Show HN: Postgres-SQLite sync engine source code released under FSL

16 points by kobieps 1 year ago | 3 comments
  • kobieps 1 year ago
    Hi HN,

    6 months ago we did a Show HN about PowerSync [1], a Postgres-SQLite sync layer for building local-first and offline-first apps. We received lots of feedback, including comments asking about self-hosting and open-source.

    Today we are announcing a major overhaul: making the product self-hostable and releasing the core sync service source code under the FSL license. We figured hackers interested in local-first software would like to know about this.

    Docs: https://docs.powersync.com/self-hosting/getting-started

    Release announcement: https://www.powersync.com/blog/powersync-open-edition-releas...

    Background on how we decided to go with Sentry’s FSL: https://www.powersync.com/blog/new-open-era-for-powersync

    Thoughts on what this means for the local-first space: https://www.powersync.com/blog/what-powersync-open-edition-m...

    If you have any feedback or questions for us, we’d like to hear it :)

    - Kobie, Ralf, Conrad, Phillip and team

    [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38473743

    • mindreframer 1 year ago
      Hey, congratulations on the release! So happy to see it finally in the open. Also thanks for taking the time and effort the explain in detail the reasoning for the licensing choice.

      Not sure, why the HN crowd is so silent about this release, this is BIG news.

      To add some hints, why this is worth looking into:

      - the PowerSync service was extracted from a working SAAS product that has been up since 2011 allowing to build offline-first apps in a low-code app builder

      - this means it is NOT a research project that has yet to see extensive production use and iron out all the bugs and stuff

      - the team behind is humble and very resourceful, judging by the amount of open source SDKs that take a lot of effort to maintain

      - it supports _PARTIAL_ replication, and this is one of the few (if not the only one) of all the available open source solutions for local-first apps

      Always happy to see a new alternative for small off-line-capable apps available to the average indie-developer!

      • kobieps 1 year ago
        Thanks for the comments, really appreciated! The entire team worked super hard for this.

        > this means it is NOT a research project

        Yeah, we’re quite proud of the system - the bugs in sync systems can be particularly insidious and it took us a very long time (years) to iron them all out. So we're happy to make such a mature system freely available.

        Also - some bugfixes introduce performance issues too, another NB consideration for any component in a data pipeline. So along with the maturity comes a highly performant system: we can work with hosted and self-hosted customers to scale to millions of concurrent connections.