Appwrite Alternative

Appwrite is great — until you need background jobs and search

Appwrite handles auth and storage well. Centrali gives you the rest — background jobs, search, and automation — in one system. As your app grows, you start needing more than the basics.

What's missing when you need more

Appwrite covers the basics — database, auth, storage. But as your app grows, you hit gaps.

What you needWhat Appwrite gives you
Background jobsNot built in — requires adding a job queue
Full-text searchBasic queries — no full-text search built in
Workflow automationFunctions exist, but no event-driven triggers or scheduling
Workspaces & isolationProjects act as tenants, but no built-in workspace isolation
AI toolsNot available — build your own or add a third-party service
Realtime with filteringRealtime exists, but limited filtering and event types

You end up adding services on top of Appwrite to fill the gaps. The backend grows — but so does the complexity.

Appwrite gives you a solid foundation — but you still assemble the rest yourself.

A more complete approach

Centrali gives you everything Appwrite does — plus the pieces you'd normally have to build yourself. You don't configure services — you just build.

What you needWith Centrali
Background jobsRun code on events, schedules, or HTTP — built in
Full-text searchEvery record is searchable — no extra service
Workflow automationEvent-driven triggers, scheduled jobs, and multi-step orchestration
Workspaces & isolationWorkspaces, teams, and data isolation — ready from day one
AI toolsGenerate schemas from prompts, natural language search, data validation
RealtimeLive updates with filtering — your app stays in sync automatically

Everything works together automatically — no integration, no glue code.

One API. One system. No gaps to fill.

Same backend task — very different setup

Store a record and trigger a background job

With Appwrite, you add infrastructure. With Centrali, it's already there.

AAppwrite
// Store a document
import { Client, Databases, ID } from 'appwrite'


const client = new Client()
  .setEndpoint('https://cloud.appwrite.io/v1')
  .setProject('my-project')


const db = new Databases(client)
await db.createDocument('main', 'users', ID.unique(), {
  name: 'Jane',
  email: 'jane@example.com'
})


// Background job? You need a separate service
// (Bull, BullMQ, custom worker, etc.)
CCentrali
// Store a record — everything else is already wired up
await centrali.createRecord('users', {
  name: 'Jane',
  email: 'jane@example.com'
})


// Background job runs automatically
// (triggered by event, configured once)

No separate job queue. No extra infrastructure. Just one system that works.

At a glance

Here's how Appwrite and Centrali compare for common backend needs:

AppwriteCentrali
DatabaseDocument-based with basic queriesStructured or schemaless — your choice
Background jobsNot availableBuilt-in jobs triggered by events, schedules, or HTTP
SearchBasic queries onlyFull-text search built in
Workspaces & isolationProject-level isolation onlyWorkspaces, teams, and isolation built in
AuthBuilt-in Appwrite AuthWorks with any auth provider (BYOT)
AI toolsNot availableSchema generation, natural language search, validation

Want more details? See the full feature comparison →

Centrali replaces the stack — not just one part of it.

Start your backend in minutes

No credit card. No setup. Just run the CLI and start building.

npx @centrali-io/create-centrali-app --template saas

Takes less than 5 minutes to get started.