Best Self Hosted Alternatives to MongoDB Atlas

Kinto is a minimalist JSON storage service that exposes a RESTful HTTP API for storing and retrieving JSON records. It is designed to support sharing and synchronization workflows, making it a good fit for offline-first and distributed applications.

Key Features

• RESTful API for JSON records organized into buckets and collections
• Built-in permissions model with support for groups and permission inheritance
• Synchronization support designed for clients that need to reconcile changes
• Pluggable storage backends, including in-memory for development and PostgreSQL for production
• Designed to be embedded as a generic storage layer for applications

Use Cases

• Backend storage for offline-first apps that need sync and conflict-aware updates
• Shared JSON data store for teams or services with fine-grained access control
• Lightweight application backend for storing configuration, preferences, or metadata

Limitations and Considerations

• Primarily focused on JSON document storage and sync; not intended as a full relational database replacement
• Production deployments typically rely on PostgreSQL, so operational requirements depend on that stack

Kinto provides a focused, API-first approach to JSON storage with strong primitives for permissions and synchronization. It is well-suited when you need a small, reliable service to store, share, and sync JSON documents across clients and environments.