Supabase vs Neon
A side-by-side, data-driven comparison of Supabase and Neon — pricing, free tiers and capabilities. Prefer the long read? See our in-depth guide.
Both are serverless Postgres, but Supabase is a full backend (auth, storage, realtime, edge functions) while Neon is a focused, branchable database — pick Supabase to replace Firebase, Neon to add scale-to-zero Postgres to an existing stack.
At a glance
- Both offer a free tier (check each for limits).
- Different engines: Supabase is PostgreSQL, Neon is Serverless PostgreSQL.
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
Neon
Pros
- Standard Postgres compatibility means existing drivers, ORMs, and tooling work without modification
- Branching makes ephemeral dev, test, and preview databases cheap and fast to create
- Scale-to-zero and usage metering can lower cost for intermittent or spiky workloads
- Fully managed, with no servers, storage provisioning, or OS to maintain
- Configurable autoscaling ceilings per branch give a predictable upper bound on compute cost
Cons
- Scale-to-zero adds cold-start latency (typically a few hundred milliseconds up to around a second) on the first query after an idle suspend
- Restricted extension support: extensions that require persistent filesystem access or background worker processes are unavailable
- No OS-level access: you cannot SSH to the host, reach the filesystem, or run sidecar/agent processes
- The pooled (PgBouncer) connection uses transaction-mode pooling, which limits Postgres features that rely on persistent session state; a direct connection is available but does not pool
- Usage-based pricing can be less predictable and less cost-effective for always-on, steady workloads than fixed provisioning
Bottom line
Pick Supabase for full-stack apps wanting Postgres plus auth, storage and realtime in one place. Pick Neon for teams wanting branchable, scale-to-zero Postgres for dev and preview.
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between Supabase and Neon?
- Supabase: A hosted Postgres platform bundling database, auth, storage, edge functions and realtime, positioned as an open-source Firebase alternative. Neon: A serverless Postgres platform that separates storage and compute, with instant database branching for dev/preview environments and scale-to-zero pricing.
- Does Supabase have a free tier?
- Yes.
- Does Neon have a free tier?
- Yes.
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