https://altengine.net/blog altengine is a managed cloud platform on one REST API: store and query JSON documents, run full-text search, sign your users in, push realtime updates, store files, run code, and host the front end — usage-priced, with no idle cluster and the first $3 each month free. en https://altengine.net/blog/json-document-store-that-fits-your-schema https://altengine.net/blog/json-document-store-that-fits-your-schema 2026-09-09 altengine's Datastore API takes any JSON object, with no declared property types and no index file to maintain — and still keeps every query index-served, joined by key, and strongly consistent. Here is how it works and what it costs. https://altengine.net/blog/faceted-search-explained-with-example https://altengine.net/blog/faceted-search-explained-with-example 2026-09-02 Facets are the counts next to a filter — 'Jackets (42)'. Here is what separates a facet from a filter, a real faceted query and response over the Search API, and what facets actually cost. https://altengine.net/blog/add-full-text-search-to-your-app-rest-api https://altengine.net/blog/add-full-text-search-to-your-app-rest-api 2026-08-26 A hands-on walkthrough: create an index with one write, push structured documents, then run fielded queries with facets, sorting, snippets, and cursor pagination — all over plain HTTP. https://altengine.net/blog/managed-websocket-pub-sub-without-a-server https://altengine.net/blog/managed-websocket-pub-sub-without-a-server 2026-08-19 Self-hosting realtime means owning connection state, a fan-out backplane, and every reconnect. Here is the managed shape instead: HTTP publish, one client WebSocket carrying many channels, channel-scoped tokens, and a bill that goes to zero when nobody is connected. https://altengine.net/blog/cheapest-managed-full-text-search-small-apps https://altengine.net/blog/cheapest-managed-full-text-search-small-apps 2026-08-12 Most hosted search is priced for scale a small catalog doesn't have — either a rented cluster with a monthly floor or per-record fees that climb. Here's how the two models differ, and how to keep managed search at or near zero while you're small. https://altengine.net/blog/migrate-app-engine-search-to-rest-api https://altengine.net/blog/migrate-app-engine-search-to-rest-api 2026-08-05 Moving off App Engine's Search API touches less than you think. Your query strings, field types, facets and document schemas carry over as-is — what you actually rewrite is the call layer that sends them. https://altengine.net/blog/app-engine-channel-api-alternative-2026 https://altengine.net/blog/app-engine-channel-api-alternative-2026 2026-07-29 App Engine's Channel API is gone. Here are the three real ways to get realtime pub/sub in 2026 — a self-hosted socket server, a large realtime platform, or altengine's Channel revival — with honest trade-offs and accurate request shapes. https://altengine.net/blog/app-engine-search-api-alternative-2026 https://altengine.net/blog/app-engine-search-api-alternative-2026 2026-07-22 App Engine's Search API is retired. Here are the three honest replacement paths in 2026 — run your own cluster, adopt a big hosted search service, or use altengine's semantics-preserving revival — with the real trade-offs on cost, ops, and migration effort. https://altengine.net/blog/what-managed-search-costs https://altengine.net/blog/what-managed-search-costs 2026-07-15 Most hosted search either rents you a cluster with a monthly floor or bills per record until a catalog gets expensive. Here's how the options actually price out — and where altengine lands. https://altengine.net/blog/announcing-altengine https://altengine.net/blog/announcing-altengine 2026-07-12 The Search and Channel APIs that App Engine retired are back, and its Datastore comes along as a standalone document store — three simple cloud services with a genuinely free tier. Here's what we built and why.