Is Feathers open source?

Yes. Feathers is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at feathersjs/feathers and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Feathers is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Feathers?

Yes. Feathers can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Feathers an alternative to?

Feathers is an open-source alternative to Backendless and Back4App. Other open-source alternatives to Backendless include Loopback Next, Strapi and Hasura.

Is Feathers actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Feathers was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v5.0.50, published on 11 September 2026. The project has 15k stars on GitHub.

Feathers: open-source alternative to Backendless, Back4App

About Feathers

Feathers is a full-stack web-framework for creating APIs and real-time applications with TypeScript or JavaScript. It can interact with any backend technology, supports many databases out of the box and works with any frontend technology like React, VueJS, Angular, React Native, Android or iOS. It is designed to build prototypes in minutes and production-ready apps in days.

Key features

Leverages a unique architecture to focus on building APIs and real-time applications quickly
Automatically provides scalable HTTP and real-time APIs
Can be used with NodeJS, in the browser, with React Native or with any other API client
Supports many databases out of the box
Built for TypeScript and provides structure for complex applications
Has a large ecosystem of plugins

Built with: TypeScript tools; JavaScript tools; Node.js tools; React Native tools
Tags: api; real-time; typescript; javascript; nodejs; framework

Feathers: questions and answers

What is Feathers?: Feathers is a full-stack web-framework for creating APIs and real-time applications with TypeScript or JavaScript.
Is Feathers open source?: Yes. Feathers is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at feathersjs/feathers and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Feathers free?: Yes. Feathers is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Feathers?: Yes. Feathers can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Feathers an alternative to?: Feathers is an open-source alternative to Backendless and Back4App. Other open-source alternatives to Backendless include Loopback Next, Strapi and Hasura.
Is Feathers actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Feathers was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v5.0.50, published on 11 September 2026. The project has 15k stars on GitHub.