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Platform Basics

Xano is a backend-as-a-service platform that companies use to build, run, and scale APIs, data models, and backend logic without managing servers or infrastructure. It provides a managed database, API layer, business logic, authentication, and background processing in a single system.Xano also acts as an execution and data layer for AI agents and agent frontends via standards like MCP (Model Context Protocol), allowing tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or custom agent UIs to securely call APIs, access structured data, and trigger backend workflows. This lets organizations expose real business capabilities to AI without giving agents direct access to production systems.
Xano is used by application development teams, platform teams, and IT organizations building internal tools, customer-facing applications, or integration layers. It supports collaboration across developers, architects, and less technical contributors.This makes it suitable for small teams through large organizations.
Xano is built on PostgreSQL, a widely adopted, enterprise-grade relational database, which powers Xano’s native managed database. Teams can model complex schemas, enforce relationships, and maintain data integrity without operating the database themselves.You can also migrate your data to Xano or connect to existing external databases, allowing organizations to keep their data where it already lives while using Xano as an API, logic, and orchestration layer on top.Learn more: Database Overview
Xano uses a relational database based on Postgres, allowing you to structure data using tables and relationships similar to traditional SQL-based systems. This makes it well-suited for common application patterns such as one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, while still being accessible through a visual interface.Learn more: Designing your database

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APIs & Backend Logic

Xano provides a visual API builder that allows teams to create REST APIs using configurable logic blocks, database queries, and integrations. For teams that prefer a code-first workflow, Xano also supports building and editing APIs in XanoScript from your own editor using the Xano CLI and Developer MCP, giving developers full control when they need it.Beyond the primary API layer, teams can extend and automate Xano itself using the Metadata API, which enables programmatic management of resources, environments, and configurations. All APIs are automatically documented and can be exported using OpenAPI (Swagger), making them easy to integrate, test, and govern across teams.Learn more: APIs
Yes. Xano’s Function Stack is built so that teams can implement validations, workflows, conditional logic, and data transformations directly in the backend, with no limitations based on complexity. Logic is centralized and reusable across multiple applications and clients. This reduces duplication and helps enforce consistent rules across systems.Learn more: Logic & Workflows
Yes. Xano supports building backend logic either visually or entirely in code using XanoScript, allowing engineering teams to choose the workflow that best fits their standards and development practices. Visual and code-based logic can coexist in the same backend, giving teams flexibility without fragmenting their architecture.For cases where teams need to run custom JavaScript or leverage existing Node.js libraries, Xano also supports Lambda functions that execute natively within the Xano environment. This allows organizations to extend their backend with custom code while keeping everything governed, secure, and integrated.Learn more: Building with code · XanoScript
Yes. Xano supports real-time use cases through Realtime, which pushes messages to connected clients over WebSockets, and through webhooks. For some applications, real-time-like experiences can also be achieved through efficient APIs and frontend polling strategies, depending on the requirements of your app.Learn more: Realtime

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Authentication & Access Control

Xano includes built-in authentication features such as login, token management, and secure API access. Authorization rules can be customized based on roles, ownership, or custom business logic, giving teams fine-grained control over who can access what.In addition to native auth, Xano can integrate with common OAuth providers (such as Google, GitHub, and others) as well as custom OAuth services, allowing organizations to plug Xano into existing identity and SSO systems.This allows organizations to implement secure access controls aligned with internal policies.Learn more: User authentication · Security best practices
Yes. Xano supports role-based access control at both the application level and the platform level. For end users of your application, you can define roles, ownership rules, and permission logic that determine which users can access or modify specific data or APIs.For your internal teams, Xano also provides role-based access to the Xano workspace itself, allowing you to control which developers, operators, or partners can view, edit, or deploy backend logic. This makes it suitable for both secure applications and governed development teams.Learn more: Restricting access in your app · Workspace RBAC

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AI-Assisted Development

Xano Agent builds a backend from a natural-language description. Describe what you need, and it proposes a plan, then creates the database tables, API endpoints, functions, and middleware in XanoScript, presenting every change for review before anything goes live. For a new workspace, the Getting Started Assistant can also set up a schema, user authentication, and endpoints from a short description of your app.Teams can then refine, extend, and govern what the AI produces before deploying it.Learn more: Xano Agent · Building with AI
Xano’s Database Assistant lets teams describe schema changes in natural language and apply them safely to their database. It suggests updates to tables, fields, and relationships and allows teams to review every change before committing.This makes it easier to evolve data models as applications grow without breaking production systems.Learn more: Database Assistant
Yes. Xano includes a SQL Assistant that can translate natural-language requests into SQL queries. Teams can use it to build complex joins, filters, and aggregations and immediately preview the results.This reduces the need for manual SQL writing while maintaining full transparency and control.Learn more: SQL Assistant
Yes. Xano can serve as a backend for AI-driven applications by managing data, orchestrating workflows, and exposing APIs to AI agents. You can build AI agents that run inside your backend, and expose your logic to external AI clients as MCP servers. Agents also support observability via OpenTelemetry.This enables teams to add AI capabilities while maintaining backend control and visibility.Learn more: AI Agents

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Extensibility & Integrations

Xano supports Lambda functions that allow teams to run custom JavaScript or TypeScript and leverage existing NPM libraries directly inside their backend. This is commonly used for tasks such as document generation, image processing, data transformations, or specialized integrations.In addition, on certain plans, Xano can connect to external Docker-based microservices, enabling teams to run custom workloads in their own containers while still orchestrating them from Xano’s APIs and workflows. Xano’s Lambda Assistant further helps teams write and iterate on functions using AI while keeping everything integrated into the broader backend.Learn more: Lambda Assistant
Yes. Xano supports background tasks for long-running or asynchronous operations such as batch processing, integrations, or notifications.This helps maintain API performance while handling operational workloads reliably.Learn more: Background Tasks
Xano can call external APIs, consume webhooks, and act as an integration layer between systems. Teams use it to connect frontends, third-party services, internal tools, and automation platforms through a single, governed backend.To speed this up, Xano also provides pre-built integration actions and templates for common services (such as auth providers, email, payments, and automation tools), allowing teams to connect systems without writing everything from scratch. This makes Xano well suited for organizations with heterogeneous technology stacks.Learn more: Xano Connect

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Scaling, Security & Enterprise

Xano can scale infrastructure as demand increases, without requiring teams to manage servers or databases. For organizations with advanced needs, Xano also supports isolated environments.Learn more: Increasing plan limits
Xano is built to scale automatically as your application grows. Performance best practices include designing efficient queries, using pagination where appropriate, and structuring data to match access patterns. Xano provides tools to help monitor and optimize performance as usage increases.Learn more: Performance Insights
Yes. On certain plans, Xano allows you to create separate tenants for the isolation of data and resources, including regional isolation. Whether you’re looking to implement CI/CD workflows, offer single-tenancy to customers, customize tenant resources, control releases, or meet data residency requirements, you can do it with Xano. This is ideal for SaaS companies with multiple customers who need isolated environments.Learn more: Tenant Center
Yes. Xano supports multi-tenant architecture through the Tenant Center, which is designed for applications that need clear isolation between customers or environments. With Tenant Center, you define a single backend blueprint (your APIs, database schema, and business logic) and then deploy it across multiple tenants while keeping each tenant’s data and resources fully isolated. Tenants can run in different geographic regions to meet data-residency or performance requirements, and you can manage releases and versioning across tenants from one control plane. This makes it suitable for SaaS products, enterprise platforms, or any B2B application where separate customer boundaries and operational control matter.
Yes. Xano is designed to run production workloads and is used by organizations supporting real users and business-critical applications. It includes features for security, performance, monitoring, and operational stability.To read up on how customers are using Xano, check out our customer case studies page and some of our real-life customer testimonials below.
“We were able to accelerate the development process without compromising on the essential elements of security and scalability.” — Arthur Anouil, Decathlon
“Xano made it incredibly easy to go from idea → AI-generated backend → production-grade system in a very short time.” — Manikant Kella, Dev.to
“Xano was my first choice due to its robust logic capabilities combined with a scalable database architecture. This combination would not only facilitate a successful launch but also ensure seamless scaling without additional technical overhead.” — Tom Wesołowski, Playmore
Xano provides encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and secure authentication mechanisms. Security configurations can be tailored to meet organizational requirements. This helps teams meet internal security standards without managing infrastructure directly.Compliance and security details are maintained in Xano’s Trust Center.Learn more: Xano Trust Center
Xano automatically performs backups of your data to protect against data loss. These backups are managed by Xano and are designed to support recovery in the event of an incident. This allows you to focus on building your application without needing to manage your own backup infrastructure.
Xano runs on managed cloud infrastructure and stores your data in secure data centers. The specific hosting region depends on your instance configuration. Xano is designed to meet common data security and residency requirements for modern applications.
Xano provides a public status page where you can view current system status and historical incidents. This allows you to quickly verify whether an issue is related to Xano’s infrastructure.
Xano does not store or train on your application data when processing AI requests. Data is used only to generate the requested AI output and is not retained or repurposed.Third-party AI providers may collect limited usage metadata for billing and performance, but your application data remains yours.Learn more: Privacy Notice

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Development Workflow & Portability

Xano supports environment management and safe iteration on backend logic, allowing teams to test changes before rolling them out. This enables structured workflows without complex DevOps tooling.Learn more: CI/CD
Xano provides ways to access and extract your database content, which gives you a practical path to migrate information into a different backend, data warehouse, or cloud environment. Xano also exposes your API definitions via OpenAPI (Swagger) as documentation of how your endpoints behave, which can help other tools or engineers understand how your system works if you rebuild or reimplement parts of it elsewhere. In addition, teams that have written backend logic in XanoScript may be able to reuse parts of that logic conceptually (or translate it to another language).Learn more: Export and sharing
Companies often start by using Xano for a specific application, workflow, or integration layer, then expand usage as teams see value. Xano can coexist with existing infrastructure. This makes it a low-risk way to modernize backend development incrementally.
Xano provides a unified backend platform that combines database, APIs, business logic, authentication, and integrations in one system. This allows teams to avoid stitching together multiple tools for different backend functions. It is designed for visual and code-based development, giving teams flexibility without sacrificing governance.Learn more:

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Ownership, Billing & Support

You do. You retain full ownership of everything you build on Xano, including your database schemas, APIs, business logic, and any data processed through your backend. Xano does not claim rights to your intellectual property, applications, or customer data.Xano’s role is to provide the platform and infrastructure that runs your backend—not to own or reuse what you create on top of it.
If you decide to move off Xano, you can export your data and API definitions so they can be migrated to another system. Xano supports OpenAPI (Swagger) exports for your APIs and provides mechanisms to retrieve your underlying data.In the unlikely event that Xano were ever unable to continue operating, the company maintains an exit plan designed to help customers recover their data and API specifications in a structured way.
Xano plans include limits based on resources such as API requests, storage, and compute. These limits are designed to support applications at different stages, from prototypes to production-scale workloads. If you approach or exceed a limit, Xano provides visibility into usage so you can upgrade or adjust your architecture as needed. Visit our pricing page for more information about specific plan limits.Learn more: Increasing plan limits
Xano pricing is based on the resources required to run your backend, such as compute and storage. Different plans are designed to support different stages of growth. Before launching, you can estimate costs based on your expected usage and scale, and upgrade plans as your application grows.Learn more: Pricing
Xano subscriptions cannot be paused. If you’re having difficulties, please reach out to our support team for assistance.
You will continue to retain access to Xano until the end of your subscription period.Learn more: Billing
Xano does not offer refunds on monthly plans. We may offer a refund on a yearly subscription during the first thirty days depending on the circumstances. Refunds are not processed automatically upon cancellation; you need to reach out to our support team before you cancel to process your request.
Due to technical limitations in our current infrastructure, it is not currently possible to directly downgrade from a paid plan back to a free plan.
All Xano users have access to documentation and community resources. Paid plans include direct support, with higher-tier plans offering faster response times and additional support options. This ensures teams can get help appropriate to the criticality of their application.Learn more: Getting help
  • Check out the Xano YouTube Channel. Our YouTube channel is always being updated with tutorials, use case examples, feature announcements, and more.
  • Visit the Xano Community. Ask or answer questions and interact directly with other Xano users.
  • Reach out to our support team. Just click the option in the lower-left corner anywhere in Xano to be connected to our support team, 24 hours a day.