Instant turns your favorite AI into a full-stack app builder. You get auth, permissions, storage, presence, and streams — everything you need to ship apps your users will love. Free to use, 100% open source. and works well for both vibe coding and production apps! You can get started by simply running `npx create-instant-app` in the terminal or just add “Read getadb.com first” to any prompt
Hey PH! After 4 years of building, we want to introduce you to Instant!
We think Instant is the best backend for AI-coded apps. It gives you three things in one package: unlimited apps, a sync engine in every app, and batteries-included services.
Here's what that means:
Unlimited apps. Most platforms cap your free projects or freeze them when they go idle. Instant never does. An app on Instant is just a few rows in multi-tenant Postgres, so there are no VMs to spin up and nothing to pause.
A sync engine. All your apps will be real-time and work offline out of the box. This is the same kind of technology that powers the best apps today like Figma, Notion, and Linear.
Batteries included. Auth, file storage, and streams all live in the same database. Everything you need to build a modern app is built in, so you can focus on shipping.
And every line of Instant is open source! If you want to dive deeper on how we make this all work, you can check out our architecture essay at https://www.instantdb.com/essays/architecture
Thousands of developers have trusted us to run their core infrastructure. If you're building with agents, we think you will love using us.
You can use Instant without even having to sign up. Just add “Read getadb.com first” to any prompt and the AI will automatically get a database to use.
And if you prefer the terminal you can get a full project set up by just running `npx create-instant-app`
It's amazing what you can do when you build on postgres. I love the fact you can start with your library of choice (i.e. Drizzle) and then gradually start using InstantDB SDK.
One of the strongest database products from the «newer wave»!
Super easy to get started: setup is fast and the whole thing feels lightweight without cutting corners. It integrates really nicely with the React & Next.js ecosystem (matters a lot in my day-to-day work) Under the hood it's built on a solid foundation with clear innovation happening, not just a wrapper around old ideas.
Small detail but I really appreciate the use of Clojure, not something you see often and it shows a certain level of taste in engineering. :)
On the downside, search could be better, the main thing I'm looking forward to improving.
I'm somewhat biased since I know the team, but even that aside, this is already one of my favorite db/dev tools.
I've been using InstantDB for more than a year. The problems the product solves may seem "easy to do with x or y".. until you actually try to do it and discover the edge cases, perf issues etc. + the team is executing very fast.
Codex just eats instantdb up, it's so cool to see it build a full stack app single shot with permissions, real-time sync, presence, etc.
Normally codex would spend ~1B tokens over hours and hours to cobble together a sort of real-time app with so-so permissions, etc. using postgres or something like that (and I'd still be suspicious), but it turns out if you make good abstractions and push the complexity down into the system, the codex can cut its token usage by 10-100x, and I can read enough of the app to trust it's written well. It's just not possible to move at that speed without something like instant (at least I haven't found anything like that yet)!
Been building apps for years, and Instant feels like magic.
That moment when you see your app running across multiple devices in real time? Those are the ones that matter. Instant gets you there in minutes.
Beyond the amazing stack, the team behind it are some of the kindest, hardest working people I've ever met. Joe and Stopa are really cooking.
Congrats on the launch!
Here's a screenshot of my first Instant app:
Scaffolding apps is one of those things that sounds simple but gets boring fast, same folders, same setup every time. Instant makes that whole step feel almost invisible, which is kind of amazing.
I was genuinely surprised by how clean everything came together.
Congrats on the launch! 🚀
Instant looks great for an app I have in mind. I will try it over the weekend. Congratulations.
This looks powerful. What’s the fastest thing someone can realistically build with it today?
Congrats on the launch! I’ve been using InstantDB for over a year now and it is the best database I ever used, now I start all my project with it, our users love it too
Pumped for this launch. Been using Instant for the past week and it's been a thorough joy to use.
Congrats on the launch. 4 years is a long time to keep pushing on something this hard.
Congrats on the launch!
Been building on Instant with a small team for over 2 years and it's been a game changer. Real time sync between our WhatsApp bot and web dashboard just works with no extra effort. The DX is excellent (shoutout to schemas, perms and recovery). Highly recommend 🚀
When a team is deciding between InstantDB and Supabase (or Firebase/Convex), what’s the hardest-to-recreate capability you give them in practice—offline + optimistic updates + relational queries + permissions—and what tradeoff do you knowingly make versus those platforms?
I love this backend stack. Simple to use, LLM friendly, free for all small projects - no weekly disabling.
This just works
The instantdb client just works also, multi-player backend updates show instantly in your app without refresh.
I have built several apps with this and can reccomend it to anyone needing a backend as a service for their mobile or web app.
Can’t fathom yet how big of a deal Instant is—this is such a hard problem that I’ve realized the day I read about Linear’s sync engine. Godspeed folks, love the attention to detail!
About InstantDB on Product Hunt
“Complete backend with auth and storage in one prompt”
InstantDB launched on Product Hunt on April 22nd, 2026 and earned 169 upvotes and 27 comments, placing #4 on the daily leaderboard. Instant turns your favorite AI into a full-stack app builder. You get auth, permissions, storage, presence, and streams — everything you need to ship apps your users will love. Free to use, 100% open source. and works well for both vibe coding and production apps! You can get started by simply running `npx create-instant-app` in the terminal or just add “Read getadb.com first” to any prompt
InstantDB was featured in Open Source (68.3k followers), Developer Tools (511.2k followers) and Database (2.1k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 78.3k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted InstantDB?
InstantDB was hunted by Thomas Schranz ⛄️. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how InstantDB stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Thomas Schranz ⛄️
Hey PH! After 4 years of building, we want to introduce you to Instant!
We think Instant is the best backend for AI-coded apps. It gives you three things in one package: unlimited apps, a sync engine in every app, and batteries-included services.
Here's what that means:
Unlimited apps. Most platforms cap your free projects or freeze them when they go idle. Instant never does. An app on Instant is just a few rows in multi-tenant Postgres, so there are no VMs to spin up and nothing to pause.
A sync engine. All your apps will be real-time and work offline out of the box. This is the same kind of technology that powers the best apps today like Figma, Notion, and Linear.
Batteries included. Auth, file storage, and streams all live in the same database. Everything you need to build a modern app is built in, so you can focus on shipping.
And every line of Instant is open source! If you want to dive deeper on how we make this all work, you can check out our architecture essay at https://www.instantdb.com/essays/architecture
Thousands of developers have trusted us to run their core infrastructure. If you're building with agents, we think you will love using us.
You can use Instant without even having to sign up. Just add “Read getadb.com first” to any prompt and the AI will automatically get a database to use.
And if you prefer the terminal you can get a full project set up by just running `npx create-instant-app`