Developer Tools · head to head
Coder vs Convex
Coder
Developer Tools
Self-hosted platform for provisioning governed cloud development environments
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
Convex
Databases
Reactive backend combining a document database, TypeScript server functions and live queries, source-available under the Functional Source Licence.
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Coder is free; Convex starts at $25/mo.
- Only Coder lists Multi-IDE support; only Convex lists reactive queries.
- Where Coder falls short: premium plan pricing is not published and requires contacting sales.
- Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Coder and Convex actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Coder
- Self-hosted workspaces
- Multi-IDE support
- AI coding agent support
- OpenID Connect SSO
- Audit logging
- Resource quotas
Only in Convex
- Reactive queries
- TypeScript server functions
- ACID transactions
- Document database
- Scheduling and workflows
- File storage
- Text and vector search
- End-to-end types
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Coder
- Running self-hosted development environments behind a corporate firewallnot Convex
- Standardizing developer workspaces across a large engineering orgnot Convex
- Giving approved AI coding agents governed, isolated workspacesnot Convex
- Enforcing SSO and audit trails on developer environment accessnot Convex
Convex
- Collaborative applications where several users see the same data and every client must reflect a change immediatelynot Coder
- Agent backends that need durable state, scheduled work and transactional writes without assembling a queue, a database and a cachenot Coder
- Small product teams who need a complete backend, including auth integration, file storage and subscriptions, without hiring infrastructure engineersnot Coder
- Prototypes that must become production without a rewrite of the data layer, where end-to-end TypeScript types remove a class of integration bugsnot Coder
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Coder
- Premium plan pricing is not published and requires contacting sales
- Requires self-hosting and managing the underlying infrastructure, unlike fully managed cloud IDEs
- High availability, audit logging, and RBAC are gated behind the paid Premium tier, so the free Community edition lacks enterprise controls
Convex
- The Functional Source Licence is not an OSI open source licence: competing use is prohibited until each release reaches its second anniversary and converts to Apache 2.0, so you may self-host but you may not build a service on it
- Transactions are bounded at one second of user code, 16 MiB read and written, 32,000 documents scanned and 16,000 written, so every backfill, migration or bulk import has to be chunked into scheduled batches rather than written as a single operation
- There is no SQL and no query planner; you declare up to 32 indexes per table and traverse them, and joins are loops in TypeScript, so an unanticipated access pattern requires a schema and index change rather than a new query
- It is not an analytical database, so reporting means streaming data out to a warehouse and BI tools cannot be pointed at Convex directly, which adds a pipeline the architecture diagram did not originally include
- The application is written against Convex's function and client APIs rather than a standard protocol, so leaving means rewriting the data access layer and replacing the reactivity model, not repointing a connection string
Pricing, plan by plan
Coder
Free- CommunityFree
- Unlimited workspaces and templates
- Unlimited organization members
- Multiple IDE support
- PremiumOn request
- Ticket-based support with SLA
- Multi-organization access controls
- Resource quotas and audit logging
Convex
Free- Free & StarterFree
- Supports 1-6 developers
- Reactive database
- File storage
- Professional$25
- Supports up to 20 developers
- All Starter features
- Log streaming
- Business & Enterprise$2,500/month minimum
- Supports 50+ developers
- SAML/SSO
- Service SLAs
Which should you pick?
Choose Coder if
- You need self-hosted workspaces.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, API.
- You also want multi-ide support.
Choose Convex if
- You need reactive queries.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want typescript server functions.
Questions people ask
- Is Coder or Convex better?
- Neither clearly leads. Coder starts at Free and Convex at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Coder or Convex?
- Coder starts at Free and Convex at Free.
- Does Coder or Convex run on more platforms?
- Coder runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, API. Convex runs on Web.
- Can I use Coder for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Coder best used for?
- Coder is most often used for running self-hosted development environments behind a corporate firewall, standardizing developer workspaces across a large engineering org, giving approved ai coding agents governed, isolated workspaces, enforcing sso and audit trails on developer environment access. Of those, running self-hosted development environments behind a corporate firewall and standardizing developer workspaces across a large engineering org are not what Convex is typically brought in for.
- What can Coder do that Convex cannot?
- Coder covers Self-hosted workspaces, Multi-IDE support, AI coding agent support, OpenID Connect SSO. Convex covers Reactive queries, TypeScript server functions, ACID transactions, Document database.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Coder: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?
Yes, the Community edition is free and includes unlimited workspaces, templates, and organization members with OpenID Connect SSO, aimed at hobbyists and small teams.
SourceConvex: Is Convex open source?
It is source-available under FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0. You may read, modify and self-host it, but competing use is prohibited until each release converts to Apache 2.0 on its second anniversary.
Coder: What does Premium add over Community?
Premium adds ticket-based SLA support, multi-organization access controls, resource quotas, audit logging, AI governance, workspace proxies, high availability, and custom branding.
SourceConvex: Can I self-host it?
Yes. The backend, dashboard and CLI can run on your own infrastructure, with most of the features of the cloud product. Self-hosted instances include a telemetry beacon that can be disabled.
Coder: How is Coder priced?
Community is free; Premium is priced per user annually, with the exact rate available by contacting Coder.
SourceConvex: Does it support SQL?
No. Data is accessed through a TypeScript query builder over declared indexes. Relationships are traversed in code, which is explicit and type-safe but means no ad hoc querying.
Convex: What happens if a mutation exceeds the limits?
It fails rather than running longer, so bulk work must be split into batches and scheduled. The limits are per transaction: one second of user code, 16 MiB read and written, 32,000 documents scanned and 16,000 written.
Convex: How does reactivity actually work?
Queries are deterministic functions and Convex records the data each one read. When a mutation changes that data, affected queries are re-run and subscribed clients receive the new result, so cache invalidation is handled by the platform.
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- Convex vs CodeSandbox
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- Convex vs Refact
- Convex vs Soketi
- Convex vs Xlinesoft
- Convex vs Earthly
- Convex vs StackBlitz
- Convex vs GitHub Copilot
- Convex vs LaunchDarkly
- Convex vs Penpot
- Convex vs PhpStorm
- Convex vs Pieces for Developers
- Convex vs RAD Studio
- Convex vs Restate
- Convex vs SonarQube
- Convex vs RubyMine
- Convex vs Readyset
- Convex vs DynamoDB
- Convex vs FaunaDB
- Convex vs LanceDB
- Convex vs Xata
- Convex vs Materialize
- Convex vs BigQuery
- Convex vs dbt
- Convex vs OpenSearch
- Convex vs TiDB
- Convex vs Tinybird
- Convex vs Canary Labs
- Convex vs Aiven
- Convex vs CosmosDB
- Convex vs DataStax
- Convex vs EMQX
- Convex vs Firebase Realtime Database
- Convex vs Firestore