Encore vs Convex

Infrastructure Ownership

Convex runs entirely on their managed platform with a proprietary database. Your data and compute are tied to Convex's infrastructure. There's no self-hosting option.

Encore provisions resources in an AWS or GCP account you control. You can see your databases in the AWS Console, set up VPC peering, configure IAM policies, and use any cloud service alongside your Encore resources.

This matters for compliance, data residency requirements, or when you need to avoid vendor lock-in with a proprietary database.

Database Choice

Convex uses a proprietary document database with TypeScript queries. It's optimized for reactive updates but doesn't support SQL. You're locked into Convex's data model and query language.

Encore uses PostgreSQL (RDS or Cloud SQL) in your cloud account. You get the full power of SQL, including complex joins, transactions, and the mature PostgreSQL ecosystem. Your data is portable.

import { SQLDatabase } from "encore.dev/storage/sqldb";

const db = new SQLDatabase("analytics", {
  migrations: "./migrations",
});

// Full SQL power with type safety
const results = await db.query<Event>`
  SELECT e.*, u.name as user_name
  FROM events e
  JOIN users u ON e.user_id = u.id
  WHERE e.created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '7 days'
  ORDER BY e.created_at DESC
`;

AI-Assisted Development

With Convex, your backend logic is in TypeScript functions, which AI agents like Cursor and Claude Code can work with. However, the proprietary database and query model require learning Convex-specific patterns.

Encore uses standard TypeScript with SQL for databases. AI agents work with familiar patterns and can generate code using well-known libraries and techniques. Infrastructure is defined alongside application code, giving AI full context.

Because the infrastructure comes from Encore's defaults rather than hand-written config, you can let an AI agent build features and trust the result is provisioned correctly. Built-in guardrails, auto-documentation, and observability keep your systems maintainable, even when AI writes most of the code.