How to Deploy Appwrite on AWS Using Microtica for a Scalable Backend For Free
Deploy Appwrite on AWS using Microtica for fast setup, autoscaling, and full infrastructure control—no backend coding required.
Appwrite is an open-source backend server that helps developers build secure, scalable applications quickly. It gives you authentication, file storage and databases through ready-made APIs, without writing backend code. This guide deploys Appwrite to a Kubernetes cluster in your own AWS account with Microtica’s free Appwrite template.
Why Self-Host Appwrite on AWS?
Running Appwrite on AWS with the template gives you:
- Appwrite on a Kubernetes cluster you own, with persistent storage for its data.
- All infrastructure and data in your AWS account.
- A repository with the Appwrite setup, and a build and deploy on every push to it.
- Microtica’s cost optimization and monitoring for the cluster it runs on.
The template itself is free. AWS bills the resources it runs on, starting with the EKS cluster.
Prerequisites
- A Microtica account. Sign up with your email or a Git account.
- A connected Git account. Connect GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket under Integrations.
- An AWS account and an environment on AWS. You connect the account when you first deploy to the environment.
- A Kubernetes cluster in that environment. If you don’t have one, add the Amazon EKS template from Templates first. The React on Kubernetes guide walks through it, and it takes around 15 to 20 minutes.
Deploy a New Appwrite Backend Server
1. Pick the Appwrite template
Open Templates, find Appwrite (beta) under Services and pick the environment. Microtica creates a repository in your Git account with the Appwrite setup, named appwrite by default.
- Acme Store
- Add
2. Pick the cluster
Choose the cluster and the namespace Appwrite runs in. If the environment has no cluster yet, the step offers to add one.
3. Name it and set the database password
The app name takes lowercase letters only. The database password becomes the MariaDB password, and Appwrite also uses it as the token for the Appwrite Executor. It’s a sensitive setting, so Microtica hides it.
- Acme Store
- Add
4. Review and deploy
The review shows the new repository, the cluster and namespace, the settings you set (with the password hidden) and what happens next. Press Create and deploy.
- Acme Store
- Add
5. Follow the run
Microtica creates the repository and opens the run. BuildApplication builds the Appwrite image and DeployApplication rolls it out to your cluster.
- Acme Store
- appwrite
- Run
Access the Appwrite Backend
Services on a Kubernetes cluster don’t get a public address automatically. Open Appwrite under Apps, go to its Settings and assign a domain. Once that change is deployed, the domain serves the Appwrite console and API. Open it, create your first account and project, and point your apps at the API endpoint.
The Microtica documentation has more on domains and app settings.
Clean Up
To remove the AWS resources, undeploy the environment from its settings. Microtica deletes the resources in AWS and keeps the configuration, so you can deploy it again later.
Conclusion
Self-hosting Appwrite on AWS with Microtica takes a template and a few answers: where the code goes, which cluster, a name and a password. You get a production backend in your own AWS account, built and deployed from your repository on every push, without configuring Kubernetes by hand.
