Instant Cloud is shutting down. The open-source InstantDB project remains available. Instant announced in August 2026 that its team is joining OpenAI. All cloud apps shut down on August 31, 2027, and backups stay available until August 31, 2028.

New signups are closed. Instant refunds subscriptions started after July 31, 2026. All of Instant is open source, and Instant publishes a guide for self-hosting it and moving an existing app onto your own server. Its migration guide notes that moving without data loss requires some downtime.

DeepSpace is a full-stack SDK and hosting platform for real-time React and TypeScript apps. One npm package, deepspace, includes a real-time database, sign-in, presence, collaborative editing, file storage, and Stripe payments. One command, npx deepspace deploy, puts the frontend and backend live at <name>.app.space.

DeepSpace is designed for AI coding agents. New projects include an agent skill, and CLI commands can return JSON. Permission checks, identity verification, and payment flows are handled inside the SDK, so agents do not rewrite them for each project.

InstantDB describes itself as "the best backend for AI-coded apps." It is a real-time database you query from the client, with relational queries, optimistic updates, and offline support. It also includes auth, permissions, file storage, and presence.

InstantDB is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. It ships tooling for coding agents, including an MCP server, agent skills, and llms.txt files. It does not host your frontend.

The main difference is scope. InstantDB is a database and backend that your frontend talks to directly. DeepSpace is a full app platform that also hosts the frontend, handles payments, and deploys the whole app with one command.

InstantDB is stronger as a client-side database. It supports relational queries and keeps working offline. DeepSpace covers more of the app. Its queries are more limited.

The main alternatives are self-hosting Instant or moving to another hosted platform. Self-hosting keeps your code, queries, and data model as they are. Instant's docs estimate about $30 per month on a small server for side projects and $600 or more per month on AWS for production.

Moving to another platform means some rewriting, and you no longer run a database server yourself. DeepSpace is one option. It fits best when the app is a real-time web app and you would rather not run infrastructure. Other hosted backends include Convex, Supabase, and Firebase, and we compare each with DeepSpace.

Both sync data to the client in real time. InstantDB has the richer query model. It supports relational queries from the client, optimistic updates, and offline use.

In DeepSpace, each collection is a typed table, and the useQuery hook keeps components in sync over a WebSocket. Queries filter by exact match, sort, and limit on the server. They do not support joins or range filters. DeepSpace does not work offline, and writes made while offline are not saved. For full SQL, a DeepSpace app can attach a Cloudflare D1 database.

Both include presence. InstantDB provides presence, drop-in cursors, typing indicators, and topics for broadcasting events in a room.

DeepSpace adds collaborative text editing built on Yjs. A Tiptap rich-text editor and a shared canvas with undo and redo are available as add-on features. The usePresence and usePresenceRoom hooks show who is online and broadcast cursors and typing state.

InstantDB offers more sign-in methods. It supports magic codes by email, guest users, Google, Apple, GitHub, and LinkedIn, and it can use Clerk, Firebase Auth, or your own auth flow. DeepSpace supports Google and GitHub sign-in, and the platform manages sessions.

Both enforce permissions on the server. InstantDB uses permission rules written in CEL, a small expression language. DeepSpace uses role-based rules, such as viewer, member, and admin, declared next to each collection's schema.

DeepSpace has payments built in. You declare subscription plans and one-time products in code, and they sync to Stripe when you deploy. Hooks and a pricing table component handle checkout. Server helpers check subscriptions and handle refunds and cancellations.

InstantDB does not include a payments product. Its docs provide a guide for integrating Stripe yourself, with Stripe handling payments and Instant storing the data and access rules.

Both are built with coding agents in mind. InstantDB ships an MCP server, agent skills, and llms.txt files.

A DeepSpace project includes an agent skill, and the CLI returns JSON for scripting. An agent can build and deploy the frontend, backend, auth, and payments together. You connect a Stripe account once before taking payments. With InstantDB, the agent also has to set up frontend hosting and any payment integration separately.

Moving to DeepSpace means some rewriting. DeepSpace has no automatic import from InstantDB.

You define your data as DeepSpace collections, rewrite queries as useQuery calls, and move permission rules to role rules. Then you copy your data across with a script. Instant's backups stay available until August 31, 2028. Users who signed in with magic codes or guest accounts need to sign in again with Google or GitHub.

Self-host Instant when your app depends on what InstantDB does best. That includes relational queries from the client, offline support, and sign-in by magic code, Apple, or guest accounts. Self-hosting is also the smaller change if your code is large and stable, or if you need to run the backend on your own servers.

Consider DeepSpace when you would rather not run a database server, and when your app is a real-time web app. It also fits apps that need payments, collaborative editing, and hosting from one platform.