CrescoDB vs Nhost
Nhost is Postgres, Hasura, auth, storage and functions, wired together and managed for you. CrescoDB is a REST API generated over a database you run. Strip away the marketing and this comparison is mostly one question: do you want GraphQL, or do you want HTTP?
The quick answer
\nSkip to the bottom line — then dig into the workflow below.
\nChoose CrescoDB if you…
\n- \n
- want a plain REST API any language can call with
curland no client library \n - do not want a GraphQL engine and its metadata between you and your tables \n
- want to develop on SQLite locally and deploy to Postgres unchanged \n
- want the backend as code in your repo, not configuration in a console \n
- would rather pay for a server you rent than a seat-and-tier plan \n
Choose Nhost if you…
\n- \n
- actively want GraphQL — Hasura's permission engine is genuinely very good \n
- want managed Postgres with automated backups and no server to run \n
- want serverless functions and a storage CDN with image transforms included \n
- are building AI features on pgvector and want auto-embeddings out of the box \n
- need SOC 2 and an SLA from your backend vendor \n
Side by side
\nChecked against their published docs and pricing, September 2026.
\n| Capability | CrescoDB | Nhost |
|---|---|---|
| API shape | REST, generated from your schema | GraphQL via Hasura (primary) |
| Calling it from any language | ✓ plain HTTP, no client needed | Yes, but a GraphQL client is the norm |
| Database | SQLite, PostgreSQL or MySQL | PostgreSQL |
| Local development | ✓ SQLite, no account, seconds | CLI runs the stack in Docker |
| Who runs it | You — your machine, then your server | Nhost, or self-host the stack |
| Layers between you and your data | One process | Postgres + Hasura + auth + storage services |
| Backend code you own and edit | ✓ real files in your repo | ✕ permissions and metadata in a console |
| Auth | ✓ per-table RBAC | ✓ OAuth, WebAuthn, magic links, 2FA |
| Realtime | ✓ (SSE) | ✓ GraphQL subscriptions |
| File storage | ✓ local or S3 | ✓ with CDN and image transforms |
| Serverless functions | ✕ | ✓ |
| Vector search / AI toolkit | ✕ | ✓ pgvector with auto-embeddings |
| Free tier | ✓ local development, forever, no card | ✓ 1 project, 1 GB db |
| Getting your data out | ✓ cresco eject → plain SQL | It is Postgres — dump it, then rebuild the API layer |
| Compliance (SOC 2, SLA) | ✕ | ✓ on their higher tiers |
GraphQL or REST — the actual decision
\nEverything else on this page is downstream of this.
\nCrescoDB — REST
\n- \n
GET /posts?published=true&limit=20. That is the whole integration. \n - Python, Go, Rust, PHP, a shell script, a webhook — all of them already speak this. \n
- No schema introspection, no codegen step, no client cache to reason about. \n
- The cost: over-fetching. You get the row, not exactly the four fields you wanted. \n
Nhost — GraphQL
\n- \n
- Ask for exactly the fields you need, across relationships, in one request. \n
- Hasura's row- and column-level permissions are genuinely excellent. \n
- Typed clients and codegen make a large frontend much safer to refactor. \n
- The cost: a client library, a build step, and a query language between you and your tables. \n
If you have a big typed frontend and complex nested reads,\n GraphQL earns its keep and Hasura is one of the best implementations of it. If your consumers are a\n mix of services, scripts and a modest frontend, REST is less to carry.
\n', '\nThe honest bottom line
\nUse Nhost if you want GraphQL and you want Postgres managed for you. Hasura's permission model is better than what we offer, the AI toolkit on pgvector is a real feature, and their higher tiers carry SOC 2 and an SLA that a solo project cannot match.
\nUse CrescoDB if you want a REST API that anything can call, a local development loop that needs no Docker and no account, and a backend that is files in your repo rather than configuration in someone's console.
\nThe cost comparison is only fair if you say what you are buying. Nhost's paid tiers buy you managed infrastructure and compliance; CrescoDB's buy you deploy tooling and backups on a server you rent yourself. If you have no ops appetite at all, managed is worth paying for and we will not pretend a VPS is free of work.
\nTry CrescoDB in 30 seconds
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