Backendless
Backend-as-a-Service with database, realtime, auth, files, and cloud code
Nitric
Write code, let Nitric handle cloud infrastructure automatically
Nitric lets developers write code in their language while automatically provisioning cloud resources, IAM, and infrastructure across AWS, GCP, Azure, or Kubernetes with minimal boilerplate.
Overview
Overview
Nitric is a developer‑centric framework that lets you focus on application logic while it infers and provisions the required cloud resources. By embedding concise, inline infrastructure definitions directly in your code, Nitric eliminates the need to hand‑write Terraform, Pulumi, or other IaC scripts.
Audience & Capabilities
Designed for teams building serverless APIs, event‑driven microservices, or multi‑cloud applications, Nitric supports Go, TypeScript, Python, Dart and more. It automatically configures IAM permissions, storage buckets, databases, queues, and other common services, applying security best practices such as least‑privilege access. Deployments are portable across AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes, and you can choose Pulumi, Terraform, or custom plugins for the underlying automation.
Deployment
After coding, a single nitric up command generates the appropriate IaC and deploys the stack to the selected provider. Local development is supported, enabling rapid iteration before pushing to production. The plugin architecture also allows you to extend or replace providers, giving flexibility while retaining the benefits of automated infrastructure management.
Highlights
Inline infrastructure defined directly in application code
Cloud‑agnostic deployment across AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes
Multi‑language SDKs (Go, TypeScript, Python, Dart, etc.)
Plugin system supporting Pulumi, Terraform, or custom providers
Pros
- Reduces boilerplate by generating IaC automatically
- Enforces least‑privilege IAM by default
- Portable across major cloud providers
- Integrates with familiar CI/CD and tooling
Considerations
- Learning curve for Nitric‑specific abstractions
- Limited out‑of‑the‑box support for niche services
- Debugging generated IaC may require Pulumi/Terraform knowledge
- Runtime overhead introduced by the abstraction layer
Managed products teams compare with
When teams consider Nitric, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
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Fit guide
Great for
- Teams building serverless APIs that need rapid prototyping
- Developers wanting a single codebase portable across clouds
- Projects that value automated security and IAM best practices
- Organizations adopting multi‑cloud strategies
Not ideal when
- Apps requiring deep custom configuration of underlying cloud resources
- Environments where direct control of Terraform scripts is mandatory
- Workloads heavily dependent on provider‑specific features not yet abstracted
- Teams preferring pure infrastructure‑as‑code without an additional framework
How teams use it
Serverless note‑taking app
Deploys an API endpoint and storage bucket with correct IAM in minutes
Event‑driven microservice
Creates queue/topic and function with automatic permissions and scaling
Multi‑cloud data pipeline
Switches from AWS to GCP by changing the provider configuration, no code changes needed
Rapid internal tool prototype
Generates full stack (API, database, storage) locally then pushes to production with a single command
Tech snapshot
Go92%
HCL7%
Makefile1%
Dockerfile1%
JavaScript1%
Frequently asked questions
How does Nitric choose the cloud provider for deployment?
You specify the target provider in the Nitric configuration; the framework then maps your resource definitions to the equivalent services on that platform.
Which programming languages are supported?
Nitric provides SDKs for Go, TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, and Dart, with the ability to add more via community extensions.
Can I use my existing Terraform code with Nitric?
Nitric generates Terraform (or Pulumi) files automatically, but you can incorporate custom Terraform modules through the plugin system if needed.
Is the generated infrastructure open source?
Yes, all generated IaC files are plain Terraform or Pulumi code that you can inspect, modify, and version control.
How do I run and test locally?
Nitric includes a local runtime that emulates cloud services, allowing you to develop and test your application without deploying to a cloud provider.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 1,957
- Watchers
- 1,957
- Forks
- 118
LicenseApache-2.0
Repo age5 years old
Last commit2 weeks ago
Primary languageGo
Last synced yesterday