Conduit: a self-hosted backend assembled from modules you can swap out
Batteries-included backend that works with any stack.
At a glance
- What is it?
- Conduit ships authentication, database schemas, storage, email and a router as separate modules behind one admin dashboard, deployed via Docker or Kubernetes. The module list is broad and the release history is still on alpha for the 0.17 line, so the decision hinges on whether you want a pre-wired backend or a narrower tool you fully control.
- Who is it for?
- Adopt Conduit if you want a self-hosted backend where authentication, database CRUD, storage and email are already wired together and exposed through one dashboard, and you are willing to run the 0.17 alpha line. Do not adopt it if you need a stable release channel, a non-Docker deployment, or a backend whose internals you can audit and replace module by module without reading the source.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 1 day ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly TypeScript, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 15, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
DEEP OPEN-SOURCE ANALYSIS
The boilerplate Conduit is trying to delete
Every backend starts with the same chores: user sign-up, sessions or tokens, password reset, a schema layer with CRUD endpoints, file uploads, transactional email, and a router that exposes all of it over HTTP. Conduit's premise is that these chores are identical across projects, so they should be modules you enable rather than code you write. The README frames it as avoiding the need to "write and debug the same boilerplate code for every project." The target user is a small team or solo developer who wants a self-hosted backend-as-a-service rather than a framework they assemble themselves. The topic list includes low-code, react and firebase, which suggests the intended comparison is Firebase or Supabase, not Express or NestJS. Conduit's differentiator in that comparison is that it runs on your own infrastructure and exposes modules as configuration instead of as a hosted product.
Modules, a router, and one admin surface
The repository layout and README describe a modular architecture. Each capability is a named module: Authentication, Authorization, Chat, Database, Email, Forms, PushNotifications, Router, SMS, Storage. The Router module is the interesting one, because the README says it can "expose REST, GraphQL and WebSockets APIs with auto-generated endpoint documentation." That implies a single routing layer fans out to three protocol surfaces, and that endpoint documentation is generated from the module definitions rather than written by hand. The Database module supports MongoDB and PostgreSQL and generates CRUD plus query-based functional endpoints from schemas you define. Everything is administered through a dashboard, which the README shows in a screenshot and which the bootstrap flow opens in your browser. The core is TypeScript. The README does not describe the internal transport between modules, though the repository topics include gRPC, so treat any inter-module protocol claim as unverified until you read the source.
Getting a local instance up
The documented path is a single shell command that installs the CLI and sets up a local deployment: `sh <(curl -s https://getconduit.dev/bootstrap)`. Two prerequisites are stated explicitly: Docker and Docker Compose must be available. Windows users are told to run the CLI through WSL. After the deployment is ready, the browser redirects to the administration dashboard, and the README notes it may take a few seconds for the page to become responsive depending on your environment. The default credentials are `admin`/`admin`, which you should change immediately in any environment that is reachable from outside your machine. Once logged in, Swagger and GraphQL elements in the dashboard show the generated route documentation for your APIs. For anything beyond a local spin-up, the repository carries deployment instructions under `deploy/docker` and `deploy/k8s`. Building from source is covered in the Development Setup section of `.github/CONTRIBUTING.md`, which is where you should look if you intend to modify modules rather than just configure them.
The 0.17 alpha channel is the main risk
The release history shows v0.17.0-alpha.6 and v0.17.0-alpha.5 both dated 2026-07-26, with v0.16.29 as the most recent non-alpha release on 2026-07-09. Two alpha tags on the same day is normal for active development, but it also means the newest feature work lands in a channel the maintainers have labelled alpha. If you deploy the bootstrap flow today, check which version it pulls before you build anything on top of it. The second limitation is platform: the documented one-line install assumes Docker and Docker Compose, and Windows support is routed through WSL rather than a native path. The third is documentation depth. The README gives each module a one-line description and a link, and the module links point to `getconduit.dev/docs/modules/...`. It does not, in the material available here, describe failure modes, migration between Database backends, or what happens when a module is disabled after data has been written through it. Those are the questions to answer before you commit.
Where a narrower tool wins
Supabase is the closest comparison a reader will reach for, and the difference is structural rather than cosmetic. Supabase is built around PostgreSQL and exposes the database directly through generated APIs, with auth and storage layered on top of that single database. Conduit treats the database as one module among ten, supports both MongoDB and PostgreSQL, and puts a router in front so REST, GraphQL and WebSockets are all first-class surfaces. That flexibility costs you a consistent data model: with Supabase, row-level security and SQL are the spine of the product, while with Conduit the spine is the module configuration and the router. If your team already thinks in SQL and wants database-level policy enforcement, Supabase's approach is more direct. If you need MongoDB, or you want chat, SMS and push notifications as configurable modules rather than services you integrate separately, Conduit's shape fits better. Neither is a drop-in for the other; the data model decision comes first.
Upgrade and maintenance surface
Conduit is MIT licensed, which permits commercial use, modification and redistribution provided the licence text and copyright notice are preserved. That is the standard permissive arrangement, and it means you can fork the modules you depend on if upstream changes do not suit you. The maintenance cost sits in the module set: each module you enable is another component to track across releases, and the alpha cadence on the 0.17 line means release notes matter more than usual. The README points to a public ClickUp roadmap for what is in progress, which is useful for judging whether a module you need is being actively extended or is effectively frozen. There is no stated long-term support policy in the material available, and no LTS branch is mentioned, so plan to pin a version and test upgrades in a staging deployment rather than tracking the bootstrap script's default. If your project cannot absorb that upgrade testing, Conduit is the wrong choice regardless of how well the modules fit.
Editorial conclusion
Adopt Conduit if you want a self-hosted backend where authentication, database CRUD, storage and email are already wired together and exposed through one dashboard, and you are willing to run the 0.17 alpha line. Do not adopt it if you need a stable release channel, a non-Docker deployment, or a backend whose internals you can audit and replace module by module without reading the source. Before committing, verify three things yourself: that the module you depend on most has documentation beyond its one-line description, that the Docker or Kubernetes deployment path matches your environment, and that the extension and custom module mechanism is documented well enough for you to add the code Conduit does not ship.
Community notes