PocketBase vs TigerData
A detailed comparison to help you choose between PocketBase and TigerData.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
PocketBase
0 reviews
4.2/5
TigerData
0 reviews
TigerData is rated higher (4.2 vs 4.0). PocketBase is an open source backend consisting of a single executable file with embedded SQLite database, realtime subscriptions, auth, file storage, and an admin dashboard. TigerData, from the creators of TimescaleDB, is a PostgreSQL cloud platform built for time-series and real-time analytics workloads at large scale, aimed at developers and enterprises.
PocketBase Open-source backend with built-in database and real-time APIs | TigerData PostgreSQL-native time-series database for metrics, events, and analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews) | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | free and open source (MIT); self-hosted, infrastructure costs only | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available✓ | From $30/mo |
| Best for | Solo developers and small teams who want a self-hosted backend with auth, database, files and realtime — without running multiple services or paying a platform fee | Teams building observability, IoT/telemetry, financial or real-time analytics platforms who want time-series performance inside standard PostgreSQL and can run the ops model of a managed Postgres service. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | 13 AWS regions + 4 Azure regions across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and South America |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceself hostable | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi accessopen source |
| Visit PocketBase → | Visit TigerData → | |
PocketBase
Pros
- + Complete backend (SQLite, REST API, auth, files, SSE realtime, admin UI) in one MIT-licensed binary
- + Zero software cost and no vendor lock-in: MIT licence explicitly permits commercial reuse and self-hosting
- + Fast local storage and simple deployment — Docker, any VPS, or embedded as a Go framework in your own binary
- + Extensible without Go via JS hooks and migrations; S3-compatible file storage and built-in backup tooling
- + Excellent documentation and a 61.5k-star community; auth covers password, OAuth2, OTP and MFA out of the box
Cons
- - Pre-1.0 with no backward-compatibility guarantee — v0.23 broke the core Go API and hooks
- - Single-node SQLite: no clustering, replication or managed failover; HA and backups are your job
- - Predominantly one maintainer, community support only — no SLA or support contract
- - No official managed hosting (third parties fill that gap), no job queue or cron built in
TigerData
Pros
- + Full SQL and the PostgreSQL extension ecosystem — hypertables, continuous aggregates and 90%+ compression without a new query language
- + Published consumption pricing (compute from $30/month, storage $0.177-0.212/GB-month) with hourly metering and no instance-size lock-in
- + 17 regions across AWS and Azure with EU, US and APAC residency selectable at creation
- + Reliability productized: multi-AZ HA, PITR up to 14 days, backup retention to 180 days, cross-region restore, public SLA and status page
- + Open-source TimescaleDB escape hatch — self-hosting stays viable, which keeps pricing honest
Cons
- - Hourly compute meter bills full hours and forgotten scale-ups at the higher config are expensive
- - Serious reliability and security features (multi-node HA, 14-day PITR, SOC 2, private endpoints) gated behind Scale or Enterprise
- - PostgreSQL and time-series concepts (chunks, compression/retention policies) assumed — not a zero-ops database for non-database teams
- - Effective storage price assumes 5x compression; actual ratios are workload-dependent
- - Aiven-partnered legacy MST product carries a different (99.99%) SLA — easy to confuse with Tiger Cloud
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new hosting and infrastructure providers, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.