Open source Firebase alternative providing PostgreSQL database, authentication, real-time subscriptions, storage, and Edge Functions — the go-to backend platform for indie developers.
Row Level Security defaults to deny-all, but misconfigured policies can silently expose data (overly permissive) or block legitimate users (overly strict). The Dashboard's RLS editor has limited capabilities, and error messages are at the native Postgres level — difficult for newcomers to troubleshoot.
Free project databases automatically pause after 1 week of no activity. Recovery may take several minutes, and users have reported silent recovery failures requiring manual Dashboard intervention. Side projects / hobby projects must pay special attention.
The free tier only supports 200 concurrent realtime connections (Pro: 500), while Firebase's Spark free plan supports 200,000 concurrent connections. If your app depends on realtime features (chat, collaboration, notifications) and experiences traffic spikes, this is a critical bottleneck.
Real Reddit user case: a 17M row / 18GB database migrated from Firebase to Supabase cost ~$31.25/month (Pro + extra disk + compute), compared to Firebase's original $35/month — minimal savings. Migration costs must be factored into ROI.
Supabase Branching 2.0 (enabled by default since 2026/5/4) only merges table structure changes during merge, not the test data on the branch. The Dashboard shows 'merged successfully' but data remains on the branch — easily creating the illusion of data loss.
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