Electric
Electric delivers Postgres sync and durable HTTP streams for real-time apps and long-lived AI agents.
Writes-only billing genuinely changes the math for high-concurrency apps — free reads, egress and fan-out at a million readers is hard to argue with. The tradeoff is that you assemble it: Shapes, streams, function-based auth, write-path sync. Pick it when your bill would otherwise scale with users; pick Supabase when you want auth and REST included.
Verified 3h ago · liveness 81/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/electric
- Engineering teams syncing Postgres to many concurrent readers where per-user pricing would blow up
- AI engineers building long-lived agents that need durable, resumable, forkable session state over HTTP
- Local-first apps using Shapes for partial replication plus TanStack DB for instant local writes
- Teams embedding a full Postgres in the browser or at the edge with PGlite
- Non-technical users wanting a no-code or low-code backend
- Teams expecting built-in authentication — auth is function-based, wired by you
- Apps needing a conventional REST API rather than sync primitives and HTTP streams
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Skip Electric if you want a batteries-included backend with authentication, a conventional REST API and a hosted data layer out of the box — Electric hands you sync primitives and expects you to wire auth, writes and agent state yourself.
Postgres Sync adds +$2 per 1M writes on top of the base rate, metered on the filtered shape log output, so live Postgres changes run at an effective $3 per 1M rather than the $1 per 1M headline.
PAYG is genuinely free to start with usage under $5/mo waived and no credit card required, which suits prototypes and small production apps. Pro at $249/mo fits teams running mission-critical workloads who want priority email support and a 10% write discount. Scale at $1,999/mo with a 6-month commitment targets large workloads. Against per-user-priced sync services like Supabase or Firebase, Electric wins when reader count is high and write volume is modest; if your writes are heavy, the $1 per
In short
Electric — Electric delivers Postgres sync and durable HTTP streams for real-time apps and long-lived AI agents. Best for Engineering teams syncing Postgres to many concurrent readers where per-user pricing would blow up, AI engineers building long-lived agents that need durable, resumable, forkable session state over HTTP, Local-first apps using Shapes for partial replication plus TanStack DB for instant local writes. Free to start; paid plans from $249/mo.
What's new in Electric
Checked 5 days agoAcross the latest 2 updates: 2 news mentions.
Durable sessions for collaborative AI
Electric published guidance on using Durable Streams to give multi-agent and collaborative AI systems persistent, resumable session state over plain HTTP.
Super fast apps on sync with TanStack DB
A walkthrough of building fast local-first apps by pairing Electric's Postgres read-path sync with TanStack DB's reactive client store and instant local writes.
What people actually say about Electric — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
67 mentions across 6 sources (Reddit, Hacker News, App Store, GitHub, Lemmy, Tech Press) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 6 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +High-performance sync engine using Rust (nearly 1M ops/sec).
- +Deep Postgres integration with Shapes for partial replication.
- +CRDT support via Yjs for real-time collaborative editing.
- +Open-source (Apache 2.0) with TypeScript and Elixir clients.
- +Reactive client store (TanStack DB) with sub-millisecond reactivity.
- −App forces ads even for purchased devices.
- −Requires account sign-up and unnecessary permissions.
- −Frequent device offline status requiring app restart.
- −Steep learning curve for sync primitives and agent runtime.
- −Limited third-party integrations beyond React/Next.js/Phoenix.
- • Self-hosting requires infrastructure costs
- • Usage-based cloud billing can scale with data volume
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Electric? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Postgres Sync: real-time read-path sync from Postgres to clients over plain HTTP using Shapes
- Durable Streams: persistent, addressable, append-only streams over HTTP for agent session data
- Fork: branch any Durable Stream to rewind or probe agent state
- Electric Agents: deploy long-lived, durable agents that scale to zero and resume across devices
- Durable sessions for collaborative AI: persistent, resumable session state for multi-agent systems
- TanStack DB: reactive client store with sub-millisecond reactivity and instant local writes
- PGlite: embeddable Postgres with reactivity and sync for browsers, Node.js and edge runtimes
- Function-based auth parameters in the TypeScript client, sync or async, resolved in parallel
- TypeScript client for streaming Shapes into browsers and JavaScript environments
- Elixir client with Phoenix integration
- HTTP API and open protocol, Apache 2.0 licensed
- Electric Cloud: managed data delivery with CDN caching and request collapsing
- Telemetry for real-time system monitoring
- Deployment guides for sharded PostgreSQL databases
About Electric
Electric is data infrastructure for engineers who need real-time Postgres sync and durable, addressable HTTP streams without running a stateful socket layer. The site now positions it as "the agent platform built on sync" — the pitch being that long-lived agents are just durable entities in the data layer, and a sync engine is the substrate they need. In practice you get three parts: Electric Streams (append-only, persistent streams over plain HTTP), Electric Sync (composable primitives for partial replication and fan-out out of Postgres using Shapes), and Electric Agents, a runtime for deploying durable agents that scale to zero, resume across devices and fork for review. The economics are the reason teams switch. Electric Cloud charges for writes and retention only — $1 per 1M writes and $0.10 per GB-month — with reads, egress, fan-out, concurrent users and connections free. CDN caching and request collapsing keep database load flat while serving large concurrent reader counts, which the benchmarks put past a million readers with a ~99% cache hit rate. Postgres Sync adds +$2 per 1M writes on the filtered shape log, so live Postgres changes run about $3 per 1M. The client story covers TypeScript and Elixir/Phoenix, dropping in beside an existing API and database — anything that speaks HTTP and JSON speaks Electric. Auth resolves through your own API via function-based parameters, writes go through your backend, and TanStack DB supplies the reactive client store with instant local writes. PGlite rounds it out as an embeddable Postgres for browsers, Node and edge runtimes. This is a low-level toolkit for experienced engineers, not a batteries-included backend. Supabase remains the comparison if you want auth, a REST API and a hosted data layer in one box. Electric wins where reader counts are huge, write volume is modest, and you're willing to own read-path sync and agent state yourself.
Behind the Verdict
We'd reach for Electric when the per-user pricing model of a hosted backend is the thing killing the project. Free reads, egress, fan-out and connections, plus $1 per 1M writes, means a read-heavy app with 500k concurrent users and a trickle of writes pays almost nothing. That's not a discount, it's a different cost curve, and it's the whole reason the CDN caching architecture exists. Where it bites is the assembly work. Auth is a function you write against your own API. Writes go through your backend. Shapes control what syncs and you have to design them deliberately — get partial replication wrong and you're either syncing too much or debugging why a client missed a row. Teams used to `createClient()` and a dashboard of row-level security policies will feel the drop in altitude immediately. The agent angle is the part to watch. Durable Streams as persistent, resumable session state and Fork to branch a stream for rewinding or probing are genuinely useful primitives for multi-agent systems, and running agents as HTTP-addressable streams rather than sandboxes is a sensible fit for long-lived workloads. If you're building collaborative AI or human-in-the-loop tooling, this is a credible substrate. If you want a managed agent framework with opinions baked in, it isn't that. Watch the service-cost line item. Postgres Sync adds +$2 per 1M writes on the filtered shape log — an effective $3 per 1M for live Postgres changes. Cheap next to per-seat pricing, but model it before you sign off, because the base rate alone understates a sync-heavy workload. On plans: Pay as you go waives sub-$5 usage and needs no credit card, which makes prototyping painless. Pro at $249/mo and Scale at $1,999/mo are prepaid usage credit with volume discounts, so the fee isn't a platform tax —
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Electric actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You point Electric at your existing Postgres, define a Shape for the rows each user should receive, stream it into the browser with the TypeScript client, and hold local state in TanStack DB for instant writes.
Outcome: Sub-millisecond client reactivity on synced data without running your own websocket fan-out infrastructure, and delivery costs that do not grow per concurrent reader.
You put each agent session's state on a Durable Stream over plain HTTP, use Fork to branch a stream and probe an alternate agent path, then discard the branch when it misbehaves.
Outcome: Resumable session state that survives across sessions and devices, plus a safe way to test agent behavior without corrupting the live session.
You self-host the sync engine or use Electric Cloud, expose read-path sync to millions of concurrent clients, and let CDN caching with request collapsing absorb the read load.
Outcome: Reads, egress and fan-out stay free and infrastructure costs track writes rather than the number of users reading.
Use Cases
- Build a real-time collaborative editor by syncing Yjs CRDT data via Durable Streams
- Create a long-lived AI agent that persists state across sessions and devices using Durable Streams
- Sync Postgres data to a React or TanStack DB client for instant local reactivity
- Fork a Durable Stream to test an agent behavior without affecting the main session
- Embed PGlite in a browser application for a full local database with Postgres sync
- Use StreamDB to turn a Durable Stream into a reactive database that updates in real time
- Sync data from Postgres into Redis for fast caching and real-time analytics
- Deploy a serverless agent by turning static queries into live ones
Limitations
- Electric provides data primitives and infrastructure (Postgres Sync, Durable Streams, TanStack DB, PGlite) rather than an AI product, so there is no underlying AI model to specify.
- Pricing is usage-based on Electric Cloud: writes cost $1 per 1M and retention $0.10 per GB-month on pay-as-you-go, while reads, egress, fan-out and concurrent users are free; the Pro tier is $249/mo and the Scale tier $1,999/mo requires a 6-month commitment.
- The HTTP API is described as the primary, low-level API, so integrating requires genuine engineering effort around Shapes, sync primitives and authentication configuration before first value.
as of 2026-10-13
Verification history
We have re-verified Electric 10 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
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Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Electric tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Pay as you go
$0/mo
Ideal for
Prototypes, hobby projects and small production apps where usage stays under $5/mo and you want to start without a credit card.
What this tier adds
Starting tier: $1 per 1M writes and $0.10 per GB-month retention, with reads, egress and fan-out free, 10 databases and 50 users per workspace, and Community Discord support.
Pro
$249/mo
Ideal for
Teams running mission-critical apps that want priority email support, a 10% write discount and headroom up to 50 databases.
What this tier adds
Adds priority email support, a 10% discount to $0.90 per 1M writes and $0.09 per GB-month retention, Postgres subqueries, and raises the database cap from 10 to 50 — the $249/mo fee acts as prepaid usage credit.
Scale
$1,999/mo
Ideal for
Large workloads and teams that want faster time to market with direct founder access, accepting a 6-month commitment in exchange.
What this tier adds
Adds a 20% discount to $0.80 per 1M writes and $0.08 per GB-month retention, direct access to founders, and raises the database cap to 200, on a 6-month commitment.
Enterprise
Custom
Ideal for
Organizations with custom requirements — unlimited databases, custom SLAs and dedicated support under a bespoke contract.
What this tier adds
Adds unlimited databases, custom SLAs, dedicated support and bespoke solutions for custom requirements, with pricing via contact sales.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Electric's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
PAYG is genuinely free to start with usage under $5/mo waived and no credit card required, which suits prototypes and small production apps. Pro at $249/mo fits teams running mission-critical workloads who want priority email support and a 10% write discount. Scale at $1,999/mo with a 6-month commitment targets large workloads. Against per-user-priced sync services like Supabase or Firebase, Electric wins when reader count is high and write volume is modest; if your writes are heavy, the $1 per
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Electric — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For a solo engineer already comfortable with Postgres, the Quickstart gets an end-to-end sync running in minutes. Wiring function-based auth, write-path sync through your own API, and a deployment topology (self-hosted or Electric Cloud) is a day-to-multi-day job. Teams adopting PGlite plus TanStack DB together should budget a week before first production value.
Switching to or from Electric
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Supabase Realtime: point Electric at your Supabase Postgres and sync data out into edge functions or clients, keeping Supabase for auth and REST while Electric handles the read path.
- →From hand-rolled websockets: replace per-connection fan-out with Shapes streamed over HTTP and let Electric Cloud's CDN caching absorb concurrent readers.
- →From Firebase: move your source of truth into Postgres and use Electric's read-path sync plus your own write API in place of Firebase's realtime listeners.
- ↗To Supabase: move your source of truth and auth into Supabase and use its realtime subscriptions plus a conventional REST API instead of Electric's sync primitives.
- ↗To a managed BaaS: if your team wants hosted auth, a REST API and a data layer out of the box, Electric's primitives-bring-your-own-glue model is the wrong fit.
- ↗To a conventional replication tool: if you do not need partial replication per client or free per-reader delivery, standard logical replication is simpler to run.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
- Quickstartelectric.ax
Quickstart · Electric
Get up and running fast from electric.ax
- Guideelectric.ax
Shapes · Electric
In-depth how-to from electric.ax
- Guideelectric.ax
Auth · Electric
In-depth how-to from electric.ax
- Guideelectric.ax
Writes · Electric
In-depth how-to from electric.ax
- Guideelectric.ax
Deployment · Electric
In-depth how-to from electric.ax
- API Referenceelectric.ax
Http · Electric
Methods, params, types from electric.ax
- API Referenceelectric.ax
Typescript · Electric
Methods, params, types from electric.ax
- API Referenceelectric.ax
Elixir · Electric
Methods, params, types from electric.ax
- Guideelectric.ax
Troubleshooting · Electric
In-depth how-to from electric.ax
- API Referenceelectric.ax
Benchmarks · Electric
Methods, params, types from electric.ax
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Electric”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Electric” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Electric.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Electric
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Electric, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Electric vs Spider Cloud
Choose Electric if you need to build real-time, collaborative multi-agent systems with Postgres sync and durable agent runtimes. Choose Spider Cloud if you need fast, cost-effective web crawling and scraping for AI agents and RAG pipelines. They solve different problems: Electric is for live data sync and agent orchestration, Spider Cloud for external data extraction.
Electric vs Presto Voice
Choose Electric if you're a developer building collaborative multi-agent systems or local-first apps needing Postgres sync and durable streams; it's open-source with a managed cloud option. Choose Presto Voice if you're a QSR chain wanting proven drive-thru voice AI with upselling—Dairy Queen's recent adoption confirms industry traction. They solve entirely different problems.
Electric vs Temporal Ai
For teams building collaborative multi-agent systems that require Postgres sync and local-first reactivity, Electric is the clear choice. However, for mission-critical AI agents needing durable execution with automatic retries and human-in-the-loop, Temporal's mature workflow platform and broader SDK support are superior. Pick Electric if your architecture hinges on live data sync; pick Temporal if reliability and orchestration complexity are paramount.
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