Nhost
Nhost is an open-source backend-as-a-service platform providing managed PostgreSQL, auto-generated GraphQL, authentication, storage, serverless functions, and AI tooling for developers and SaaS startups building web and mobile applications.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersStockholm, Sweden
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Nhost does
Nhost is a privately held, open-source backend-as-a-service platform founded around 2020 and operated by a fully remote, sub-10-person team. The platform delivers a managed PostgreSQL database with root access, an auto-generated GraphQL API with realtime subscriptions and row/column-level permissions, authentication with social OAuth, WebAuthn, 2FA, and enterprise SSO via WorkOS, global CDN-backed object storage with on-the-fly image transformations, Node.js/TypeScript serverless functions, and a managed Docker container runtime (Nhost Run) for polyglot custom services. Recent additions include an in-house Go-based Hasura-compatible GraphQL engine (Constellation) reportedly consuming ~90% less memory than Hasura, a Model Context Protocol service for AI agents, and an AI Toolkit (Graphite) with pgvector-based auto-embeddings, customizable assistants, and document file stores.
The business runs on a freemium SaaS model with tiered plans: a free Starter tier for prototyping, Pro at $25/month, Team at $599/month with SOC 2 Type II and SLA, and custom-priced Enterprise contracts. Usage-based add-ons cover compute, storage, egress, and AI toolkit consumption. Go-to-market is product-led via self-serve signup, CLI-driven local development, an open-source GitHub monorepo (9.2K stars), Discord community, and SEO/comparison content targeting Firebase and Supabase switchers, with sales-assisted motion for Team and Enterprise tiers. The customer base spans gaming (Midnight Society), developer tools (React Flow, React Play), analytics (RevTron), insurance (SunRocks), construction engineering (Yalink), and other SaaS startups, supported by SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27017/27018, ISO 9001, GDPR, and CCPA compliance, with HIPAA in progress. Total disclosed funding is approximately $3.11M from Antler (pre-seed, 2020) and Nauta Capital-led seed (2021), with no subsequent round disclosed.
Nhost firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Nhost
- Legal name
- Nhost
- Website
- https://nhost.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Nhost is an open-source backend-as-a-service platform providing managed PostgreSQL, auto-generated GraphQL, authentication, storage, serverless functions, and AI tooling for developers and SaaS startups building web and mobile applications.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Nhost industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Backend-as-a-Service / Cloud Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Managed Application Platforms (App PaaS & Runtime Services) (HDABAAAD)
Keywords
Where Nhost is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Stockholm
- HQ country
- Sweden
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Nhost business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Subscription (Starter, Pro, Team, Enterprise): Tiered subscription plans billed monthly or annually. Starter is free with limited resources. Paid tiers (Pro $25/mo, Team $599/mo) include expanded quotas for database, storage, egress, functions, and support. Enterprise is custom quote.
- Usage-based compute add-ons: Additional compute resources (vCPU cores, memory) beyond plan quotas billed per minute. Shared compute at $0.00034/vCPU/minute, dedicated at $0.0012/vCPU/minute. Storage overages at $0.05/GB after quota. Egress overages at $0.10/GB. Function execution beyond quota at $0.18/GB-hour.
- Platform add-ons (AI, Custom Domains): AI toolkit add-on (Graphite) billed per vCPU core and memory. Custom domains at $10/project/month.
- Freemium access: Free tier with 1 project, 1 GB database, 1 GB storage, 5 GB egress, 10 functions, unlimited users. No credit card required. Project paused after 1 week of inactivity.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Starter: Free tier for prototyping with 1 project limit |
| Subscription | Monthly | Pro: Production applications with scalable resources |
| Subscription | Monthly | Team: Collaboration with advanced features and SLA |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise: Custom infrastructure and dedicated support |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Shared Compute Add-on |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Dedicated Compute Add-on |
| Usage-based | Monthly | Point-in-Time Recovery Add-on |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Nhost product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Nhost is a fully managed, open-source backend-as-a-service platform built on PostgreSQL that provides a complete backend stack for web and mobile applications. The platform delivers an instant GraphQL API from the database schema, managed PostgreSQL, authentication, global CDN storage, serverless functions, custom Docker container deployment (Nhost Run), and an AI toolkit (pgvector, Auto-Embeddings, Assistants). It is sold as a cloud subscription (Free, Pro, Team, Enterprise) and is also available as self-hosted open-source software.
Product overview
Nhost is a fully managed, extensible backend-as-a-service platform built on PostgreSQL. The platform provides a complete backend stack including: Postgres Database (enterprise-grade SQL with root access), GraphQL API (auto-generated with realtime subscriptions and permissions), Authentication (multi-method including OAuth and WebAuthn), Storage (with global CDN and image transformations), Serverless Functions (JavaScript/TypeScript), and Nhost Run (custom container deployment). Additional modules include an AI Toolkit (pgvector, Auto-Embeddings, Assistants, File Stores), Nhost Metrics/Grafana for observability, and Nhost Logs. Recent additions include Constellation (Go-based Hasura-compatible GraphQL engine) and MCP services for AI agent integration. The platform is open-source with Graphite as the proprietary AI service. Pricing tiers are Starter (free), Pro ($25/month), Team ($599/month), and Enterprise (custom).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Constellation: An open-source, Hasura-compatible GraphQL engine written in Go that serves as a near drop-in replacement for Hasura Community Edition.
- Graphite
- Nhost Run
Products and services
- Postgres Database Fully managed PostgreSQL database with full root access, NVMe SSDs, daily backups, point-in-time recovery, and support for custom extensions including pgvector, PostGIS, and others. Designed for developers building production web and mobile apps.
- GraphQL API Auto-generated GraphQL API from the PostgreSQL schema, exposing queries, mutations, realtime subscriptions, and row/column-level permissions. Backed by Hasura and the in-house Constellation engine.
- Authentication Authentication service supporting email/password, social OAuth (Google, Apple, GitHub, Discord, Facebook, Twitter), magic links, WebAuthn, 2FA, MFA, enterprise SSO via WorkOS, and acting as an OAuth2/OIDC provider.
- Storage File storage with 80+ global CDN locations, on-the-fly image transformations, presigned URLs, and granular bucket-level permissions for uploads, downloads, and content delivery.
- Serverless Functions Deploy JavaScript/TypeScript backend code without managing servers. Auto-scales, integrates with event and cron triggers, supports webhook invocations and third-party service connections.
- Nhost Run Managed Docker container runtime for deploying custom services in any language alongside the Nhost stack. Supports private registries, polyglot development, and inter-service communication without egress fees.
- AI Toolkit AI superpowers integrated into the backend platform: pgvector extension, Auto-Embeddings for automatic vector generation, customizable Nhost Assistants (LLMs), semantic search, document processing, function calling, and AI File Stores for chatting with documents.
- Nhost MCP Service Open-source Go service exposing a project's GraphQL API through Model Context Protocol. Allows agentic AI applications to authenticate via Nhost Auth and operate within existing role-based permissions.
- Constellation Open-source, Hasura-compatible GraphQL engine written in Go that serves the same query/mutation/subscription surface as Hasura while using a fraction of the memory. Designed as a near drop-in replacement for Hasura Community Edition.
- Nhost Dashboard Web-based console for managing Nhost projects, databases, authentication, storage, deployments, and service monitoring. Accesses observability dashboards and triggers from a single interface.
- Nhost CLI Command-line interface for local development, running the Nhost stack locally, deploying projects via Git, managing configurations, and accessing embedded documentation. Installable via Homebrew and Nix.
- JavaScript SDK Isomorphic JavaScript/TypeScript SDK auto-generated from OpenAPI specifications, providing modules for auth, storage, GraphQL, functions, and session management with a 1:1 mapping between API and SDK functions.
Quantifiable outcome
- Midnight Society launched 400,000+ users in 6 weeks using Nhost's backend
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Nhost
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Nhost technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration20 records
AI capability8 records
Feature9 records
Nhost partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Nhost competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Hasura: GraphQL engine that auto-generates APIs from database schemas. Nhost historically built on Hasura and is now developing Constellation as a Hasura-compatible drop-in replacement, making Hasura both a technology dependency and a direct competitor at the GraphQL-engine layer.
- Supabase: Open-source Postgres-based backend-as-a-service offering database, Auth, Storage, realtime, Edge Functions, and AI features. Closest direct competitor to Nhost with near-identical product surface; Nhost explicitly targets Supabase switchers with comparison content.
- Appwrite: Open-source BaaS providing database, Auth, storage, functions, and messaging. Targets the same self-hostable, developer-first backend segment as Nhost, with REST-first rather than GraphQL-first APIs.
- Backendless: Visual app development platform with managed database (including Postgres), Auth, APIs, file storage, and serverless functions. Targets the same backend-as-a-service developer segment as Nhost with a more visual/UI-driven approach.
Emerging players
- Railway: Infrastructure platform that lets developers deploy Postgres, Redis, and any service from a Git repo with usage-based pricing. Competes with Nhost at the deployment/runtime layer for developer-led application hosting.
- Neon: Serverless Postgres provider with branching, autoscaling, and storage separation. Targets the same Postgres-native developer audience Nhost serves; can be combined with other services to replicate much of Nhost's stack.
- Pocketbase: Single-binary open-source backend with embedded database, Auth, file storage, and realtime subscriptions. Competes at the indie/small-team end of the BaaS market where Nhost's free tier and self-hosted option overlap.
Broad incumbents
- Firebase: Google's flagship BaaS platform with Firestore (NoSQL), Auth, Storage, Functions, and Hosting. Nhost positions itself as an open-source Firebase alternative; same target developers but much larger platform footprint and Google-backed distribution.
- Vercel: Frontend cloud platform that has expanded into Postgres (Vercel Postgres), Blob Storage, KV, and AI SDK — increasingly competing with Nhost at the data/storage layer for the React/Next.js developer segment Nhost explicitly targets.
- AWS Amplify: Amazon's full-stack app development platform with Auth, DataStore, Storage, Functions, and CI/CD. Overlaps with Nhost on the managed backend services and competes for the same enterprise and startup developer audience with hyperscaler backing.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Nhost social profiles
Digital presenceNhost compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance8 records
Nhost financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Nhost leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Nhost funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Nhost M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Nhost
What does Nhost do?
Nhost is a fully managed, open-source backend-as-a-service platform built on PostgreSQL that provides a complete backend stack for web and mobile applications. The platform delivers an instant GraphQL API from the database schema, managed PostgreSQL, authentication, global CDN storage, serverless functions, custom Docker container deployment (Nhost Run), and an AI toolkit (pgvector, Auto-Embeddings, Assistants). It is sold as a cloud subscription (Free, Pro, Team, Enterprise) and is also available as self-hosted open-source software.
Is Nhost a public or private company?
Nhost is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Nhost founded?
Nhost was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Nhost based?
Nhost is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, in the Europe region.
How does Nhost make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. SaaS Subscription (Starter, Pro, Team, Enterprise) is the primary driver. The others are usage-based compute add-ons, platform add-ons (AI, Custom Domains) and freemium access.
Who are Nhost's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Hasura, Supabase, Appwrite and Backendless. Emerging players are Railway, Neon and Pocketbase. Broad incumbents are Firebase, Vercel and AWS Amplify.
Does Nhost have an API?
Yes. Nhost provides a GraphQL API with queries, mutations, and realtime subscriptions generated automatically from the PostgreSQL database schema. The platform offers an OpenAPI-generated JavaScript/TypeScript SDK with clean modules for auth, storage, graphql, functions, and session management. Auth methods are explicit functions (e.g., signInEmailPassword, signInOTPEmail, signInIdToken) mapping 1:1 to API endpoints. The platform also supports REST endpoints, webhooks for event/cron triggers, JWT authentication, and configurable rate limiting per service. Developer documentation is at docs.nhost.io.
What industry is Nhost in?
Nhost's product category is Backend-as-a-Service / Cloud Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAAAD, Managed Application Platforms (App PaaS & Runtime Services). Its NAICS code is 518210 and its SIC code is 7370.