---
title: "Do you need a backend?"
description: "Choose local storage or a backend based on how your app uses data."
---
A backend is the part of an app that runs away from the device. It can identify users, store shared information, synchronize changes, protect private operations, and receive events from other services. Many useful apps can launch without one.

## Keep the app local when one device is enough

Local storage is often the simplest and most private choice when information belongs to one device and never needs to be shared. The app can still preserve data between launches without creating accounts or running cloud infrastructure.

-   Calculators, timers, converters, and focused offline utilities.
-   Personal checklists, logs, or journals without cross-device sync.
-   Small games and creative tools whose state stays on the device.
-   API-powered tools that display a result without storing user history.

:::tip
Ask Superapp to store important local data persistently and verify that it survives a full app restart. Use the Keychain for sensitive device-only values.
:::

## Use a backend when data crosses a boundary

A backend becomes necessary when the app must recognize the same person elsewhere, allow several people to interact, or enforce a rule that users must not be able to bypass.

-   **Accounts:** profiles, sign-in, recovery, and user-owned records.
-   **Synchronization:** the same information on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
-   **Shared experiences:** teams, comments, messaging, feeds, or multiplayer.
-   **Cloud files:** photos, audio, documents, or uploads available elsewhere.
-   **Protected logic:** private API keys, webhooks, moderation, and rate limits.

## Start local and add cloud features later

Some products sit between the two choices. A journal can begin entirely on-device and add backup later. An AI tool can keep short-term context locally, then introduce accounts when people ask for history across devices. Build around the current promise rather than future possibilities.

## Choose your Superapp backend path

### Superapp Cloud

_Web default_

The managed option and the environment where Superapp's AI works best. Its closed, known system lets the AI manage backend changes with fewer unknowns.

### Self-hosted Supabase

_Mac option_

Superapp for Mac can connect to Supabase infrastructure you operate when ownership and deployment control matter more than managed setup.

## Choose the backend early

The cleanest time to choose self-hosted Supabase is when starting a project on Superapp for Mac. Once an app already uses Superapp Cloud, moving it is a migration—not a settings toggle. The database schema, existing records, authentication, storage, server-side functions, and app configuration may all need to move together.

:::note
Moving an already-created project from Superapp Cloud to self-hosted Supabase is completed on request. Email [support@superappp.com](mailto:support@superappp.com) and the team will help plan the migration. Do not replace backend URLs or keys manually.
:::

If you are building on the web, continue with [Superapp Cloud](/superapp-cloud). On Mac, you can also follow [Connect Supabase](/connect-supabase) to use your own self-hosted project.