Supabase
Vector Databases Verified May 2026
Open-source Firebase alternative built on Postgres — Free tier, Pro at $25/mo per project, Team at $599/mo, with Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Edge Functions included.
- Real Postgres with row-level security and pgvector — joins, transactions, RLS, partitioning, and AI embeddings in one database
- Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Edge Functions bundled — PostgREST auto-generates a REST API with no glue code required
- Open-source and self-hostable under Apache 2.0 — safer long-term bet than Firebase or PlanetScale given their track records
- AI Assistant, git-style Branching for preview databases, and halfvec quantization shipped in Launch Weeks 13 and 14
How Supabase scored 68/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
3.0 /10There is no exclusive coupon or private discount on Supabase; the value is the standard pricing itself. The Free plan runs real projects at $0, and Pro starts at $25 per month per project, so most teams can build and validate an app before paying anything.
Value for Money
8.0 /10Supabase is priced honestly for what it bundles. The $25 Pro plan includes an 8 GB Postgres database, 100,000 monthly active users, 100 GB storage, daily backups, and $10 of compute credit — a genuine Firebase alternative that stays predictable for web teams rather than metering every read and write.
Capability
8.0 /10Supabase is broad with few real gaps: a full Postgres database with row-level security, GoTrue authentication, object storage, realtime subscriptions, edge functions, and pgvector for embeddings and similarity search. Being real SQL Postgres means joins, ACID transactions, and extensions that document-store rivals cannot match.
Time to Value
8.0 /10A new Supabase project spins up in minutes, with auth, database, and storage wired together from the first click. Developers can ship a working backend in a weekend thanks to auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs, client libraries, and a schema-aware dashboard that removes most boilerplate.
Trust & Reliability
8.0 /10Supabase is a mature, widely adopted platform trusted by well-known engineering teams and a large open-source community. The Team plan adds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 coverage, daily backups, and priority support with SLAs, while Enterprise offers 24/7 support and uptime guarantees for production workloads.
Flexibility & Exit
8.0 /10Lock-in risk is low because Supabase is open source and self-hostable — it is standard Postgres you can export or move to your own infrastructure at any time. Official Docker and Kubernetes deployments mean a team that outgrows the hosted plan can run the same stack elsewhere without a rewrite.
About Supabase
Quick answer
Open-source Firebase alternative built on Postgres — Free tier, Pro at $25/mo per project, Team at $599/mo, with Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Edge Functions included.
In May 2026, Supabase is the credible Firebase alternative for most modern web apps, holding a 4.7/5 G2 score. At $25 per project on Pro, the pricing is honest, the Postgres database is real, and the new AI Assistant plus pgvector quantization shipped in Launch Weeks 13 and 14 close the last gap with Firebase (supabase.com/blog).
The credible Firebase alternative
Firebase still wins on mature mobile SDKs and Google sign-in. Supabase wins on everything else most web teams actually need in 2026. The reason is Postgres: SQL queries, ACID transactions, foreign keys, joins, and row-level security policies that travel with the schema (supabase.com/docs).
Firebase has tried to close the gap with Data Connect, a PostgreSQL bolt-on launched in 2025. It works, but you are now paying Google for Postgres without the open-source escape hatch. Supabase ships the same Postgres you can self-host on a $5 VPS if you ever leave the platform.
- Real SQL — joins, CTEs, materialized views, transactions, and partitioning
- Row-level security — policies enforced in the database, not the client
- pgvector — vector embeddings native to your relational schema
- Edge Functions — Deno-based serverless functions deployed globally
- Open-source and self-hostable — Apache 2.0 across the full stack
Pricing in plain English
Supabase runs four tiers with usage-based add-ons layered on top. Headline numbers from the May 2026 price sheet:
| Plan | Price | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 MB database, 50K MAUs, 1 GB storage, 5 GB egress, two active projects, paused after one week idle. |
| Pro | $25/mo | 8 GB database, 100K MAUs, 100 GB storage, $10 compute credits, daily backups for 7 days, no auto-pause. |
| Team | $599/mo | Pro plus SSO, SOC 2 reports, 28-day log retention, 14-day point-in-time recovery, priority email support. |
| Enterprise | Custom | HIPAA, dedicated infra, custom SLAs, BYOC and on-prem options, named technical account manager. |
An exclusive founder rate via SaaSTweaks drops the first month free on Pro or Team for qualifying startups. A four-project Pro footprint saves $100 in the first month before the standard rate kicks in.
Add-ons are billed hourly and are where bills surprise teams. The mini-table below covers the line items new users miss most often:
| Add-on | Starting price | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Compute (Small to 16XL) | $0.0137/hr | Scale a project up to 64 cores and 256 GB RAM for heavy workloads. |
| Read Replicas | $0.32/hr each | Geo-distributed reads and resiliency against single-region downtime. |
| Branching | $0.32/hr per branch | Git-style preview database per pull request, with schema diff and migrations. |
| Point-in-time recovery | $100/mo | 14-day PITR on Pro projects (included on Team). |
What shipped in 2025-2026 (Launch Weeks 12 & 13)
Supabase ships four full Launch Weeks a year, and the last two cycles were the most product-heavy on record (supabase.com/blog/tags/launch-week). The headline drops most teams should care about:
- Supabase AI Assistant — chat-based query and schema helper inside the dashboard, with MCP support
- Edge Functions v2 — background tasks, cron triggers, and built-in observability
- Branching GA — preview database per PR with schema diff and migration files
- halfvec quantization for pgvector — half-precision vectors cut embedding storage roughly in half
- Integrations dashboard — single home for GraphiQL, Vault, Database Webhooks, Queues, and Crons
- São Paulo region — third Latin America region, plus expanded fra1 and ap-south-1 capacity
- HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II — Enterprise certifications closed in February 2026
Supabase vs Firebase vs Neon vs PlanetScale
The serverless database market has settled into four credible choices. Headline pricing and architecture (firebase.google.com/pricing, neon.tech/pricing, planetscale.com/pricing):
| Dimension | Supabase | Firebase | Neon | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database | Postgres | Firestore (NoSQL) | Postgres | MySQL (Vitess) |
| Cheapest paid plan | $25/mo per project | Pay-as-you-go reads | $19/mo per project | $39/mo per branch |
| Free tier | Yes (500 MB) | Yes (Spark) | Yes (0.5 GB) | Removed in 2024 |
| Auth + Storage | Built in | Built in | Add-on / DIY | DIY |
| Self-hostable | Yes (Apache 2.0) | No | No | No |
| Best for | Web apps with auth + DB | Mobile real-time apps | Pure serverless Postgres | Sharded MySQL at scale |
Neon is the closest alternative for pure Postgres workloads after the Databricks acquisition closed in 2025. PlanetScale removed its free tier and now starts at $39/month, which knocks it out of the indie-hacker bracket. Firebase remains the default for mobile-first apps that need real-time mature SDKs.
Watch Supabase Launch Week 14
The video is the fastest way to see how realtime subscriptions, Edge Functions v2, and the AI Assistant come together inside the dashboard. Watch the schema-aware chat and the new branching workflow side-by-side.
When Supabase hits its limits
The complaints are consistent across G2 and reddit.com threads. They cluster into four buckets:
- Free project pausing — projects sleep after seven days idle, costing demo links and prototypes
- Compute upgrades get expensive — heavy workloads on 4XL or larger compute add hundreds per project
- Support gaps below Enterprise — no live chat or phone support on Pro or Team
- Bring-your-own-key gating — vault, BYOC, and HIPAA only on the Enterprise tier
"The Postgres foundation plus row-level security has been a lifesaver — we ship features in days, not weeks." — G2 verified developer, 2026
"Free projects pausing without warning still hits us during demo weeks — Pro fixes it but the $25 minimum per project adds up." — Reddit thread, 2026
Both themes show up in the G2 reviews and on reddit.com developer threads. Teams running more than four production projects usually consolidate onto Team for log retention and SSO.
From signup to production
A solo founder can ship a Postgres database with auth in 15 minutes. A 10-engineer team migrating from Firebase typically takes two days using the supabase-migrate CLI for Firestore exports.
The Postgres connection is a single connection string per project. The only step that takes real thought is row-level security policy design — most teams write three or four base policies and reuse them across tables. No DBA certification, no required onboarding call.
- Day 1 — project creation, schema design, RLS policies, auth providers
- Day 2 — Edge Functions, Storage buckets, realtime channels, Storage CDN
- Day 3 — Branching workflow wired to GitHub, AI Assistant tested on the dashboard
- Day 5 — pgvector embeddings table, OpenAI embedding pipeline, semantic search
- Day 7 — full cutover, archive Firebase, train holdouts on the SQL editor
What's included
- PostgreSQL database with full SQL access, schema editor, and migration tooling
- Auth with email, social OAuth, magic links, phone OTP, and multi-factor authentication
- Realtime subscriptions for live database change notifications over WebSockets
- Storage with S3-compatible object API, global CDN, and image transforms
- Edge Functions for serverless compute co-located at the network edge
- Auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs with row-level security enforcement
- Row Level Security for fine-grained per-user data access control in the database
- Database branching for isolated development, staging, and production environments
- SaaSTweaks-verified affiliate deal
- Vendor-direct activation flow with editorial pros + cons review
Supabase pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 active projects · 500 MB database size · 5 GB egress · 50K monthly active users · 1 GB file storage · Projects pause after 7 days inactive |
| Pro | $25/project/mo (+ $10 compute credit) | 8 GB disk per project · 250 GB egress · 100K MAU auth · 100 GB file storage · Daily backups (7-day retention) · Email support |
| Team | $599/mo | SOC 2 and ISO 27001 · Project-scoped and read-only access · Priority email support with SLAs · 14-day backup retention · HIPAA available as paid add-on |
| Enterprise | Custom | BYO cloud and custom data residency · 24/7 premium support · Designated TAM · Uptime SLAs · Private Slack channel |
Getting started
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Supabase through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Compare the tiers against what you actually use
The pricing table on this page lists what each plan includes. Match it to real usage rather than the tier the vendor highlights.
- 3
Start on the smallest plan that fits
Most vendors let you move up mid-cycle and bill the difference, so starting low costs you nothing but starting high does.
- 4
Check the renewal terms before you commit
Note the renewal date and the rate it reverts to, so the second invoice is not a surprise. Annual plans are usually cheaper per month but harder to exit.
Where Supabase wins and loses
What works
- Real Postgres with row-level security and pgvector — joins, transactions, RLS, partitioning, and AI embeddings in one database
- Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Edge Functions bundled — PostgREST auto-generates a REST API with no glue code required
- Open-source and self-hostable under Apache 2.0 — safer long-term bet than Firebase or PlanetScale given their track records
- AI Assistant, git-style Branching for preview databases, and halfvec quantization shipped in Launch Weeks 13 and 14
- Pro at $25/mo per project includes a $10 compute credit — predictable pricing with no Firebase-style per-read fee surprises
What doesn't
- Free projects pause after 7 days of inactivity — demo links and prototype URLs break unless upgraded to Pro
- Compute add-ons at 4XL and above cost hundreds per project per month — multi-project teams usually consolidate to the Team tier
- No live chat or phone support below Enterprise — Pro and Team rely on email and community Discord
- HIPAA and BYOC are Enterprise-tier features — notable jump from the $599/mo Team tier for regulated buyers
The bottom line
Supabase gives web and mobile teams a full Postgres backend — database, authentication, storage, realtime, and edge functions — without gluing together five services. There is no exclusive coupon here, but the genuinely usable free tier and honest $25 Pro plan make it a clear Buy for anyone shipping on Postgres.
Yes, Supabase has a genuinely free plan at $0 per month with no credit card required. It includes a 500 MB Postgres database, 50,000 monthly active users, 1 GB of file storage, and 5 GB of egress. You can run up to two active projects, though free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be manually restored.
Supabase Pro costs $25 per month per project. It raises limits to an 8 GB database, 100,000 monthly active users, 100 GB of storage, and 250 GB of egress, adds seven-day daily backups and email support, and includes $10 of monthly compute credit. Spend caps are on by default, so you will not be billed for overages unless you opt in.
For most modern web apps, Supabase is the stronger choice because it runs on real Postgres with SQL, joins, ACID transactions, and row-level security, whereas Firebase uses the proprietary Firestore NoSQL store. Firebase still leads for tight native mobile and Google Cloud integration, but teams that want relational data and portable, open-source infrastructure usually prefer Supabase.
Yes, Supabase is open source and ships official Docker Compose and Kubernetes deployments for self-hosting the full stack — Postgres, authentication, storage, realtime, and edge functions. Self-hosting is popular for teams with strict data-residency or compliance needs, though the hosted platform still handles backups, scaling, and dashboards you would otherwise manage yourself.
Yes, Supabase includes pgvector, a Postgres extension for storing embeddings and running vector similarity search directly in your database. It supports cosine, L2, and inner-product distance with HNSW and IVFFlat indexes, so teams can build retrieval-augmented generation and semantic search on the same Postgres instance that holds their relational data — no separate vector database required.
Yes, Supabase runs production backends for many established engineering teams and offers SOC 2 and ISO 27001 coverage on its Team plan, with daily backups and SLA-backed support. Enterprise adds 24/7 support and uptime guarantees. Because it is standard Postgres, existing database expertise, tooling, and security practices carry over directly.
