, no credit card requirement, no project pausing, and commercial-use allowance.
Alation
PaidEnterprise data catalog
Enterprise data intelligence and catalog platform for search, governance, trust, and AI-ready knowledge layers over organizational data.
Choose Alation when the buying problem is enterprise trust, governance, and discoverability across data assets.
