how can I get into the dashboard after
how can I get into the dashboard after running the backend locally?
8 Replies
Hi - the dashboard is not supported with the open source backend just yet
From the repository docs (https://github.com/get-convex/convex-backend)
It's the same code used in the hosted Convex product but runs on a single machine and doesn't include the scale-out services, replicated database backend, production dashboard, or operational tooling.GitHub
GitHub - get-convex/convex-backend: Open source single-machine vers...
Open source single-machine version of the Convex backend - get-convex/convex-backend
we do have plans to support the dashboard with the open source backend, but it's not ready just yet
the general idea is that you'd be able to go to dashboard.convex.dev and have that connect to your localhost backend. We're working on getting that flow really smooth and nice along with
npx convex devit turns out that I need to first make a project on the cloud version, and then change the URL for the backend in .env?
You can start without the cloud version or a cloud project, is there somewhere that is implying otherwise? Is it the authenticating the CLI that you're stuck on?
without the dashboard, it's inconvenient to work. Dashboard provides essential management and monitoring tools that make the process much smoother
Understood, and dashboard is on the way. Out of curiosity, what is your motivation for self-hosting vs. a project on the free tier? Is there a need that isn't being met by the cloud product? Or just a personal preference to use your own hardware?
We are a startup, and like any startup, we always use open-source solutions rather than reinventing the wheel. Therefore, we strive to find useful open-source projects and deploy them internally for use in our projects. We don't have the funds, so we have to deploy everything ourselves. I believe you understand our situation.
Yes we have a lot of startup customers (and we are a startup too) so we understand the position very well. You might be interested in the startup program. We also strive to avoid reinventing the wheel - both for ourselves and our customers, and striving to save money - and more importantly time, since time is the hardest constraint ( both PMF and bc developers are more expensive than machines). Many customers find that Convex helps them move more quickly with a smaller team, which is our goal. We also use and trust many open source products, like Rust and Sentry. We also usually find it to be more cost effective to pay for hosted services vs. hiring more infra / SRE engineers to manage internal clusters running them - we don't need to reinvent the wheel of hosting Sentry for example. But we did transition from DataDog's cloud product to a self-hosted solution, when that became a priority. The vast majority of customers are happy to start on the free tier, later upgrade for the convenience of not having to run, manage, and scale all the infra, while also knowing that if they ever want to run it themselves, they can always hire an infra team and self-host.
I know this sounds like a sales pitch, but my main goals are:
1. Understand what about the cloud offering doesn't meet your needs - e.g. if you have on-prem requirements, or a complicated network security topology. It's useful to know what the barriers are so we can continually improve. Maybe it's just the cost of the Pro tier, in which case definitely check out the startup program.
2. Help you understand the benefit of leveraging a cloud product that is actively being scaled by an amazing team vs. burdening your startup with scaling your own infra. Especially before you have any scale, you can better evaluate whether Convex is the right fit for your company's needs by using the product for free immediately vs. setting up infrastructure around it first, I suspect. You can always export a cloud product and start running it locally if you run out of free bandwidth.
Whatever you choose - cloud, self-host, or another backend, I wish you success with your startup.