Ministack (Replacement for LocalStack)

LocalStack is no longer free for many core services. MiniStack offers a lightweight, MIT-licensed alternative that runs 30+ AWS services with real infrastructure like Postgres and Redis.

LocalStack is no longer free. MiniStack is.

30 AWS services on a single port — with real Postgres, Redis, and Docker containers. No account, no license key, no telemetry.

Core AWS services plus real infrastructure — RDS runs actual databases, ElastiCache runs real Redis, ECS starts real Docker containers, Athena executes real SQL via DuckDB (when installed).

Same developer experience. Fraction of the cost and footprint.

| Feature | LocalStack Free | LocalStack Pro | MiniStack ⚡ | |---|---|---|---| | Core services (S3, SQS, DDB…) | Now paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | Lambda, IAM, SSM, EventBridge | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | RDS (real DB containers) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ Real Postgres/MySQL | | ElastiCache (real Redis) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ Real Redis | | ECS (real Docker) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ Real Docker | | Athena (real SQL) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ DuckDB (optional) | | Glue Catalog + Jobs | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | API Gateway v2 (HTTP APIs) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ + data plane | | API Gateway v1 (REST APIs) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ + data plane | | Firehose | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ S3 delivery | | Route53 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Cognito (user pools + identity) | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | EC2 (instances, VPC, subnets, SGs) | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | EMR (clusters, steps, instance groups) | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | EBS (volumes, snapshots, attach/detach) | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | EFS (file systems, mount targets, access points) | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | ALB / ELBv2 (LBs, listeners, rules + Lambda data plane) | Paid | ✅ | ✅ Free | | SNS→SQS fanout + SQS→Lambda ESM | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | Startup time | ~15-30s | ~15-30s | ~2s | | Memory at idle | ~500MB | ~500MB | ~30MB | | Docker image | ~1 GB | ~1 GB | 150 MB | | License | BSL (restricted) | Proprietary | MIT | | Price | Now paid | $35+/mo | $0 forever |

Where it matters most — RDS, ElastiCache, and ECS run real Docker containers. No fake endpoints, no stubbed responses.

One command. 30 services. Real infrastructure. Free.

Source: Hacker News

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