Convex vs. JavaScript vs. TanStack vs. pSTAKE Comparison Chart

Convex is an open source, reactive backend platform that enables developers to build full-stack applications entirely in TypeScript. It offers a document-relational database where queries and mutations are written in TypeScript, ensuring end-to-end type safety and seamless integration with frontend code. Convex's libraries maintain real-time synchronization between the frontend, backend, and database state without the need for manual state management, cache invalidation, or WebSockets. It includes built-in support for cloud functions, scheduling, authentication, file storage, and a variety of components that can be added with a simple npm i command. Developers can define their entire backend, including database schemas, queries, and APIs, in code, which is typechecked and autocompleted, and can be generated by AI with high accuracy. Convex's architecture ensures that all transactions are serializable, providing strong consistency guarantees and eliminating race conditions.

TanStack is an open source, framework-agnostic collection of high-quality, headless, and type-safe utilities designed for modern web development, offering powerful capabilities in state management, data fetching, routing, UI logic, tables, data grids, charts, and reactive client-side storage. Its ecosystem includes core libraries such as TanStack Query for asynchronous server-state fetching and caching, TanStack Router for full-stack and client-side routing with full TypeScript inference and URL state support, and TanStack Table for headless, customizable tables and data grids across TS/JS frameworks. Additional tools, such as TanStack DB, extend the reactive store with live queries and optimistic mutations, while frameworks like TanStack Start provide a full-stack React experience, including SSR, streaming, server functions, and bundling, powered by its own router and Vite. Collectively, TanStack tools emphasize developer control, performance, scalability, and type safety.