# selfstore vs Fireproof
Source: https://selfstore.dev/compare/fireproof

Fireproof is an embedded database with a cryptographically verifiable ledger; selfstore is a storage loop whose output is a portable encrypted archive.

## What Fireproof is

An embedded database that starts with one call and no configuration, built on
immutable, content-addressed data with cryptographic verification - a
tamper-evident ledger rather than a mutable table. Encryption is end to end, and
cloud connection is deferred until you want it, which is a positioning selfstore
recognises immediately.

Where it aims differently is **provability**: the point of the ledger is that a
third party can verify the history was not altered. That is real, and selfstore
offers nothing like it.

## What selfstore is

A storage loop, not a database. Plain JSON collections plus binary files, an
IndexedDB working copy, and a merge that runs in the browser with no CRDT
runtime.

The artefact is the clearest difference. Fireproof's is its own ledger format,
understood by Fireproof. selfstore's is a
[real ZIP on a published spec](https://selfstore.dev/docs/format): unencrypted it opens in any
archive tool; encrypted it is still a valid ZIP holding the AES-256-GCM
ciphertext, the cleartext parameters and a readme - never a mystery blob. The
spec ships with a small reference reader in another language, so "you can leave"
is a documented claim rather than a promise.

| | Fireproof | selfstore |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Model | Immutable verifiable ledger | Mutable snapshot, LWW merge |
| History | Kept, verifiable | None |
| The artefact | Its own ledger format | A spec'd ZIP anything can read |
| Sync | Optional cloud | Storage the user already owns |
| Queries | Yes | None |

## Use Fireproof when

- You need the history to be verifiable by someone who does not trust you.
- Content addressing and immutability are the properties you are buying.

## Use selfstore when

- The user should end up holding a file they can open, copy and read in ten
  years without your software - and without ours.
- Destinations the user already has (a disk file, Drive, WebDAV, S3) matter
  more than a cloud designed for the library.

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