Convex vs Turso for Solo Developers

Convex and Turso both target developers who want managed databases without the ops overhead, but they sit at opposite ends of the philosophy spectrum. Convex gives you a full reactive backend. Turso gives you edge-distributed SQLite. Understanding that difference is the whole game.

I have shipped projects with both and they solve genuinely different problems despite both being "modern database platforms."

Convex Overview

Convex is a backend platform that combines a document database, server functions, file storage, and real-time subscriptions into one cohesive system. You write your backend logic in TypeScript, deploy it to Convex, and your frontend gets automatic reactivity. When data changes, every subscribed client updates instantly.

There is no SQL, no REST API to design, and no separate hosting to manage. Your schema is defined in code, and queries are TypeScript functions that run on Convex's servers.

The free tier includes 1M function calls and 0.5 GB of database storage, which is enough to build and launch a real product. One detail that surprises people: the backend itself is open source under an FSL Apache-2.0 license, so you can self-host the whole thing with Docker and point it at a Postgres database if you ever want off the managed platform.

Turso Overview

Turso is a distributed SQLite platform built on libSQL, an open-source fork of SQLite. It lets you create databases that replicate to edge locations worldwide, giving users fast reads from the nearest replica. You interact with it using standard SQL through their libSQL client libraries.

The core idea is simple: SQLite's simplicity and reliability, but available over the network and replicated globally. You get the familiar SQL interface with none of the "where do I host my database" complexity.

Turso's free tier is generous. You get 100 databases, 5 GB of total storage, 500M row reads, and 10M row writes per month. For a solo developer, that covers a lot of ground. Worth knowing for 2026: Turso now maintains two engines. libSQL is the C-based fork that is production-ready today and powers Turso Cloud, while Turso Database (a from-scratch Rust rewrite, formerly codenamed Limbo) is the future direction and still in beta.

Comparison Table

By the Numbers (2026)

Marketing copy ages fast, so here is the verified state of both platforms as of May 28, 2026.

Convex

• Client SDK: convex version 1.39.1, published May 15, 2026.
• Open-source backend: the get-convex/convex-backend repo carries roughly 11,700 GitHub stars and is mostly written in Rust under an FSL Apache-2.0 license that converts to full Apache-2.0 two years after each commit.
• npm adoption: about 731,000 weekly downloads of the convex package.
• Free tier: 1M function calls, 0.5 GB database storage, 1 GB database bandwidth, 1 GB file storage, and 20 GB-hours of action compute, with pay-as-you-go overage at $2.20 per additional 1M calls and $0.22 per GB of storage.
• Professional tier: $25 per developer per month, bumping you to 25M function calls and 50 GB of storage.

Turso

• Client SDK: @libsql/client version 0.17.3, published April 23, 2026.
• Open source: the tursodatabase/libsql fork sits at roughly 16,800 GitHub stars and is written in C. The newer Rust rewrite at tursodatabase/turso has climbed past 18,900 stars but remains beta.
• npm adoption: about 1.05M weekly downloads of @libsql/client, the highest of any package compared here.
• Free tier: 100 databases, 5 GB storage, 500M monthly row reads, 10M monthly row writes, and 3 GB of sync traffic.
• Paid tiers: Developer at $4.99 per month (9 GB, 2.5B reads, 25M writes) and Scaler at $24.92 per month (24 GB, 100B reads, 100M writes, plus teams and audit logs).

A quick read on those figures. Turso pulls more raw npm volume, which tracks with libSQL slotting into existing SQLite and edge workflows. Convex pulls fewer downloads but represents a whole backend rather than a driver, so each install carries more weight. Both backends are genuinely open source now, which changes the old "Convex locks you in" narrative.

Real Cost at Solo-Dev Scale

Pricing tables only matter once you map them onto a real workload, so here is a concrete one. Assume a small SaaS side project that has found a little traction: roughly 2,000 monthly active users, each generating around 1,000 backend operations per month, for 2M operations total. Storage sits around 3 GB. Reads outnumber writes about 9 to 1, which is typical for an app that displays far more than it mutates.

Convex at this scale. Every backend operation is a function call. 2M function calls exceeds the 1M free allotment by 1M, billed at $2.20 per additional 1M calls, so that is roughly $2.20 in overage. The 3 GB of storage exceeds the 0.5 GB free allotment by 2.5 GB at $0.22 per GB, adding about $0.55. Staying on the free/Starter pay-as-you-go plan, this workload lands near $3 per month before bandwidth, and bandwidth on a 3 GB dataset for 2,000 users stays modest. If you instead jump to the Professional tier for backups, email support, and headroom, you pay the flat $25 per developer per month and the 2M calls and 3 GB sit comfortably inside the 25M and 50 GB included.

Turso at this scale. Turso bills on rows, not function calls. With reads at 9 to 1, those 2M operations translate to roughly 1.8M reads and 200K writes per month, which is a rounding error against the free tier's 500M reads and 10M writes. The 3 GB of storage fits inside the 5 GB free allotment. This workload costs $0 per month on Turso's free tier with large room to grow before you reach the $4.99 Developer tier.

The honest takeaway. At this size Turso is effectively free and Convex costs a few dollars on pay-as-you-go or a flat $25 if you want the Professional safety net. That gap exists because the two platforms meter completely different things. Turso charges for rows read and written, which stays cheap for read-heavy apps, while Convex charges for function calls, which bundles your entire backend compute into the price. The comparison flips as you scale write-heavy or compute-heavy workloads, so plug your own operation mix into the per-unit rates below rather than trusting a single headline number.

When to Pick Convex

Choose Convex when you want the fastest possible development experience and your app benefits from real-time updates. If you are building a collaborative tool, a live dashboard, a chat feature, or anything where users need to see changes from other users immediately, Convex handles all of that out of the box.

It is also a good fit when you do not want to build a separate API layer. Convex acts as both your database and your backend, so you go from frontend component to database query in a single function call. For solo developers who want to minimize the number of systems they manage, this is a real advantage.

The TypeScript-first approach means everything is type-safe. Your IDE catches errors in your database queries before you even run them.

When to Pick Turso

Choose Turso when you need global read performance and your app is read-heavy. If you are building a content site, an API that serves data to users worldwide, or anything where low-latency reads matter more than real-time collaboration, Turso's edge replicas give you a genuine performance advantage.

Turso also wins if you value portability. Your data is SQLite-compatible. You can export it, run it locally, use it in tests with a plain SQLite file, or switch to another SQLite-based solution. There is no proprietary format locking you in.

The embedded replicas feature is unique. You can sync a Turso database to a local SQLite file in your application, giving you offline-capable reads with zero latency. This is powerful for desktop apps, mobile apps, or any scenario where connectivity is unreliable.

Verdict

These tools solve different problems. Convex is your best bet when you want a complete backend with real-time sync baked in and you are comfortable with a proprietary platform. Turso is the right choice when you need a globally distributed relational database with the simplicity and portability of SQLite.

For a typical SaaS app where collaboration and live updates matter, lean toward Convex. For a content-heavy application, an API serving global users, or a project where you want low vendor lock-in, Turso is the smarter pick. Both have generous free tiers, so you can try each one on a side project before committing.

Sources

All figures checked on May 28, 2026.

• Convex pricing and tier limits: https://www.convex.dev/pricing
• Convex open source and self-hosting: https://www.convex.dev/open-source and https://docs.convex.dev/self-hosting
• Convex backend repo (stars, language, license): https://github.com/get-convex/convex-backend
• convex npm version and weekly downloads: https://registry.npmjs.org/convex/latest and https://api.npmjs.org/downloads/point/last-week/convex
• Turso pricing and tier limits: https://turso.tech/pricing
• libSQL repo (stars, language): https://github.com/tursodatabase/libsql
• Turso Database Rust rewrite repo and roadmap: https://github.com/tursodatabase/turso and https://turso.tech/blog/we-will-rewrite-sqlite-and-we-are-going-all-in
• @libsql/client npm version and weekly downloads: https://registry.npmjs.org/@libsql/client/latest and https://api.npmjs.org/downloads/point/last-week/@libsql/client
• Turso embedded replicas documentation: https://docs.turso.tech/features/embedded-replicas/introduction