forge/baas
v1.0 — full engineering report/updated this week

Build your own Backend-as-a-Service platform.

A complete, opinionated blueprint to design, build, and launch a Forge platform — Postgres, Auth, Storage, Realtime, SDK, and billing — for paying customers on your own domain.

Read the blueprintSee cost breakdown
Est. build time
3–6months solo
Server cost
$20/ month to start
Core services
5DB · Auth · Storage · RT · API
Tech stack
6+tools needed
postgresdockernode.jsnext.jsnginxstripeminiosocket.iojwtlet's encrypttailwindfastapipostgresdockernode.jsnext.jsnginxstripeminiosocket.iojwtlet's encrypttailwindfastapi
01 — Tech stack

The six pieces every BaaS needs.

Each service is independent and runs in its own container. You can swap any layer without rewriting the rest.

01

Backend API

Handles all customer requests

$ POST /v1/projects
Node.jsExpress / FastAPIREST
02

Database

One DB per customer project

$ CREATE SCHEMA proj_x;
PostgreSQLDocker
03

Authentication

Sign up, login, tokens

$ auth.sign('user-id')
JWTbcryptOAuth2
04

Storage

Files and images for customers

$ PUT /bucket/avatar.png
MinIOS3-compatible
05

Realtime

Live data updates

$ channel.on('INSERT')
Socket.ioWebSockets
06

Frontend dashboard

Customer-facing website

$ /dashboard/projects
Next.jsReactTailwind
02 — Build phases

Four phases, six months, one platform.

A pragmatic timeline for a solo or two-person team. Ship infrastructure first, polish UI last.

  1. 01
    Phase 01 · Week 1–3

    Infrastructure setup

    Buy a VPS, install Docker, set up PostgreSQL and MinIO. Configure your domain, reverse proxy and SSL certificates.

    VPS (Hetzner / DigitalOcean)DockerNginxLet's Encrypt
  2. 02
    Phase 02 · Week 3–10

    Core backend services

    Build Auth, Database API, Storage, and Realtime as separate services. Each customer project gets isolated resources and credentials.

    Node.jsJWT AuthREST APISocket.io
  3. 03
    Phase 03 · Week 10–16

    Customer dashboard

    Build the website where customers sign up, create projects, manage their database, and copy their API keys.

    Next.jsProject management UITable editor
  4. 04
    Phase 04 · Week 16–24

    Billing & SDK

    Add paid plans with Stripe, then publish a JavaScript/Python SDK so customers can connect from their apps in two lines.

    StripeJS SDKPython SDKDocs site
03 — Core features

What customers actually log in to use.

The dashboard is what customers pay for. Each surface below maps to a database table, an API endpoint, and a UI.

Database

Each customer gets their own PostgreSQL schema. Provide a table editor UI and an auto-generated REST API on top of it.

shipped in v1

Authentication

Email/password plus OAuth providers. JWT tokens. Row-level security policies scoped per project.

shipped in v1

Storage

File upload buckets per project. Public/private access policies. Optional image transformation pipeline.

shipped in v1

Realtime

WebSocket subscriptions on database changes. Customers listen to table events as they happen.

shipped in v1

API keys

Auto-generate anon and service-role keys per project. Customers paste them into their app and ship.

shipped in v1

Usage dashboard

Show customers their DB size, API calls, storage used, and active connections in one view.

shipped in v1
04 — Monthly cost

Twenty dollars to launch. Real.

Self-host the heavy parts. Let it scale into managed services as paid usage justifies it.

ItemToolCostNote
VPS serverHetzner CX21~$6/mostart here
DomainNamecheap~$10/yrone time
Object storageMinIO (self-hosted)$0free
SSL certLet's Encrypt$0free
Email (transactional)Resend / Mailgun~$0–$10/moafter launch
Total to startall-in, self-hosted~$20/mo
Ready when you are

Stop reading. Start shipping.

I can write the full code for any section — backend services, the customer dashboard, Docker Compose, or the SDK. Tell me where to start.

Create your accountReview the spec