If you don’t want to bother with stuff like security, scaling, etc. for the database, just take a look at firebase. It can provide you with out of the box user management and a real-time database.

I definitely want a secure cluster and some scaling capablility .... I’m just trying to clarify what a managed db cluster like DO’s would be used for and if it can be used to connect to directly from an APP in the app store and google play store..... or if it makes more sense to use PHP as to communicate between the atabase and the App… i guess I misunderstood the selling point a little bit.