Why your app feels slow and how we fixed it with PowerSync

The honeymoon phase of every MVP

You know the feeling: while you’re building an MVP, everything flies. A couple of users, an empty database, a fast server. The user clicks a button, the frontend sends a request, the backend responds, and the UI updates. It all feels predictable and straightforward.

At that stage, it’s easy to believe the architecture will scale just fine. Queries are fast, tables are small, and the user flows are simple. Every form saves in a split second. Every list opens right away.

Then the product grows up. Lists get longer, filters get more complex, analytics shows up, table relationships get messier, and the number of users keeps climbing.

We ran into that while building on a shaky subway connection and the UI just reacts without a single loading spinner, I remember why we did it. The app finally feels “light” again, just like it did in the early MVP days, but now it’s built to scale.

Next time, I will write about how we added E2E encryption on top of this local database, so even we cannot see what users store.