Why Appwrite 0.8 Is A Great Open-Source Firebase Alternative

The Appwrite team is incredibly excited to announce the release of Appwrite 0.8, packed with a ton of cool new features like JWT support, ARM support, Anonymous Login, and more! Last month, we gave a  of some of the changes, and we're back today to keep you waiting no longer. Let's dive in! 🤿

Appwrite is an open-source, self-hosted Backend-as-a-Service that aims to make app development easier with SDKs available in a variety of programming languages. Come hang out with us on .

Anonymous Login and JWT 🔐

With Anonymous Login, save sessions without asking for email addresses, and convert those users to registered accounts later with ease. The implementation is just like creating a normal user session via the  method:

let sdk = new Appwrite();

sdk
    .setEndpoint('//[HOSTNAME_OR_IP]/v1') // Your API Endpoint
    .setProject('5df5acd0d48c2') // Your project ID
;

let promise = sdk.account.createAnonymousSession();

promise.then(function (response) {
    console.log(response); // Success
}, function (error) {
    console.log(error); // Failure
});

appwrite
    .account.createJWT()
    .then(function (response) {
        console.log(response);
    }, function (error) {
        console.log(error);
    });

const sdk = require('node-appwrite');

let client = new sdk.Client();

client
    .setEndpoint('//[HOSTNAME_OR_IP]/v1') // Your API Endpoint
    .setProject('5df5acd0d48c2') // Your project ID
    .setJWT('919c2d18fb5d4...a2ae413da83346ad2') // Your JWT

ARM Support 🦾

The ARM ecosystem has been booming since Apple's M1 processors landed in their new lineup of devices. Starting with 0.8, install Appwrite on your favorite 64-bit ARM device, from Amazon Graviton2 down to the Raspberry Pi 4! [1] ARM support falls in line with our mission to make Appwrite technology agnostic, and we're excited to hear all of the new places where Appwrite can run.

To celebrate this milestone, we have ARM systems to give away as a part of ! 🥳 Through the month of May, we're building a Medium.com blog clone to demonstrate how easy the developer experience is with Appwrite, and we invite you to build alongside us. Eligible submissions get some cool 😎 swag, and the best projects will receive Raspberry Pi 4 development kits. 😍

[1] For both Graviton2 servers and Raspberry Pis, we recommend at least 2GB of RAM for the best Appwrite experience.

Control your Console 🖥️

New Cloud Function Runtimes 🏃

Appwrite 0.8 introduces Python 3.9, Deno 1.8, and Dart 2.12 as new runtimes for Cloud Functions. Upgrade existing functions or write new ones! If you're using Cloud Functions in a cool way, let us know on .

Slimmer and Faster ⏩

You'll notice Appwrite 0.8 is a bit slimmer on system resources out-of-the-box. We found that the SMTP and antivirus services weren't helping new developers, so we've toggled off ClamAV and the included SMTP server for development. Because of these changes, we have been able to reduce our minimum requirements to 1GB of RAM (though we recommend 2GB for the better experience).

Breaking Changes ⚒️

• The  in the Users API has been renamed to delete to remain consistent with the rest of the API.
• Only logged in users  can execute functions. If your app relies on this behavior, check out Anonymous Login.
• Only the user who  gets access to the relevant execution logs.
• The  has a new rate limit of 10 requests per 60 minutes per IP address.
• The  _APP_FUNCTIONS_ENVS has been renamed to APP_FUNCTIONS_RUNTIMES.

• APPWRITE_FUNCTION_EVENT_PAYLOAD

   is now

  APPWRITE_FUNCTION_EVENT_DATA

• APPWRITE_FUNCTION_ENV_NAME

   is now 

  APPWRITE_FUNCTION_RUNTIME_NAME

• APPWRITE_FUNCTION_ENV_VERSION

   is now 

  APPWRITE_FUNCTION_RUNTIME_VERSION

And More! 😍

If you've just discovered Appwrite and would like to get started, check out out our  series where we explain step-by-step everything you need to know to build awesome Appwrite-powered apps.

Follow us on  or anywhere you find your friendly neighborhood Appwrite.

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