Is Primitive Right for You?

Primitive is designed for a specific type of application. Understanding where it shines—and where it doesn't—will help you decide if it's the right choice for your project.

The Key Question

Ask yourself:

"Is my app's data owned by individual users who might want to collaborate?"

If the answer is yes, Primitive is likely a great fit. If your data is inherently public or needs to be aggregated across all users server-side, a traditional architecture might serve you better.

Great Fits for Primitive

Productivity Apps

Apps where users manage their own tasks, notes, projects, or work:

• ✅ Task managers and to-do apps
• ✅ Note-taking and knowledge bases
• ✅ Project management tools
• ✅ Writing and documentation tools
• ✅ Personal CRMs

Why it works: Data is user-owned, collaboration is valuable, and real-time sync makes the experience feel instant.

Personal Tools

Apps that help users track or manage aspects of their lives:

• ✅ Budgeting and expense tracking
• ✅ Habit trackers
• ✅ Journal and diary apps
• ✅ Health and fitness logging
• ✅ Recipe collections
• ✅ Reading lists and media tracking

Why it works: Private by default, works offline (great for mobile), and users might want to share specific collections with family or partners.

Team Collaboration

Small team tools where groups share specific data sets:

• ✅ Shared shopping lists
• ✅ Family calendars
• ✅ Team wikis and documentation
• ✅ Collaborative planning tools
• ✅ Shared inventory management

Why it works: The document model maps naturally to "shared spaces" that teams access together.

Communication Apps

Messaging and collaboration features where real-time matters:

• ✅ Team chat (Slack-style)
• ✅ Direct messaging
• ✅ Discussion forums
• ✅ Collaborative whiteboards

Why it works: Real-time sync is built in, and the document-per-channel pattern works well.

Creative and Design Tools

Apps where users create and potentially share their work:

• ✅ Design collaboration tools
• ✅ Mood boards
• ✅ Storyboarding apps
• ✅ Collaborative diagramming

Why it works: Offline creation, easy sharing of specific projects, and real-time collaboration on shared canvases.

Less Ideal Fits

Public Data Apps

Apps where most data is meant to be seen by everyone:

• ❌ E-commerce product catalogs
• ❌ Public social networks (Twitter/Instagram-style)
• ❌ News or content publishing platforms
• ❌ Public directories or listings
• ❌ Review sites

Why it doesn't fit: Primitive's model assumes data is private by default. Public data that needs to be indexed, searched, and served to anonymous users needs a traditional server-side database.

Massive Data Sets

Apps that store very large amounts of data per user:

• ❌ Full email clients (years of email history)
• ❌ Large media libraries (thousands of high-res photos)
• ❌ Extensive logging or analytics storage
• ❌ Backup services

Why it doesn't fit: Documents work best around 10MB each. While you can use multiple documents, apps with hundreds of megabytes per user need a different storage strategy.

Complex Server-Side Logic

Apps that need significant processing that can't run in the browser:

• ❌ Apps requiring heavy computation
• ❌ Apps with complex business rules that must run server-side
• ❌ Apps needing scheduled background jobs
• ❌ Apps with complex cross-user data aggregation

Why it doesn't fit: Primitive runs your code in the browser. If you need server-side execution, you'll need to build that separately.

Cross-User Analytics

Apps that need to query across all users' data:

• ❌ Recommendation engines based on all user behavior
• ❌ Apps needing SQL joins across different users' data

Why it doesn't fit: Each user's data lives in their own documents. You can't directly query data stored in documents across all users—there's no global database to run SQL against.

However, Primitive includes a built-in analytics solution that captures events and enables cross-user analytics dashboards. So while you can't query the raw document data across users, you can track events and build admin dashboards showing aggregate metrics.

Making the Decision

If you need...	Primitive	Traditional
User-owned private data	✅	✅
Real-time collaboration	✅ Built-in	Requires work
Offline support	✅ Built-in	Requires work
Public data for SEO	❌	✅
Server-side business logic	❌	✅
Cross-user analytics	❌	✅
100MB+ per user	❌	✅
Fast time-to-market	✅	Depends

Still Unsure?

Try building a prototype. The template app gets you started in minutes, and you'll quickly get a feel for whether the model works for your use case. If it doesn't fit, you'll know early—and if it does, you'll have a head start on a production-ready foundation.