Supabase: an open-source alternative to Firebase

Supabase is the open-source backend platform that has established itself as a serious alternative to Firebase since 2022. Native PostgreSQL, authentication, storage, REST API, and since 2024, a complete AI ecosystem with pgvector and Edge Functions. Here’s what you need to know in 2026.

What is Supabase?

Supabase is an open-source backend platform built on PostgreSQL. It combines in a single tool what is typically assembled across multiple services: a relational database, user authentication, file storage, auto-generated API, real-time subscriptions, and serverless functions (Edge Functions).

Unlike Firebase, which relies on Firestore (a NoSQL document database), Supabase uses PostgreSQL. If you know SQL, you’re immediately productive. You can access your data via an auto-generated REST API, GraphQL, or directly through a Postgres connection.

Supabase is open source. You can self-host it on your own infrastructure or use Supabase’s managed cloud. In both cases, you retain full control over your data.

The scale has changed. On 4 June 2026, Supabase announced a $500M Series F at a $10B pre-money valuation led by GIC, and claims close to 10 million developers. Over the preceding twelve months, database launches on the platform grew by 600%. Source: official Supabase announcement, 4 June 2026.

Supabase vs Firebase: key differences

Database

Firebase uses Firestore, a NoSQL document database. Supabase uses PostgreSQL, a relational database with a strict schema. For projects with complex business logic, joins, or well-structured data, PostgreSQL is the better fit. Firestore excels at ultra-simple real-time synchronization.

Open source vs proprietary

Firebase is a Google product and proprietary. Supabase is open source, published under the Apache 2.0 license, and its main repository has gathered more than 108,000 stars on GitHub. You can read the code, contribute, and deploy your own instance. No vendor lock-in. Source: supabase/supabase repository.

Costs

Firebase charges based on usage (reads, writes, storage, bandwidth). The bill can be surprising for high-volume projects. Supabase offers predictable per-project pricing with a generous free tier.

Supabase in 2026: pricing and AI features

Supabase pricing 2026

- Free : free, 500 MB database, 1 GB storage, 5 GB bandwidth. Limited to 2 active projects, and a project is paused after one week of inactivity, worth knowing before you put a client demo on it.

- Pro : $25/month/project. 8 GB database, 100 GB storage, 250 GB bandwidth. Suitable for the vast majority of production projects.

- Team : $599/month. Multiple projects, SSO, extended logs, priority support.

- Enterprise : custom quote. Guaranteed SLA, dedicated support, private hosting options.

Pricing verified on 25 August 2026 against the official pricing page. Beyond the included quotas, the Pro and Team plans charge $0.125 per additional GB of database, $0.0213 per GB of storage and $0.09 per GB of egress, $0.03 when cached. It is this per-unit billing, readable in advance, that sets the model apart from Firebase's per-read and per-write pricing.

The Free plan is enough to validate a prototype. The Pro plan covers almost all SaaS or business application projects with up to several thousand active users.

Supabase and AI in 2026

Since 2024, Supabase has become the go-to backend for AI projects. There are several reasons for this.

This is not a market impression: Supabase reports that more than 60% of new databases created on the platform are now launched by an AI tool, and attributes to that shift the acceleration of its growth since January 2026. The backend is no longer chosen only by an architect, increasingly, it is chosen by the agent writing the code. Source: Supabase announcement of 4 June 2026.

First, pgvector : the PostgreSQL extension that allows you to store and query vector embeddings directly in Supabase. In practice, you can build semantic search, recommendation systems, or knowledge bases for AI agents without a separate vector database.

Then, Edge Functions : serverless TypeScript functions that run as close as possible to users. They allow you to call AI APIs (Claude, OpenAI, Mistral) directly from the Supabase backend, without exposing your API keys on the client side.

Finally, Anthropic’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) enables AI agents to read and write to a Supabase database in a standardized way. Claude can query your tables, retrieve records, and create data via a secure connection.

Supabase’s main features

- PostgreSQL database : all the power of Postgres (transactions, indexes, functions, triggers, extensions).

- Auth : email/password authentication, OAuth (Google, GitHub, Apple, etc.), magic links, MFA.

- Storage : file storage with granular access policies per user or role.

- Realtime : real-time subscriptions to table changes via WebSockets.

- Edge Functions : serverless TypeScript code deployed in seconds, accessible via HTTPS.

- pgvector : vector search and embeddings directly in the database.

- Row Level Security (RLS) : row-level security policies: each user only sees their own data.

Who is Supabase for?

Supabase is a great fit for technical teams that want a modern backend without managing complex infrastructure. It’s the standard choice for SaaS projects, business applications, ambitious MVPs, and projects integrating AI.

On data location, the managed cloud offers five European regions: Paris (eu-west-3), Frankfurt (eu-central-1), Ireland (eu-west-1), London (eu-west-2) and Zurich (eu-central-2). One nuance the official documentation states itself, and which is rarely read elsewhere: choosing a region is a data-location control, not proof of regulatory compliance. If your requirement is sovereignty in the strict sense, self-hosting is what to look at, not region selection. Source: Supabase documentation on regions.

Supabase is not the right tool if your team lacks technical expertise to manage a database schema. In that case, Airtable or Notion databases will be more accessible to start with.

To go further with Supabase

For an in-depth analysis of Supabase as a reference for modern backends (feedback, detailed comparison with Firebase and Airtable, production use cases), see our dedicated article: Why Supabase is becoming the reference for modern backends.

Scroll develops your projects on Supabase

At Scroll, we use Supabase for most of our application projects: SaaS, back-offices, client portals, and AI agent applications. We master data modeling, RLS policies, Edge Functions, and pgvector integration for AI use cases. If you have a project to launch, a prototype to stabilize, or an AI/no-code project to take over, contact our Supabase team.