The toolbox
80 tools worth knowing about if you build with AI. No affiliate links, no paid placement, and no prices quoted — tiers change monthly and a stale price helps nobody.
Supabase
freemiumOpen-source backend platform providing Postgres, authentication, storage, edge functions and realtime APIs.
Best for: Postgres backend in minutes
Firebase
freemiumGoogle's app platform with a document database, authentication, storage, functions and hosting.
Best for: Realtime apps on Google Cloud
Neon
freemiumServerless Postgres with database branching, so each preview environment can have its own copy of the data.
Best for: Branchable serverless Postgres
Convex
freemiumReactive backend platform where database queries, functions and realtime updates are written in TypeScript.
Best for: TypeScript-first reactive backend
Drizzle ORM
open-sourceTypeScript ORM with a SQL-like query builder and schema migrations for Postgres, MySQL and SQLite.
Best for: Type-safe SQL in TypeScript
Prisma
open-sourceTypeScript ORM with a declarative schema, generated client and migration tooling for relational databases.
Best for: Schema-first database access
Clerk
freemiumAuthentication and user management service with drop-in components for React, Next.js and other frameworks.
Best for: Drop-in auth for React apps
Stripe
paidPayments platform with APIs and hosted checkout for subscriptions, one-off payments and billing.
Best for: Adding payments and billing