# selfstore vs TinyBase
Source: https://selfstore.dev/compare/tinybase

TinyBase is a tiny reactive store with persisters for everything; selfstore is a storage loop with encryption, backups and destinations built in.

## What TinyBase is

A reactive store with a serious size discipline (a single-digit-kilobyte core,
zero dependencies), fine-grained reactivity, and a large family of persisters -
IndexedDB, OPFS, browser storage, SQLite in several runtimes, PGlite, Yjs,
Automerge, and more - plus synchronizers over WebSocket and BroadcastChannel.
Its documentation and test discipline are, frankly, a standard to aim at.

The design is that persistence is **pluggable**: TinyBase holds and reacts, the
persister decides where bytes land. Encryption, a portable backup, a
destination the user picks and the screens to connect one are outside that
contract by construction.

## What selfstore is

The opposite trade. It is not reactive - one `subscribe` and a stable state
snapshot - and it is not tiny. What it brings instead is the part TinyBase
leaves to you, decided and tested: AES-256-GCM over Argon2id, a
[portable ZIP on an open spec](https://selfstore.dev/docs/format), destinations on storage the user
already owns, a deterministic merge between their devices, and drop-in
[widgets](https://selfstore.dev/docs/widgets) for the connect and share journeys.

| | TinyBase | selfstore |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reactivity | Fine-grained, everywhere | One subscribe + stable state |
| Size | A headline feature | Not a headline feature |
| Persistence | Many persisters, you pick | The loop, decided |
| Encryption | Yours to build | Built in |
| User-holdable backup | Yours to build | First-class, spec'd ZIP |
| Multi-device merge | Via a synchronizer you run | Serverless, via user-owned storage |
| Connect / share UI | Yours to build | Web components included |

## Use TinyBase when

- You want reactive queries and metrics over local data, with a small bundle.
- Your persistence target is exotic and you would rather write an adapter than
  adopt an opinion.

## Use selfstore when

- The hard part is not reactivity, it is durability: encryption, a real backup,
  a destination the user owns, and convergence between their devices.
- You would rather not implement, review and maintain the crypto path yourself.

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