Encore vs Napkin
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Encore and Napkin.
Quick Verdict
3.6/5
Encore
0 reviews
3.5/5
Napkin
0 reviews
Encore is rated higher (3.6 vs 3.5). Encore is an open-source backend framework for TypeScript and Go that automatically provisions infrastructure as you code. Declare services, databases, caches and queues in your application; Encore provisions them in your own AWS or GCP account. Napkin lets you write and run Node.js and Python serverless functions directly in the browser with zero setup, deploying them as authenticated HTTP endpoints.
Encore TypeScript backend framework with built-in infra | Napkin Write and deploy Node.js and Python functions as HTTP endpoints from a browser editor | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.6 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.5 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Seed-to-Series-B product teams building on AWS or GCP who want platform-engineering automation — provisioning, preview environments, CI/CD and tracing — without hiring a platform team, and regulated teams that need infrastructure to live in their own cloud account. | Developers who need an HTTP endpoint today — webhooks, bots, scheduled automations, and prototypes — without opening a cloud console or running infrastructure. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceapi access | free tier |
| Visit Encore → | Visit Napkin → | |
Encore
Pros
- + Infrastructure provisioning is derived from application code — no Terraform or YAML to maintain
- + Transparent itemised pricing ($49/member/mo, $99/env/mo, $2.50/resource/env/mo) with hourly metering for temporary environments
- + Workloads run in your own AWS/GCP account; open-source SDK with a documented migration path
- + Preview environment per pull request, generated architecture diagrams, API docs and tracing out of the box
- + Generous free Starter tier for local development, plus startup and open source credits
Cons
- - Fees stack: per member plus per environment plus per resource, on top of your cloud bill
- - Application code is written against Encore's abstractions; exotic AWS services and custom topologies hit limits
- - Uptime guarantees and support SLAs are Enterprise-only
- - Feature parity is strongest in TypeScript and Go; other languages lag
- - Startup-scale vendor currently repositioning around AI coding agents — roadmap attention is a moving target
Napkin
Pros
- + Genuinely free plan: $0/month with 25,000 API calls, unlimited functions, custom domains, and team invites
- + One-click deploy from a browser editor — Node.js and Python, no cloud console or CLI required
- + Clear published limits: 500 MB/0.5 vCPU free (2 GB/2 vCPU Pro), 15s/30s timeouts, explicit rate caps
- + Endpoint SSL, auth, production logs, and scheduled triggers included on both tiers
- + Pro tier is capacity-only at $10 per user per month — no feature gating, no sales call
Cons
- - No published SLA, regions, or data residency; small-vendor reliability story
- - Free tier caps at 5 requests/second and a 15-second timeout — real design constraints
- - Browser-only workflow with no local development story and no obvious export path
- - Node.js and Python only — no Go, Rust, PHP, or Ruby runtimes
- - Stale limit figures circulate on marketing and third-party pages, so verify before budgeting
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