LocalStack is no longer free. MiniStack is.
21 AWS services on a single
port β with real Postgres, Redis, and Docker containers. No account, no license key, no
telemetry.
Core AWS services plus real infrastructure β 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 β‘ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core services (S3, SQS, DDBβ¦) | Now paid | β | β Free |
| Lambda, IAM, SSM, EventBridge | Paid | β | β Free |
| RDS (real DB containers) | β | β | β Real Postgres/MySQL |
| ElastiCache (real Redis) | β | β | β Real Redis |
| ECS (real Docker) | β | β | β Real Docker |
| Athena (real SQL) | β | β | β DuckDB (optional) |
| Glue Catalog + Jobs | β | β | β |
| API Gateway v2 (HTTP APIs) | β | β | β + data plane |
| SNSβSQS fanout + SQSβLambda ESM | β | β | β |
| 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 β RDS, ElastiCache, and ECS run real Docker containers. No fake endpoints, no stubbed responses.
One command. 21 services. Real infrastructure. Free.