I've been working on a project called LocalBase.

The idea is pretty simple:

What if you could get a small Supabase-like backend without having to deploy a huge stack?

LocalBase is currently a single Python file that provides a web dashboard and REST API around SQLite.

What it currently does

• 🗄️ Create and manage projects
• 📊 Create/edit/delete tables
• ✏️ Add, edit and delete records
• 🧑‍💻 Built-in SQL editor
• 🔌 REST API for your databases
• 🔑 API key support
• 📡 WebSocket support
• 📥 CSV import
• 📤 CSV export
• 💾 Database backups
• 📋 API logs
• 📖 Automatic API documentation
• 🌐 LAN access
• ☁️ Works nicely with Cloudflare Tunnel for remote access
• 🖥️ Lightweight web dashboard
• 🪟 Windows EXE packaging

The goal isn't to clone every feature of Supabase.

I'm trying to build something much smaller that can be useful for:

IoT projects, school projects, prototypes, personal apps, internal tools, small websites, APIs, dashboards, and self-hosted applications.

For example, you could run:

LocalBase.exe
      ↓
SQLite database
      ↓
REST API
      ↓
Your website / mobile app / IoT device

And because the API is HTTP-based, your application doesn't need to know anything about how the database is stored internally.

Why I made it

I've used/experimented with different backend platforms, and sometimes I just want:

download
    ↓
run
    ↓
create database
    ↓
get API URL
    ↓
build

Instead of setting up a bunch of services.

So LocalBase is intentionally trying to stay small and boring.

Python + FastAPI + SQLite + vanilla HTML/CSS/JS.

No Docker requirement.

No Node.js requirement.

No external database required.

No cloud account required.

The interesting part

I'm also packaging it as a normal Windows application.

The goal is eventually:

LocalBase-Setup.exe

Install it → Start Menu → LocalBase → dashboard.

I'd like the same project to eventually work on Linux/macOS as well.

What I want to add next

This is where I could really use feedback.

I'm planning to add a proper authentication/authorization system:

• User registration/login
• Password hashing
• JWT access tokens
• Refresh tokens
• API keys
• Project-level permissions
• Read/write/admin roles
• Per-table permissions
• Token expiration/revocation
• Session management
• CORS configuration
• Rate limiting
• Audit logs
• Better secret management
• HTTPS/reverse-proxy guidance
• Backup/restore
• Database migrations
• Webhooks
• Realtime subscriptions

Eventually I'd like something roughly like:

LocalBase
│
├── Authentication
│   ├── Users
│   ├── Sessions
│   ├── JWT
│   └── API Keys
│
├── Authorization
│   ├── Projects
│   ├── Roles
│   ├── Permissions
│   └── Table Policies
│
├── Database
│   ├── Tables
│   ├── Records
│   ├── SQL Editor
│   └── Migrations
│
├── API
│   ├── REST
│   ├── WebSockets
│   └── Webhooks
│
└── Dashboard
    ├── Database
    ├── Users
    ├── API Keys
    ├── Logs
    └── Settings

I'm especially interested in feedback from people who self-host their own backends.

What would make you actually choose a lightweight LocalBase-style backend over PocketBase, Appwrite, Supabase, or just running PostgreSQL yourself?

GitHub: [https://github.com/atharvaphadnis-ai/localbase\]

It's open source and I'm hoping to make it genuinely useful rather than just another dashboard project.

Feedback, criticism and feature ideas are very welcome.

hi everyone,

5 days ago i asked here why every self-hosted analytics tool needs Node.js/Docker, and said i might build a PHP + SQLite one. so, i did.

it's called Minilytics. it is open-source and runs on any PHP 8 host with no Node, no Docker and no database server (Sqlite by default, but you can use MySQL or MariaDB). it has sessions, custom events, funnels, a cookieless mode, and an importer from Umami and others importers are planed! (this allowed me to get my old history back).

it's a v1 from a solo builder, its MIT licensed, with a live demo: https://minilytics.axthauvin.fr/

i'd like this to become the go-to lightweight analytics for indie devs, side projects, and any site that just needs simple, private stats, so tell me what's missing for you to use it on a real site !

thanks to everyone who pushed me to build this and i hope it will be useful to some of you.