Opportunities › Backend-as-a-service with user-controlled data storage › Proposed app
Ownbase
Real-time backend where your users choose where their data lives
- Score
- 36
- confidence 64
- Evidence
- 7
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 2
- named in sources
- First version
- 60 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop app
- PWA: runs in the browser, installs on Mac and Windows
- Market since
- 2012
- Mature market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop app: Developers write access rules, design schemas, and manage backend configuration during extended coding and architecture sessions. Sample screens on a computer, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Rules
All rules passing4 rules
About this appAI proposal
Ownbase is a backend for collaborative web apps. You write who can see and change what, and your app talks to Ownbase straight from the browser. No domain-specific server code and no hand-built authorization layer to maintain.
Data is stored as simple facts (entity, attribute, value), so the schema can change without migrations and you shape it when you read. Text documents merge live between people, not just JSON fields. Each user or app can point its data at a storage location they choose, including their own.
It is for developers and small SaaS teams who want real-time features and data control without being tied to one vendor's infrastructure. Any single-page app can use it, and AI agents get the same permissioned access as people.
- Tagline
- Build the app. Let your users keep their data.
- Voice
- PlainDirectRespectful
- Why this name
- Says what the product stands for: the people who use your app own their data, and you get a base to build on.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Rules instead of backend code
Write access rules once in a readable file. They apply to every read, write and live subscription, so there is no custom authorization layer.
No member yet
Live text that merges
Several people edit one document at once and changes merge cleanly. Made for editors and notes, which plain JSON sync handles badly.
No member yet
Choose where data lives
Point an app, a workspace or a single user at a storage location: our hosting, a region, or their own server. App code stays the same.
No member yet
Schema on read
Store facts without declaring tables first. Add a field today and read old and new records through one view, with no migrations.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#1F6F5CPine · primary#F6F1E7Parchment · surface#1F2A24Ink · text#D9822BAmber · accent#3B5B8CSlate blue · data
Typography
Aa
Ownbase
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
Build the app. Let your users keep their data.
PricingAI proposal
Convex's pricing page lists 2 paid plans at $2,500 a month plus a free plan. The material gives no other prices. Builder and Team are starting points to test, set far below that.
Free
Free
- 1 app
- Hosted storage
- Community support
Builder
$29 a month
- Up to 3 apps
- Choose region per workspace
- Agent tokens and activity log
Team
$199 a month
- Unlimited apps
- Bring-your-own storage
- Priority support
Would you pay Builder · $29 a month?
Your answer tells PWAS which prices people accept. It changes no score.
No answers yet.
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$194,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- Partners and integrations. Starter templates, a client library and example apps listed in front-end framework and AI coding tool communities. Developers who adopt the library bring it into each new app they build.
- Do they become customers?
- The people reached are developers who can pay directly. Test whether open-source users of the client library and templates convert to the paid Builder plan.
- First customers
- Solo founders and teams of 2 to 5 building collaborative document or note apps, who are leaving Firebase or writing their own authorization code.
- Where to reach them
- Hacker News and dev forums: Post a demo of a live-merging editor with per-user storage and the source of the rules file.
- Open-source templates: Publish a collaborative notes starter that runs on Ownbase and invite forks.
- First milestone
- Ten teams ship a collaborative app on Ownbase and three of them pay for the Builder plan within 90 days.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedHacker News post received 70 points and 33 comments
- Public claimFirebase lacks proper real-time collaboration support for text-based documents
- Public claimAuthorization complexity is a major reason developers still write custom backend code
- Public claimThe platform enables efficient use with AI agents
- Public claim
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Realtime syncWebSocket sync server with a text-merging (CRDT) libraryLive subscriptions and text merging need persistent connections that Vercel functions do not hold.
- This app · Storage adaptersPluggable storage connectors (S3-compatible, Postgres)Lets each workspace store data in a place it picks, such as a region or its own server.
RisksAI inference
- TechnicalFact-based storage can be slow for large queries, and enforcing access rules on live subscriptions at scale is hard to get right.
- CommercialDevelopers may be slow to move a backend, and Firebase and Convex are established. Users may not care about choosing data location unless regulation pushes them.
- TechnicalLetting users store data on their own servers adds uptime, sync and security problems the app developer will still be blamed for.
- RegulatoryData location features do not make an app compliant by themselves. Claims about GDPR or localization laws need legal review.
- DataA bug in the rules engine could expose one customer's data to another, which would end trust in a backend product.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.