Aurabase vs PocketBase: when to go single-binary?

The main advantage of PocketBase is real and it must be named honestly: a single downloaded binary, no external dependencies, a server that starts in a few seconds with an embedded SQLite base. For a prototype, a personal app, or a low-traffic project, it's hard to beat for simplicity.

Aurabase assumes the opposite compromise: several services (gateway, auth, database, realtime, storage, functions, IA), deployed via Kubernetes (k3d locally or Helm chart in production). More components to orchestrate, in exchange for capabilities that a single binary doesn't cover — multi-tenant RLS, real-time CDC, native AI.

PocketBase uses embedded SQLite: excellent for reading, with known write concurrency limits under heavy concurrent load — SQLite locks the entire base during a write, which becomes a limiting factor as the number of active users increases.

Aurabase provides a dedicated PostgreSQL 16 per project — no shared engine instance. The Postgres image supporting pgvector 0.8.6 and pg_graphql, with no documented equivalent on the PocketBase side.

A prototype, a personal project, a low-traffic internal tool without the need for advanced RLS policies or native AI: PocketBase covers this ground very well, with an operational load close to zero. To claim that Aurabase is consistently the best choice would be dishonest — in this case, that's not true.

The integrated administration of PocketBase (web interface, collection management) also remains quicker to learn for a solo developer who is new to backend development. If you are instead evaluating a multi-service self-hosted platform, see also our comparison Aurabase vs Appwrite.

The clearest switching signal: a real multi-tenant need (several organizations isolated in the same database), GDPR compliance to be formally documented for a client or a DPO, or a native RAG/NL2SQL capacity rather than a third-party assembly.

A team that grows beyond a single trusted maintainer also feels this tipping point: Aurabase's Row Level Security Postgres allows complex access rules to be declared directly in SQL, without centralizing all the business logic on the application server side.

There is currently no Aurabase migration guide dedicated specifically to PocketBase — PocketBase's embedded SQLite does not have direct export to a relational PostgreSQL schema: each collection must be reviewed before becoming a table. PocketBase itself does not publish any outbound migration guide to another backend.

The Supabase → Aurabase migration guide remains the best reference on transferable mechanics (structure of RLS policies, SDK replacement), even if the starting point is not PostgreSQL in the case of PocketBase.