Directus
Instant no-code app and dynamic API for any SQL database
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Directus 9 - Instant no-code app and dynamic API for any SQL database

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Directus turns any SQL database into a no-code app and powerful API. Our open-source platform is completely migration-free, seamlessly layering on top of your new or existing database, providing you with a suite of tools to manage and connect your content.

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?makers I would like great thanks to the entire Directus development team. You guys are great fellows and I will gladly support your project and vote for it. But I also want to ask you to pay close attention to promoting your product. What I mean? Apart from the documentation you maintain you need to pay a lot of attention to maintaining your blog and writing articles, and shoot more YouTube training videos. Arrange online interviews with live developers and ask them more questions about using Directus on real projects. What tasks do they solve with Directus. Your main competitor is Strapi. And Strapi has a lot of tutorials and videos on the Internet that help learn the platform faster and use it for concrete project. Engage bloggers-developers and ask them to shoot a video tutorial on installing and configuring Directus or a video tutorial on creating an application with Vue + Directus / React + Directus, etc. When I go to the main Directus website, the Blog section, I see very few articles there and the update time is very long. One gets the feeling that no one is following this and there is no separate manager for content and promotion, but this is very important!
Maker
thank you very much for the detailed feedback! We are actively looking to gain more ground on some if not all of the areas you have pointed out, and feedbacks like yours help immensely for us to tackle these aspects. Stay tuned for more articles, guides and bite-sized videos that we have been brewing recently!
Maker
Thanks, Vadim — I could not agree more with this feedback. Let me give some insight into where we are, and where we're heading next. Docs, guides, videos and all other learning resources are critical for the developer experience. We have been a small two-person team for 17 years, and were just able to start hiring a bigger team a few months ago. We have focused on hiring engineers first, so we could get v9 completed and stable. Docs were overhauled (mostly structure), but we didn't dive deep into content since so much was in flux pre-release. We're now actively looking for a full-time (many interviews in the past week, spread the word if you know anyone interested!) and can't wait to get that person onboard soon so we can hit the ground running. We also JUST brought on a non-technical content writer to help out. Last week we dedicated one of our team members to creating short explainer videos... you may have seen these 30s to 2m videos on our Twitter. Once we have a good library of these, we'll be consolidating them into the Docs too. We also have been talking with a bunch of YouTube devs about working on some commissioned videos (we have a few, but never enough). Lastly, our Core team has a bunch of great integration articles in the works (think: how to get running with Directus + Gatsby, Nuxt, React, Huge, etc). These are coming along nicely, but any time working on that is not spent on platform dev... so it's a tradeoff! I could go on with FAR more examples, but the TL;DR is that this is the next big thing we'll be focused on. We recognize how important it is, and that there's always a lot of room for improvement. Starting this week, we're making Docs updates a requirement for all fixes/PRs from our team... this will help break it into more manageable tasks, instead of a huge mountain to climb. ✍️
Maker
Also going to ping here... who has been working on these awesome short videos so he knows how important his work is! 😊
Thank you for a detailed explanation of your future plans. I wish you all succeed. I want to give you a couple more ideas, how to tell as much as possible about your product, so that people not only learn about it, but also begin to actively use Directus in their projects. Pay special attention to the freecodecamp.org YouTube channel, contact these guys, prepare a video course on the topic: "How to create a ready-made application using Directus + vue" or "How to create a ready-made application using Directus + react". You can choose the simplest application, for example: "a dashboard for analytics" or "a simple blog", or a "food ordering system", for example. Videos on freecodecamp with a full explanation take from 1.5 to 7 hours. Most importantly, the video should contain a detailed explanation of how to make a finished application from start to finish using Directus and the popular frontend framework. In addition to freecodecamp, there are other training channels that will want to host training materials with a link to you in the video description. You just need to create interesting educational content for them. Strapi also actively participates in many conferences on React and Vue. The guys make a newsletter about this in weekly subscribsions and post news on their website. In turn, at these conferences, Strapi is also mentioned as an information sponsor, and many developers learn about this product at the conferences. An example of the recent conference "VueConf Toronto 2021". It would also be nice to see the #MadeWithDirectus section on the main page of the site, where there will be news and descriptions of real projects in which Directus is already used in production. And don't neglect email newsletters. They should be weekly. They should contain product news, major changes and plans. At the end of the letter, you can also include a list of open positions, the section like "We are hiring!".
Maker
Excellent feedback and information! Thank you!!!
Maker
Hey Everyone! 👋 I’m Ben from the Directus Team. After years of development, we’re super excited to finally share our open-source data platform with you today! Directus instantly turns your relational database into a no-code app for non-technical business users, and automatically adds a powerful API (REST & GraphQL) for developers. More importantly, there’s zero migration or vendor lock-in. The platform simply layers on top of your new or existing database, leaving your schema and content pristine and unaltered. ⚡ CORE FEATURES • Free, Open-Source, and No Paywalls • Instantly layers on top of any new or existing SQL database • Supports Postgres, MySQL, SQLite, MS SQL Server, OracleDB, Aurora, etc • Dynamic REST API, GraphQL, CLI, JS-SDK, & Webhooks • Intuitive no-code App and Insights Dashboard • 100% JavaScript & TypeScript, on Node.js & Vue 3 • Built-in Auth: OAuth2, OIDC/OpenID, LDAP, etc • Granular Role-based Access Control Filters • Translate Content in our Multilingual App (30+ Languages) • White-Label, Modular, Extensible, & Customizable • Install via , , , or Our platform contains everything needed to build highly performant projects at scale, including granular role-based access control, custom layouts/interfaces, dashboard insights, event hooks, advanced filtering, revision history, asset management, and numerous auth options (OAuth2, OIDC, LDAP). 🛠️ What will you build with the world’s first Open Data Platform? Below are just some of the popular projects our millions of users have been creating. 🚀 • Headless CMS: Manage content for digital experiences of any scale. • Web App Builder: Create internal tools, dashboards, and back-office apps. • SaaS & IoT: Organize and visualize data from SaaS tenants, IoT devices/sensors. • Mobile & Native Apps: Power gaming, business, education, and lifestyle apps. Directus has come a long way over the past 18 years, but one thing will never change: the entire platform is completely free and open-source, with no paywalls or artificial limitations. A huge thanks to our dedicated team, passionate contributors, growing community, and millions of open-source users. ❤️ While self-hosting is always free, if you'd rather give Directus a try on our fully-managed cloud service, we've created this special promo code to give you 4 months free: HappyHunter2021 We hope you’ll give our platform a try, and can’t wait to hear your thoughts and feedback. There are a lot of big things planned for the next few months... so stay tuned. Thank you! 🙌
Great product guys!
Maker
Replying up here for better visibility. In case you missed it, we included a special promo code for our new managed Cloud service which will get you 4 months of Directus completely free: HappyHunter2021 Though, please keep in mind that our entire platform is completely free and open-source... so you never need to pay. This is just an easy way to try things out without touching the CLI or pay for your own servers! ☁️
Just in time, I am gonna use this on my mobile app. Congrats on the launch!
Maker
Thank you! Mobile apps rule the world :)
this is quite confusing the flow straightaway leading to payment flow. "Make payment to create project"?
it seems the payment is per project. It should be per team. I tried to create 2 projects, one demo and one empty, and they are asking for payment already.
Maker
apologies for any confusion. Our standard cloud is charged per project. Each account gets one(1) project 14-day free trial. Self hosted projects are available completely free and open-source. Hope this helps.
Maker
Hey Hendrik - our cloud solutions are charged at the project level. Each account gets one(1) project 14-day free trial. Self hosted projects are available completely free and open-source. Hope this helps.
Whoa this looks amazing! ?makers Is it possible to use Directus as a backend for an app ? For example if I want to manage my users and data in Directus, and use the API on a sub domain (in a custom web app).
Maker
Thank you and absolutely yes. This is one of the key use cases our platform supports. Directus dynamically mirrors any SQL database in our Admin App and REST + GraphQL APIs. You can install on an existing SQL database/schema or create a new schema from scratch. :)
Nice! Thanks for your answer :)
Maker
From the CTO himself!! 👑
Love the product and love the idea. I can't wait to see it evolve.
Maker
Thank you! Hope you will join in the evolution through your ideas and feedback :)
Maker
Thank you, Wayne — we strongly believe in real-world feedback for our product's iteration. We're lucky to have 18 years of usage and an awesome/vocal community to help guide our platform. Anything you'd be excited to see added to the App or API? 📢
I would love to see the expansion of dynamic variables with regards to filters, in the App beyond $CURRENT_USER, $CURRENT_ROLE. Hopefully a $COLLECTION.name equal to another variable in the collection. I do see some talk and PR's on this on Github, so I know there is some talk about it. It would be a game changer, personally, for me. I would also like to see the role out of the marketplace. I believe that if developers can build extensions that the community can buy / rent it would be a big push for the product with regards to contributions from developers. Understandably managing a market place would be a whole venture in itself.
Maker
Absolutely! We've just started dipping out toes in those dynamic variables... they are just so powerful! A big part of this will be discoverability and ease of choosing them too... that's why we're updating our filters/interfaces to better surface those options (so you don't have to remember them and type them in manually). We recently added the ability to traverse nested variables... for example: $CURRENT_USER.location, which is awesome, and also some functions, such as $NOW(-30 days). Your request of including related fields is a big one, and something I'm excited to get in too. The only thing we have to watch is performance with some of these. Anything that gets processed in the ACL permissions has the potential to slow down performance... so it's not something to rush. 🏃💨 As for the Marketplace, this is on my top 5 for big things to add to the ecosystem over the next 3 months. So excited to get this out there and see what the community builds. Our plan is to leverage NPM as the backbone here, so it's less about the heavy lifting, and more about how easy we can make it to develop extensions and polish up "over the wire" installs in running instances. While we love the idea of most extensions being free, allowing external devs the ability to get paid for their work is really exciting. I'd love to see more contributors get compensated for their awesome work extending the Core platform! 💰
Thanks , looking very forward to the improvements and the future of Directus. Please keep up the awesome product.
I was using Strapi v3 but had so many issues with response times. Using Supabase coupled to Directus has been a game changer. So many more basic features available, like trim inputs, mobile friendly, hooks, extensions. It baffles me that it isn’t more popular than it is. Its just so much more stable than competitors. Oh and also starting the dev environment is instant.
Maker
Thank you!!! So glad you are enjoying your experience and more important that is providing value and performance. Our team is always looking to improve, let us know how we lift your projects to the next level :)
Maker
This is a combination I've been hearing more and more, and I really like it! Directus layered on top of a Supabase datastore is a really powerful experience. I've often described Directus as sitting at the intersection of Headless CMS (our App) and Backend-as-a-Service (eg: Supabase). The former is very content-specific and usually pretty light-weight... and the latter is very technical, and unapproachable outside of engineers. I think Directus offers something completely unique — essentially a Database Admin Tool that even non-technical business users can safely jump into. We call it "data democratization", but that always sounds a little buzzwordy. 😉 In any event, now that Directus 9 in in General Availability, we're hoping that big pushes like this ProductHunt announcement will help us foster more awareness. We're not big into marketing yet (unlike our multi-billion dollar competition 😂) as we think the product speaks for itself... but no matter how good a product is, it won't matter if no one knows about it! Here's to continuing this awesome momentum! Thank you for the kind words!! 💜
Maker
Once you go Vite, you never go back ⚡ The ultimate plan is to provide the same instant-dev-experience for extension development. As a fellow Vue developer, let us know if there is anything around App extensions that could be improved.
To be honest, I have never used Strapi yet, but I must share here my enthusiasm for finding Directus 9 - I have share it with a person who is totally amazed by it now, and I am so happy for spreading such a helpful tool and such a well organized and perfectly implemented idea! ^__^
Maker
This is great to hear, Maria — we're just getting started! Directus can do a LOT, but we need to improve our messaging and onboarding so that our new users are aware of all these great features and capabilities.
Couldn't recommend it more, incredibly powerful and flexible but at the same time user-friendly and intuitive.
Maker
Thanks, Joe! Any big (or little) features you'd like to see added? We're compiling a list, and checking it twice! 🎅🏻
I know this is already on the radar, but would be great to see realtime data streaming - I have an app at the moment where I'm polling, switching to sockets or something would be super cool! 🎄
Maker
Hey Joe - be great to get your input and upvote on the feature here:
Maker
You know it! This is top three on my personal list of features to get implemented before the end of the year! Polling works, but nothing compares to realtime websockets and GraphQL Subscriptions! Just thinking about this makes me want to dive in now! 😂
Congratulations! Looks amazing and will be my choice for a headless CMS on my next upcoming project.
Maker
Oh, exciting! While on-prem is completely free, feel free to give our Cloud service a try. HappyHunter2021 will get you 4 free months! Although, apparently there's a big AWS infra outage right now... so you might want to wait a bit. 😜
Thanks! Does Directus have any plans to support students / groups of student devs?
Maker
Definitely!! Here are some options: • Our platform is completely free and open-source... so you can't beat that! • We have one-click installs on several affordable hosting providers, like Azure and DigitalOcean ($5/month) • We offer OSS and non-profit discounts on our standard Cloud service (just reach out to on our Live Chat) • And best of all... we are about to release a completely free Community Cloud service that will offer our free product on free servers! Well, we pay for the servers, but you don't! Having been an open-source non-profit for years, we're aware of the struggle... so just reach out. We're here to help in any way we can! 💖
Thank you!! We're definitely going to go the self-hosted route (as we already have with a competitor) :)
Maker
Sounds like a plan!! You're in good company, we have 12M+ on-prem installs on Docker alone. 💯
Congratulations on the launch of Directus 9. We are happy to be part of Directus Team, and we know this will become #1 Headless CMS Soon. I would love to try and will share feedback soon. 🤝
Maker
Thank you! Feedback makes us stronger and better :)
Maker
Hey Kaushal — great to see such a long-time user here! 👋 We've been working hard on Directus 9 and the accompanying (optional) Cloud service. Can't wait to give you a tour!
Great! How is your product different from Retool?
Maker
Directus has a very userfriendly ui, it's completely opensource, very easy to customize for every usecase and you don't have to touch any SQL at all. And these are just a few things I came up with right now.
Maker
Some of the benefits I hear from our community are the dynamic APIs (REST + GraphQL) that mirror the database and allow for integration with any internal/external systems, Front-End frameworks(REACT, NuxtJs, NextJs, Vue, ...), etc. The no-code Admin App allows non-technical users to manage content and data in the database. As noted, there are many benefits and they definitely won't all fit here. Hope that helps.
Maker
I love differentiation questions, thanks, Eugene! The biggest difference is that Directus is completely free and open-source, while Retool has many limitations and paywalls... even when self-hosting. Another big benefit of being open-source beyond pricing) is that you actually have control over the codebase and since it's built modularly, you can infinitely extend it. This means there is effectively no feature ceiling. The second big one is our Connection Toolkit. Retool offers a rudimentary REST API Generator that you need to manually build from a CSV. Directus, by comparison, dynamically builds your REST and GraphQL APIs and automatically keeps them up-to-date based on any changes to your schema. We do this with an agnostic AST file, so Directus can also provide schema migrations, OpenAPI spec files, and more. Also, while Directus is built for Developers, the Directus App is designed for non-technical users. This is a key difference, because you don't need to know SQL (or any query language) to build/filter data sets. Retool gives a nice abstraction layer... but still relies on SQL, and is therefore out of reach for the broader demographic. Beyond these big ones, there are a multitude of other Enterprise-level features that we support, including: content workflows, multilingual/translation support, far more granular filter-based permissions, webhooks, event hooks, built-in auth (SSO, OIDC, OAuth2, AD, etc), digital asset management, and live image transformations. I won't say there isn't a healthy amount of overlap on the App-Builder side, but Directus definitely supports a broader range of use-cases.
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