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Comment by TeddyDD | Hacker News Reader

It's like saying nginx is better than superbase/firebase. Apples to oranges.

You could replicate PocketBase in Readbean, but you would have to implement from scratch: - resources with CRUD API and real time subscriptions - admin UI - authz & authn system

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I didn't say it's better. Why are people always misinterperting what they read (it's like you've never had text interpretation classes at school, or logic lessons to undestand how to infer implications from logical statements correctly)? Please read again: I said it's vastly simpler (which may not be better for you!) and lighter (just measure it). The comparison is apt for me because the description "open-source backend in one file" matches both projects well and it's something I'm interested in, with readbean being far closer to my alley.

Your initial comment presents Redbean as a comparable solution, which it's not; they serve very different use cases.

Redbean requires you to write server code; Pocketbase does not. Redbean does not offer a realtime database, authentication, an admin dashboard, integrated file storage, or an inbuilt API.

I like Redbean, but it's in a completely different "market sector". It's like comparing a kit car to a luxury car: yes, they both technically serve the same purpose, but one requires much less assembly and offers a much more usable experience out of the box.

They are comparable solutions to the problem "Open-source backend in one file". I don't care at all about "realtime database, authentication" and whatever, I care about what the title of the post says. For that purpose, Redbean is a nice alternative.

> It's like comparing a kit car to a luxury car

If all I need is a bicycle, a kit car is already over the top but will do. A luxury car makes no sense. You're thinking like everyone has the same needs that you have or something.

Ah, I see - my apologies, I think there's an unfortunate misalignment over the word "backend."

When Pocketbase is talking about a backend, they're talking about something like Firebase, which is a complete backend-as-a-service that implements everything you need for a service where the majority of the logic is in the frontend; it's meant to involve as little backend engineering as possible.

You're referring to the more general, standard sense of the word "backend". I agree with the sibling comment that you're not necessarily wrong in offering Redbean as a point of comparison, but the target user of Pocketbase has limited overlap with the targeted user of Redbean; the people looking for a Firebase-like solution would not be served by Redbean, and your initial post could be read as suggesting that they could be.

I do think the use of the word "backend" here is unfortunate, because it's really referring to something much more specific than the conventional use of the term.

I think people are being a bit harsh but your original comment (especially starting with "It seems to me" which makes it sound like a value judgment) was phrased in a way that did sound a lot like you were implying that redbean was better for the same requirements, although you didn't actually explicitly say that.

I think you would have gotten a more positive reaction if you said something like "As an alternative take on the idea of an "open-source backend in one file, redbean is a much simpler, vastly lighter one-file web server + sqlite DB: https://redbean.dev/" to make redbean isn't necessarily intended to be the same type of "open-source backend in one file"

Anyway, redbean does look really neat even if it's not necessarily totally interchangeable with pocketbase

I think you meant supabase.com instead of superbase.com.

Fruits can be compared

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