Convex vs CockroachDB for Solo Developers

Convex and CockroachDB represent two very different philosophies. One wants to be your entire backend. The other wants to be the most resilient relational database you have ever used. For a solo developer, this distinction matters because your time and mental overhead are your scarcest resources.

I have worked with both, and the right choice depends almost entirely on what you are building and how much infrastructure you want to think about.

Convex Overview

Convex is a reactive backend-as-a-service that combines a document database, serverless functions, file storage, and real-time sync into one platform. You write TypeScript functions for your queries and mutations, and Convex handles deployment, scaling, and real-time updates to connected clients.

The developer experience is streamlined. There is no separate API server, no database provisioning, and no WebSocket setup. You define your schema, write functions, and call them from your React or Next.js frontend.

The free tier gives you 1M function calls per month, 0.5 GB of database storage, and 1 GB of file storage. The Professional plan is $25 per developer per month and bumps you to 25M function calls and 50 GB of database storage.

CockroachDB Overview

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database that is wire-compatible with PostgreSQL. It was designed from the ground up for horizontal scalability and survivability. Your data is automatically replicated across nodes, and the database keeps working even when individual nodes go down.

CockroachDB Cloud (their managed offering) lets solo developers use this technology without running a cluster themselves. You get a PostgreSQL-compatible database that scales horizontally and survives failures, all through a managed service.

CockroachDB Basic (the entry tier of CockroachDB Cloud) gives every organization a $15 monthly credit, which works out to roughly 50M request units and 10 GiB of storage per month at no cost. That is generous for getting started, and you only pay once you exceed it.

Comparison Table

By the Numbers (2026)

Here is where each project actually stands as of 2026-05-28, pulled from the registries and pricing pages rather than memory.

Convex

• Latest client release is npm convex version 1.39.1, published 2026-05-15.
• The convex npm package pulls about 731,000 downloads per week and roughly 2.9M per month, so the ecosystem is active and growing.
• The open-source backend repo, get-convex/convex-backend, sits at about 11,700 GitHub stars. The backend engine is written in Rust, while the client SDK and dashboard are TypeScript.
• Free tier: 1M function calls, 0.5 GB database storage, 1 GB file storage, 1 GB egress, and 20 GB-hours of action compute per month. Overage on the free plan runs $2.20 per additional 1M calls and $0.22 per additional GB of database storage.
• Professional is $25 per developer per month and includes 25M function calls, 50 GB database storage, 100 GB file storage, and 50 GB egress, with overage at $2 per 1M calls and $0.20 per GB.

CockroachDB

• Latest production major version is v26.2, which reached general availability on 2026-04-27. The most recent patch tag on GitHub is v26.2.1. CockroachDB is written in Go.
• The cockroachdb/cockroach repo sits at about 32,200 GitHub stars, which reflects its much longer history as an infrastructure project.
• CockroachDB Basic gives each organization a $15 monthly credit, equivalent to about 50M request units and 10 GiB of storage, then charges usage-based rates beyond that.
• CockroachDB Standard starts at $0.18 per hour for 2 vCPUs, which is roughly $130 per month if a node runs continuously. Advanced starts at $0.60 per hour for 4 vCPUs, roughly $438 per month continuous, and adds the security and compliance features larger teams need.
• One important change since the original version of this article: starting with v24.3 in November 2024, CockroachDB ships under the source-available CockroachDB Software License rather than an open-source license. Self-hosting is still free for individual developers, students, and businesses under $10M in annual revenue through the Enterprise Free license, but it is no longer open source in the strict sense.

Real Cost at Solo-Dev Scale

Numbers in isolation do not help you decide. Here is a worked example for a realistic solo project so you can see where the lines cross.

Assumptions. A small SaaS app with about 1,000 monthly active users, 5M backend operations per month, around 8 GB of stored data, and modest egress. One developer.

Convex. 5M function calls is over the 1M free allowance, so you are paying for 4M extra calls. On the free plan that is 4 times $2.20, about $8.80 per month in call overage, plus storage overage above 0.5 GB. With 8 GB of database storage you are 7.5 GB over the free allowance at $0.22 per GB, about $1.65. That keeps a project of this size near $10 to $12 per month before you outgrow the free plan limits and step up to Professional at $25 per developer per month. The clean answer for most solo apps at this scale is the flat $25 Professional plan, which absorbs the 5M calls and 8 GB inside its included 25M calls and 50 GB.

CockroachDB. The same workload, 5M request units, sits comfortably inside the 50M RU free monthly allowance, and 8 GB of storage is inside the 10 GiB free allowance. On CockroachDB Basic this project is effectively $0 per month, since it stays under the $15 monthly credit. The catch is that Basic is metered, so a traffic spike or a heavy analytical query can push request units past the free line, whereas Standard gives you predictable provisioned capacity from about $130 per month if you want a node that is always warm.

Reading the result. At genuine early-stage solo scale, CockroachDB Basic is usually cheaper because the free allowance is larger and your steady workload fits inside it. Convex costs a little more in raw dollars at this size, but you are buying a whole backend rather than just a database, so the comparison is not apples to apples. The dollar gap only matters once you decide whether you are paying for a database or for the entire backend layer.

When to Pick Convex

Choose Convex when development speed is your top priority and your app fits a real-time model. If you are building a SaaS product, a collaborative tool, or anything where users interact with live data, Convex removes a massive amount of boilerplate. No API routes, no WebSocket setup, no database administration.

Solo developers working in the React and Next.js ecosystem will get the most out of Convex. The TypeScript integration is tight, the local development experience is smooth, and deploying is a single command.

It also makes sense for MVPs and prototypes where you want to validate an idea before investing in more complex infrastructure. You can go from zero to a working app with a real-time backend in an afternoon.

When to Pick CockroachDB

Choose CockroachDB when you need a proper relational database with strong consistency guarantees and you want the option to scale later without re-architecting. If your data model has complex relationships, you rely on transactions that span multiple tables, or you need to run analytical queries alongside transactional workloads, CockroachDB handles all of that.

It is also the right choice if you are building something that needs to be highly available. CockroachDB's multi-region replication means your database survives outages automatically. For a solo developer, not having to think about failover or backup restoration is valuable.

The PostgreSQL compatibility is a major advantage. You can use any PostgreSQL client library, ORM, or tool you already know. If you ever need to migrate away, your SQL queries and schema work with standard PostgreSQL.

Verdict

For solo developers building interactive, real-time applications and who want minimal infrastructure management, Convex is the faster path to a working product. You trade vendor lock-in for development speed, which is often a good deal at the early stage.

For solo developers who need relational data modeling, strong consistency, and long-term portability, CockroachDB is hard to beat. The serverless free tier is generous, the PostgreSQL compatibility means your skills transfer, and the automatic replication gives you enterprise-grade reliability without enterprise-grade complexity.

Start with Convex if you want to ship this week. Choose CockroachDB if you are building something that needs a robust relational foundation from day one.

Sources

All figures checked on 2026-05-28.

• Convex pricing and tier limits: convex.dev/pricing
• Convex platform limits: docs.convex.dev/production/state/limits
• Convex npm package (version 1.39.1, download counts): npmjs.com/package/convex, data via registry.npmjs.org/convex/latest and api.npmjs.org/downloads/point/last-week/convex
• Convex backend GitHub repo (stars, language): github.com/get-convex/convex-backend
• CockroachDB Cloud pricing (Basic, Standard, Advanced): cockroachlabs.com/pricing
• CockroachDB Cloud cost details and Basic free allowance: cockroachlabs.com/docs/cockroachcloud/costs
• CockroachDB releases and v26.2 GA date: cockroachlabs.com/docs/releases
• CockroachDB GitHub repo (stars, language, v26.2.1 tag): github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach
• CockroachDB licensing change to source-available: cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/licensing-faqs