I’ve been thinking a lot about where web development is headed. It feels like we’re at a turning point. For years, we’ve built applications with a central server talking to a central database. That model works, but it has a fundamental flaw: distance. The further a user is from your data center, the slower their experience. This isn’t just about speed; it’s about creating applications that feel instant and responsive for everyone, everywhere. That’s what led me to explore a new way of building things.
What if your application logic and your database could live in the same place, right next to your user? This isn’t a distant dream. It’s possible today by combining two specific technologies. On one side, you have a framework built for the modern web with a powerful, reactive core. On the other, a database designed from the ground up to be distributed globally. Together, they change the rules of the game.
Let’s talk about the framework first. SolidStart provides a complete foundation for full-stack applications. It handles rendering your pages on the server, creating API endpoints, and managing all the complex build steps. Its secret weapon is a reactivity system that updates only the parts of your interface that actually need to change. This leads to incredibly efficient applications. But a fast frontend is only half the story. Where does the data come from?
This is where the database comes in. Turso is built on SQLite, a reliable and well-known technology, but with a crucial twist: it’s made for the edge. Instead of one big database in a single region, Turso lets you place smaller instances of your database in locations around the world. Your application code, running in a SolidStart server function, can talk to a database instance that might be just a few milliseconds away from the user making the request.
The technical integration is refreshingly straightforward. You don’t need complex connection pooling or special drivers. You use a simple client library to run your SQL queries. Here’s a basic look at how you might set up a connection and fetch data in a SolidStart server function.
// File: /lib/turso.ts
import { createClient } from '@libsql/client';
export const tursoClient = createClient({
url: process.env.TURSO_DB_URL!,
authToken: process.env.TURSO_DB_AUTH_TOKEN!,
});// File: /routes/api/users.ts
import { tursoClient } from '~/lib/turso';
import { json } from 'solid-start/api';
export async function GET() {
// Query the nearest edge database instance
const result = await tursoClient.execute('SELECT id, name FROM users LIMIT 50');
return json({ users: result.rows });
}See how simple that is? It feels like querying a local database, because in a way, it is. The tursoClient.execute command is talking to a database instance that is deployed close to where your server function is running. This proximity is the magic. The long network journey to a central data center is eliminated.
But what about keeping data consistent across all these distributed instances? This is a critical question. You can’t have users in Tokyo seeing different information than users in London. Turso handles this through replication. You might have a primary database where all writes happen, and then those changes are reliably synced out to read-only replicas in other regions. Your SolidStart application can be smart about this. Reads go to the local replica for speed, while writes are sent to the primary to maintain a single source of truth.
Think about the user experience for a global team using a project management tool. When a team member in Berlin updates a task, that write goes to the primary database. Almost instantly, their colleague in São Paulo can see that change because their next read query will fetch from a local replica that has been updated. The delay is minimal, and the experience is seamless.
How do you structure your application to take full advantage of this? A clean separation is key. Your SolidStart routes and server functions act as the bridge. They contain the business logic—the rules for what data can be fetched, created, or modified. They call the Turso client to perform the actual database operations. This keeps your UI components clean and focused on presentation.
For example, a page that shows a user profile shouldn’t be cluttered with SQL. Instead, it calls a server function.
// A server function in SolidStart
export async function getUserProfile(userId: string) {
// This query runs at the edge, near the user
const result = await tursoClient.execute({
sql: 'SELECT * FROM profiles WHERE user_id = ?',
args: [userId]
});
if (result.rows.length === 0) {
throw new Error('Profile not found');
}
return result.rows[0];
}Then, in your Solid component, you can use a resource to load this data seamlessly, with Solid’s reactivity managing the loading states.
This architecture has a beautiful consequence for deployment and cost. Because both the application and database are designed for edge environments, you can deploy them together on platforms like Cloudflare Workers or Vercel’s Edge Network. You’re not paying for a database server that’s always on, idling 60% of the time. You pay for the actual queries you run and the data you store. This aligns perfectly with the usage patterns of most applications.
So, who is this for? If you’re building anything where user interaction feels like a conversation—a dashboard that updates in real-time, a content platform serving articles globally, an e-commerce site where cart and inventory checks need to be lightning-fast—this combination is worth your attention. It removes a major bottleneck we’ve just accepted as normal: the wait for data to travel across the internet.
The shift to the edge isn’t just an infrastructure change; it’s a user experience imperative. By placing your application’s logic and data within milliseconds of your users, you build something that feels immediate and reliable. It’s about respecting the user’s time and providing a smooth, frustration-free interaction. This is the next step in making the web feel truly fast for everyone.
I’m excited by the possibilities this stack opens up. It simplifies complex problems of global scale and lets developers focus on building great features. What kind of application would you build if latency was no longer your primary constraint? The tools are here. The path is clearer than ever. If you found this perspective useful, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please share this with someone who’s thinking about the future of web architecture, and let me know in the comments what you’re building.
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