Electric
Postgres sync engine that streams partial replicas into local apps in real time.
why this verdict
Keep it — Anthropic has not replaced it
Anthropic's version overlaps, but does not finish the dev tools job, so this one is still worth keeping open.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Supabase Realtime and Firebase covering sync for most apps without a separate component. Anthropic, November 4, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers not the job editorial call
- Parts of it. The job still needs the tool to get finished.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 2 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: Supabase Realtime and Zero.
- What the call is worth nothing to cancel
- No paid entry tier tracked, so there is no subscription to cancel.
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- November 4, 2025
- List price
- free
- Per year
- —
The backstory
Electric solves the read path of sync: keep a subset of Postgres live in the client so an app reads from local state and stays current, without hand-writing websocket plumbing. Bundled realtime in Supabase and Firebase covers the easy cases. Electric's argument is that it is a sync engine rather than a platform, so it works with the Postgres a team already has, and the local-first movement it belongs to has been gathering rather than losing momentum.
Escape hatches
Offline-first sync with mature mobile SDKs
powersync.com open_in_newBundled with the rest of the Supabase platform
supabase.com open_in_newSync engine from the Replicache team
zero.rocicorp.dev open_in_new2 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.
