Syncular
Syncular is an open-source offline-first SQL sync framework: every client gets a real local SQLite database that stays in sync with a server-authoritative commit log, scoped to the data each user is allowed to see. It aims to give web, mobile, desktop, and native apps the same sync protocol and identical behavior across platforms.
At a Glance
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Syncular
SQL Sync Engine for Local First
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Latest News
@syncular/core 0.15.44 published to npm
Durable Offline Writes: Lessons from Seven Sync Engines — how PowerSync, Zero, Electric, Replicache, Turso, LiveStore, and Jazz handle offline writes, and the architecture Syncular took from them
Syncular 0.5.0 released
syncular/syncular open-sourced on GitHub under Apache-2.0
Products & Services
Offline-first SQL sync framework, Apache-2.0. A local SQLite database on every client plus a server-authoritative, ordered commit log, with scope-based authorization enforced server-side. Ships as one written protocol (SPEC.md) with two independent, conformance-locked implementations: a TypeScript core for the browser (Web Worker + OPFS-backed sqlite-wasm, 31.3 KB gzipped) and a Rust core for everything else (rusqlite behind a five-function C FFI). Both cores pass the same golden byte-level vectors and a 95-scenario conformance catalog in CI.
Schema and query tooling. One checked SQL or SYQL source is lowered to a target-neutral QueryIR and generates typed query APIs — plus reactive dependencies and provable synchronization coverage — for TypeScript, Swift, Kotlin, Dart, and Rust. Includes a SYQL playground and named queries.
`bun create syncular-app` scaffolds a working project in about five minutes, with minimal, web (Hono server + OPFS todo UI), and Tauri templates. Standalone binaries are distributed via the syncular-cli-releases repository.
Server-side commit log with pluggable storage backends, including a documented Cloudflare Workers deployment path. Authorization is a single resolveScopes(actor) function that lives in the application's own backend next to its auth.
Market Position
Syncular positions itself against the current generation of sync engines — PowerSync, Zero, Electric SQL, Replicache, Turso, LiveStore, and Jazz — with three explicit differentiators: a written protocol spec with two independently conformance-tested cores (TypeScript and Rust) rather than one implementation, genuinely native reach across web plus iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, Tauri, and Rust, and typed query generation into five languages from a single source. It stays server-authoritative with scope validation on every commit rather than defaulting to CRDT-everywhere merging. It is early-stage: pre-1.0 (v0.15.x), 87 GitHub stars, and effectively a single-maintainer project, which is the main adoption risk against better-funded alternatives.
Key Competitors
Leadership
Founders
Benjamin Kniffler
Creator and sole maintainer of Syncular (GitHub: bkniffler, Frankfurt/London). Has been building offline-first and reactive datastores for close to a decade — earlier open-source projects include debe (a reactive offline-first JavaScript datastore for browsers, Node, and Electron), workerdb (a syncable WebWorker database built on PouchDB), draft-wysiwyg, and slate-mate. Syncular is the continuation of that line of work, rebuilt around SQLite and a written sync protocol.
Founding Story
Syncular started as a public project in early 2026 — the GitHub organization was created on 2026-01-27 and the first packages hit npm on 2026-02-10. It grew out of its author's long-running work on offline-first data stores (debe, workerdb) and an explicit study of how existing sync engines handle writes made without a network. The published design rationale compares PowerSync, Zero, Electric, Replicache, Turso, LiveStore, and Jazz, and states the architecture Syncular took from those lessons: a durable outbox for local writes, idempotent commits, and a server that stays authoritative rather than merging blindly.
Business Model
Revenue Model
Fully open source under Apache-2.0, distributed free via npm and crates.io. No paid tier, hosted service, or commercial offering has been announced.
Target Markets
- Offline-first mobile and desktop apps that must keep working without a network
- Local-first apps wanting instant local reads instead of network round trips
- Collaborative apps needing realtime propagation with server-enforced authorization
- Cross-platform products sharing one sync protocol across web, iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, Tauri, and Rust
- Apps replacing hand-rolled sync layers or heavier sync services
- Edge deployments running the sync server on Cloudflare Workers