# selfstore vs ElectricSQL
Source: https://selfstore.dev/compare/electricsql

ElectricSQL streams Postgres shapes into the client through a sync service; selfstore converges an encrypted file over storage the user owns.

## What ElectricSQL is

A sync layer that streams "shapes" - defined subsets of Postgres tables - out to
clients over HTTP, with the sync service designed to sit behind a CDN and scale
to many readers. The read path is the mature part; writes back to Postgres are
something you wire yourself, which is a deliberate boundary rather than an
omission.

It is a strong answer to "my app's data lives in Postgres and I want the client
to feel instant", and it is a genuinely different bet from the
server-authoritative sync engines around it.

## What selfstore is

Not that bet at all. There is no Postgres to project, no shapes to define, and
no service to deploy. The user's device is where the data lives; the durable
copy is an end-to-end encrypted ZIP on a destination they own; multi-device
convergence happens by merging that file in the browser.

Both call themselves sync, and the word covers two different jobs: **your data,
brought closer to the user** versus **the user's data, kept safe without you**.

| | ElectricSQL | selfstore |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Source of truth | Your Postgres | The user's device |
| Infrastructure | Postgres + sync service | None |
| What syncs | Shapes (table subsets) | The whole app state |
| Writes | You wire the path back | Built in, merged deterministically |
| Who can read the data | Your server | Only the user |
| Scale target | Many clients on shared data | One person's devices, small groups |

## Use ElectricSQL when

- Postgres is already the system of record and you want reactive local reads.
- Data is shared across users and the server must arbitrate.

## Use selfstore when

- There is no server to project from, and adding one would mean acquiring the
  hosting, the migrations and the responsibility for someone else's data.
- The user should be able to take their data and leave, as a file.

Map of this site for a model: https://selfstore.dev/llms.txt
Every page in one file: https://selfstore.dev/llms-full.txt