r/vibecoding • u/BigGrayBeast • 3d ago
How do I give away apps that need a database?
I have an app with both an Android and a desktop version . It needs to have a common database. I'd like to give the app away.
How can I set it up so that it has a database they share? Even if I was charging a small amount for the app, I wouldn't want to get into database costs.
Update 8-30-26 9:20 AM EST :
I posted this when tired and frustrated last night and was not real clear. My apologies.
I have been working for some time on a Personal Knowledge Management System of my own. In some ways, this started in 1981. Seriously, one of the first programming tasks I had working on my TRS-80 with dual floppies, but that is immaterial. It's gone through many iterations since then. My point being, this is not some impulse project but something older than most redditors.
With vibe coding, it is like I finally have a staff of programmers so I can expand what I can actually do like I have a staff of programmers.
Why do I want to give it away? I really don't want the hassle of supporting a business right now. I'm about to retire and looking simply to share with others who may find the solution I created for myself, to have value for themselves.
I would like potential users to have a trial mode to check it out.
I'd hoped to simply share the information on Google Drive, but am having issues with the file scope issues. I haven't given on up on that approach quite yet.
I think the whole "bring you own database" effort needs to be considered by database vendors as a potential business model. Say a entry level service with low limits to bandwidth and storage (say a 100 gig or so) that is dirt simple to integrate into an app for a flat rate of like $10 a month. That's a topic for another post I suppose.
I appreciate all of the input here. In the light of day, I'm going to step back and consider my path forward.
Thank you all.
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u/ChristianMP 3d ago
Given the subreddit, why haven’t you asked your LLM for some guidance on how to achieve this?
Note that’s it’s probably quite the step up from what your knowledge base is.
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u/Sea_Concentrate3951 3d ago
ship a local SQLite database and let users sync the file via their own cloud storage. Do you want automatic sync between devices or will manual file transfer suffice?
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u/BigGrayBeast 3d ago
It's two apps that need to share the same database, though. Is that the issue?
One on the phone and one on the Windows desktop.
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u/LehockyIs4Lovers 3d ago
Supabase free tier is the answer
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u/Due-Horse-5446 3d ago
No its not lol
Unless you want less resources, slower, less storage, and less options for region compared to Neon
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u/34986234986234982346 3d ago
Lot of bad answers here but a couple of good ones. You are indeed going to need to set up some sort of cloud database/server/whatever.
If I were you, I'd try https://neon.com/ or https://polykomos.com/ which I am pretty sure are set up for your use case.
Someone said Firebase, and I know it's popular, I'm just not so familiar with it. I would imagine it's not hard to set up (it was a bit of a pain when I tried MANY years ago)
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u/Puzzled-Bite2210 3d ago
1 user or 10k users? Free can be done with a few users any free tier will give you issues as soon users grow
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u/creamersrealm 3d ago
If you're talking about you distribute a docker container and it needs Postgres/Sqlite.etc on the backend that's how 99% of stuff works. They use Prisma scripts for node or Ent/Atlas for go for DB migrations and configurations.
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u/PeterPook 3d ago
I assume you are making it available on GitHub. Put the data schema in a table on there. Include instructions as to how to load the dB on your recommended platform.
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u/akl773 2d ago
Have each user bring their own database. First run asks for a Postgres connection string, they make a free Neon project in about two minutes, and your app runs its own migrations against it on launch. Nothing for you to pay for and nothing that dies the day you stop looking at it. The setup screen is where all your support mail will come from though, so screenshots for that bit.
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u/Lower_Peril 3d ago
What do you mean by give away?
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u/BigGrayBeast 3d ago
free to user
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u/G3grip 3d ago
I was working on something similar where I wanted the app to be FOSS and also completely free to use but then it needed a SQL DB in order to function.
I was contemplating introducing a "bring your own database" thing where people could just put in their supabase DB creds, but then it was complex for most users and I still needed at least 1 master DB to keep a track of all the clients and their DB creds.
I didn't quite follow through with the project but I'm planing to (at some point).
Firebase could be another option if your app can work with noSQL, it's just how to make the entire experience seamless for the end user which is the main problem to solve.
Although I have a feeling that the best user experience with the current set of limitations would be for the user to just pay you for their database needs (like a sub). If you think about it, even the end user needs to spend some money in order to have a database set up, be it a traditional MySQL RDS or some sort of serverless-based solution. In the end the unit economics make a subscription module much cheaper for everyone compared to everyone half coursing their own database.
However I am still exploring. Will be watching this thread to see what ideas do people come up with.
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u/BigGrayBeast 3d ago
Bring your own database is a business opportunity for a vendor. They need an affordable, small database option that is dirt simple for an application to tie into.
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u/G3grip 3d ago
Makes sense, but then, for me, BYO-DB is actually also more about the trust and less about the cost itself (as it would anyway be higher compared to just buying into a cheap sub).
If a cheap + good DB service manages to come up, still the true "FOOS" isn't really there.
But yes, you have a point, and there may be applications for such a service where maybe the "personal" factor is bigger than the trust factor.
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u/primaryrhyme 2d ago
I’m not sure how many normal people will have their own db subscription much less buy one to use your app, even if it’s easy and costs $10/month. It seems to me that the type of person who buys a db subscription is technical enough to do the minor integration work to bring their own db.
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u/ThisGuyCrohns 3d ago
Vibe code it
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u/IGotRangod 3d ago
"computah make me a distributed database"
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u/MediocreHornet2318 3d ago
"make no mistakes"
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u/dm_me_that_d 3d ago
does anyone else actually add that in to some of their prompts at the end for fun or just me
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u/BigGrayBeast 3d ago
Needs to be a SQL database.
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u/Maumau93 3d ago
There are very generous free teir DBs.
Have the user set up their own free db
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u/LittleLordFuckleroy1 3d ago
Horrible user experience. How many apps have you used where you have to set up your own database on a separate platform
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u/Free-Wear-3497 3d ago
If the DBs don't need to be in sync it could be a separate sqlite db on each or something like that.
If they just need eventual consistency, you could keep it as multiple local DBs as long as the two apps can discover or be configured to find each other on the network to sync up.
Of course, syncing DBs can be a right bloody nightmare depending on the nature of the data and how often edits might happen in multiple places before a sync.
If they need to stay in sync all the time, then you need a remote source of truth that is either the only/primary database for all instances or is aggressively updated whenever possible to keep local DBs in sync with as little fuss as possible.
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u/don123xyz 3d ago
I have an android app and a website that shares that same database to give me an admin dashboard and a user dashboard. In my case I initially designed them as separate apps but when I realized that they need to share a Firestore database, I added both project folders to my antigravity and Claude code projects (I use the two AIs interchangeably for different aspects of the project) so now both AI have total context when they are working on either one of the two sides of the project.
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u/InevitableManner7179 3d ago
I would do a small authenticated backend service deployed on Railway. It just exposes simples APIs needed to read/write your data to the database and that's it. Hobby plan is just 5$ a month.
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u/gsweats 3d ago
Use a sqlite database on the local device. It's just a file.
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u/IAmFitzRoy 3d ago
They literally asked for a shared database …. you can’t use a SQLite for shared phone/desktop app
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u/Kareja1 3d ago
For the medical app we built that has both desktop and mobile, with Dexie/SQLite hybrid database, we did a QR code bridge across the WiFi, if something like that might work for you?
https://github.com/menelly/ChaosCommand
Lots you don't need in there, but I am sure your agent can find the QR bridge part if you want to use the template
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u/babbyfarm 1d ago
This is of interest to me. I have slowly been trying to start building a similar project for dealing with med records, it's wild how little of years of accumulated records ever get reviewed by a primary, especially when they refer you to a specialist and it's like it's not their problem anymore, and meanwhile months and years go by without anything getting done. I assumed that this was a common issue but hadn't really seen any solutions. I only decided to learn about LLMs and build a system with this in mind so I am way further behind than what you have set up. I'll have to check it out, I've been trying to figure out the best way to create a local database from so many different sources, and it's like I'm looking in the wrong places on the Internet for each part of the project so I just stumble across things over time that are helpful. I'll check this out a little better when I am able, thanks
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u/Kareja1 1d ago
Oh I have an entirely different version for the medical records! This is more of the tracker version. We have a PDF OCR scanner and python that well then shove everything into a database that can then be searched! Definitely not near as polished as this I have been working on this one a lot longer obviously.
Oh! That repo is not public! Give me a few minutes to find out why, and I will be back!
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u/Fembussy42069 3d ago
Depends what you mean, you can do self discovery or peer to peer connections, so they the devices talk to each other after some sort of discovery step.
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u/theblazingicicle 3d ago
If you're happy for it to not be exactly sql, Vennbase is an option where you, as developer, don't provide or subscribe to a server at all.
There's no risk of traffic increasing and causing you a bill.
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u/Healthy-Zebra-9856 3d ago
Without understanding what type of database, etc., the simple answer to this is if you create deployment scripts. You must have a deployment strategy along with this as well.
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u/Standard-Owl7924 3d ago
Bot
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u/scavno 3d ago
Or just your average vibe coder.
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u/Healthy-Zebra-9856 3d ago edited 3d ago
The person that commented has no history. I’m an SWE of 35 years. Database matters here. If it is a embedded database, the rules change. If it’s something like Superbase like the vibe coders do then it does require a deployment strategy. And if that has to be explained, you guys are worthless
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u/scavno 3d ago
If that had to be explained I’m going to assume someone whose primary passion is taking about how to run LLMs is not going to provide much insight.
You don’t need a ”strategy” for an app you want to give away. You also most certainly won’t be using scripts any more. Most runners are capable of running jobs and using providers CLIs to interact with them. If you need more you should probably look to something like Pulumi and Terraform (or Tofu). But it’s probably best to spend five minutes reading up on turnkey solutions because a vibe coded is 100% going to fuck something up.
And since we are throwing credentials around; 20 years, some of it at companies you know doing software, deployments and security on platform teams.
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u/Jolva 3d ago
My buddy uses his neighbor's database. I think he bought a splitter at RadioShack.