Supabase vs Firebase
A side-by-side, data-driven comparison of Supabase and Firebase — pricing, free tiers and capabilities.
The classic open-source Postgres backend versus Google's proprietary NoSQL BaaS: Supabase gives you a relational SQL database you can self-host and query with full SQL, while Firebase offers a tightly integrated, fully managed document store with best-in-class realtime and mobile SDKs at the cost of a NoSQL data model and vendor lock-in.
At a glance
- Both offer a free tier — caveats: Firebase: The free Spark plan has fixed daily/monthly quotas (e.g. ~50K Firestore reads, 20K writes, 20K deletes per day and 1 GiB stored); exceeding them requires the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan.
- Different engines: Supabase is PostgreSQL, Firebase is Document (NoSQL).
- Supabase is open source; Firebase is not.
Specs side by side
Pros & cons
Our editorial assessment — not vendor-stated facts. Last reviewed 2026-07-16.
Supabase
Pros
- Uses real, standard PostgreSQL with direct access (psql, pg_dump, connection strings), reducing vendor lock-in
- Bundles database, auth, storage, realtime, and functions behind one control plane, cutting integration overhead
- Open-source stack with a self-hostable option
- Good developer experience: dashboard SQL editor, instant APIs, and client libraries across multiple languages
Cons
- Costs can climb because egress, compute, storage, and add-ons (PITR, custom domains, branching) are metered separately on top of the base plan
- Row-level security is powerful but has a learning curve, and writing correct policies often takes iteration
- Support is community-only on the free tier; paid plans add ticket/email support, but SLA-backed and dedicated support (including a private Slack channel and 24/7 response) is reserved for the higher-priced Team and Enterprise plans
- Free-tier projects pause after about a week of inactivity and are capped at two active projects, making the free tier unsuitable for always-on production apps
Firebase
Pros
- Tightly integrated stack (database, auth, functions, hosting) accessible through a single SDK
- Realtime data sync and offline support handled by the client SDKs out of the box
- Fully managed with automatic scaling and multi-region replication options on Google Cloud
- Generous free Spark tier suitable for prototypes and small production apps
- Backed by Google Cloud infrastructure with strong SDK and platform documentation
Cons
- Firestore's NoSQL model limits complex queries: no native joins, and query constraints can require denormalization
- Proprietary platform with meaningful vendor lock-in; there is no self-hosted or open-source option
- Usage-based Blaze billing has no hard spending cap by default, so costs can rise sharply at scale
- Per-operation pricing (reads/writes/deletes) makes read-heavy apps harder to cost-predict than a fixed-instance database
Bottom line
Pick Supabase for full-stack apps wanting Postgres plus auth, storage and realtime in one place. Pick Firebase for mobile & web apps needing realtime data, auth and hosting in one SDK.
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between Supabase and Firebase?
- Supabase: A hosted Postgres platform bundling database, auth, storage, edge functions and realtime, positioned as an open-source Firebase alternative. Firebase: Firebase is Google's app-development platform (BaaS) whose flagship database, Cloud Firestore, is a fully managed document (NoSQL) store with realtime sync and offline support. It bundles authentication, serverless Cloud Functions, hosting and other backend services behind client SDKs for mobile and web.
- Does Supabase have a free tier?
- Yes.
- Does Firebase have a free tier?
- Yes. The free Spark plan has fixed daily/monthly quotas (e.g. ~50K Firestore reads, 20K writes, 20K deletes per day and 1 GiB stored); exceeding them requires the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan.
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