About PocketHost
PocketHost is a hosting platform that lets one server, or a network of edge servers, run many PocketBase backends. PocketBase is a lightweight open-source backend with a database, auth and an API, and PocketHost makes it possible to spin up as many separate instances as needed for different users or projects.
Each instance is isolated in Docker, reachable at its own subdomain, and protected by automatic SSL certificates, with support for connecting your own domain via CNAME. A command-line tool provides a serve command for quick start and subcommands for firewall, mothership, edge daemon, syslog and FTP or SFTP access with Ed25519 SSH keys. The topics tag it as an alternative to Firebase and Supabase style backend services.
The code is written in TypeScript and licensed under MIT. You can run the open-source platform yourself, or use the commercial hosted service at pockethost.io, which is the project's sponsor and lets you host PocketBase projects instantly. It suits developers and teams who want managed PocketBase hosting or want to operate a multi-tenant backend service of their own.
Key features
- Unlimited isolated PocketBase instances
- Per-instance subdomains
- Automatic SSL certificates
- Custom domain support via CNAME
- Docker-based isolation
- SFTP and FTP access to instance files
Good fit for
- →Hosting many small PocketBase backends
- →Offering backend-as-a-service to customers
- →Running one hosted PocketBase for each project
- Built with
- TypeScript
- Tags
- pocketbase
- baas
- hosting
- multi-tenant
- backend
- docker
- typescript
- firebase-alternative
- self-hosted
PocketHost: questions and answers
- What is PocketHost used for?
- PocketHost is an open-source multi-tenant hosting platform for PocketBase that runs many isolated instances with their own subdomains, custom domains and SSL. It is a good fit for hosting many small PocketBase backends, offering backend-as-a-service to customers and running one hosted PocketBase for each project.
- Is PocketHost open source?
- Yes. PocketHost is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at pockethost/pockethost and is written mainly in TypeScript.
- Is PocketHost free?
- Yes. PocketHost is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $9.99 per month.
- Can I self-host PocketHost?
- Yes. PocketHost can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is PocketHost an alternative to?
- PocketHost is an open-source alternative to Firebase and Sevalla. Other open-source alternatives to Firebase include Convex, Nhost and CloudBoost.
- Is PocketHost actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to PocketHost was on 28 September 2026. The project has 1.4k stars on GitHub.
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