Supabase vs Firebase

Quick verdict

Supabase is a backend platform in which every project gets its own dedicated PostgreSQL database, according to the Supabase compute documentation. Around that database it adds Auth, Storage, Realtime, Edge Functions, an auto-generated REST API built on PostgREST, a GraphQL API, vector search, queues and cron. The code is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence on GitHub, and Supabase documents self-hosting with Docker. The hosted service is sold by Supabase as Free, Pro, Team and Enterprise plans.

Firebase is Google's app development platform. Its main databases are Cloud Firestore, which Google describes as a cloud-hosted NoSQL database of documents organised into collections, and the older Realtime Database, which stores data as one JSON tree synchronised to connected clients. Alongside them sit Firebase Authentication, Cloud Storage for Firebase, Cloud Functions for Firebase and Firebase SQL Connect (formerly Firebase Data Connect), a relational option built on Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL with a GraphQL interface. Firebase is a proprietary Google service with two plans: Spark (no cost) and Blaze (pay as you go).

Both are backend-as-a-service products rather than plain databases, so this page compares the whole platform. For the underlying engine question, see MongoDB vs PostgreSQL and SQL vs NoSQL.

Side by side

Key differences

Data model: PostgreSQL tables versus Firestore documents

Supabase gives you a full PostgreSQL database, so you model data in tables with constraints and joins, and can add jsonb columns where records vary. Any PostgreSQL client can connect, and the auto-generated REST API (PostgREST) and client libraries sit on top of it.

Firestore stores documents, which hold fields mapping to values, organised into collections. Google describes Firestore's queries as expressive, with filtering and sorting, and recommends it over the Realtime Database for applications needing richer data models and queryability. There are no SQL joins, so related data is usually denormalised or fetched in several reads. Firestore Enterprise edition adds a MongoDB-compatible API. If you need relational data inside Firebase, Google now offers Firebase SQL Connect, which runs on Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL but is accessed through GraphQL schemas and generated SDKs.

-- Supabase (PostgreSQL): orders with customer names
SELECT o.id, o.total, c.name
FROM   orders o
JOIN   customers c ON c.id = o.customer_id
WHERE  o.status = 'shipped';

// Firebase (Firestore, modular web SDK): shipped orders
const q = query(collection(db, "orders"),
                where("status", "==", "shipped"));
const snap = await getDocs(q);

Authentication and authorisation

Supabase Auth supports password, magic link, one-time password, social login, single sign-on, phone and anonymous sign-in. It stores users in a special schema in your project's PostgreSQL database and issues JSON Web Tokens; requests made through the Supabase SDKs carry the user's token, and Row Level Security policies decide which rows each user can read or change. Authorisation therefore lives in the database, written in SQL.

Firebase Authentication supports email and password, Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, phone (SMS), anonymous and custom auth systems. Upgrading to Firebase Authentication with Identity Platform adds multi-factor authentication, blocking functions, SAML and OpenID Connect, audit logging and multi-tenancy, and Google states the upgrade needs no migration of SDK code. Authorisation for client access to Firestore, Realtime Database and Storage is written in Firebase Security Rules.

Realtime and offline

Supabase Realtime offers three features: Broadcast (messages between clients), Presence (shared user state, such as who is online) and Postgres Changes (listening to database changes).

Firebase was designed around client sync. Firestore uses realtime listeners that notify apps when data they listen to changes, and Google documents that Firestore caches data the app is actively using so it can read, write, listen and query while the device is offline. The Realtime Database also persists data locally and syncs when connectivity returns. In our assessment, offline-first mobile apps are where Firebase's design is most distinctive.

Functions and storage

Supabase Edge Functions run on the Supabase Edge Runtime, which the documentation describes as Deno compatible and TypeScript first; the runtime is open source. Supabase Storage stores files with access policies through Row Level Security, and is included in every plan with plan limits.

Cloud Functions for Firebase support JavaScript and TypeScript on Node.js and Python, with Dart in preview for HTTP and callable functions, and the documentation requires the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan to deploy them. Cloud Storage for Firebase stores files in a Google Cloud Storage bucket; Google's storage FAQ states that since 3 February 2026 it requires the Blaze plan, even for default buckets, and that Spark projects that did not upgrade lost access to their Storage data until they do. No-cost usage still applies on Blaze. In practice, a Firebase project that needs server code or file uploads must have a billing account attached.

Lock-in, self-hosting and migration

Supabase's database is ordinary PostgreSQL, so standard tools such as pg_dump can move it to another PostgreSQL host. The platform code is Apache-2.0, and Supabase documents self-hosting with Docker Compose. The self-hosted version lacks some managed features: the documentation lists branching, advanced metrics, managed backups and point-in-time recovery, analytics and vector buckets, ETL and the Management API, and Studio supports only one project. Your application code still uses Supabase's APIs and Auth, so moving away from Supabase entirely is more work than moving the database.

Firebase has no self-hosted version. Firestore's managed export and import writes data to a Cloud Storage bucket and requires the Blaze plan, with one read charged per exported document. Security Rules, client SDK calls and the document model would all need rewriting for another platform. Supabase publishes migration guides for Firebase Auth, Firestore data and Firebase Storage, which is one documented path if you later move.

Pricing and licensing

Supabase. Listed on the Supabase pricing page in October 2026, in USD. Billing is per organisation. Free: 0 USD per month, 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 50,000 monthly active users (MAUs), 5 GB egress, 500,000 Edge Function invocations; limited to 2 active projects, and free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity. Pro: from 25 USD per month, billed monthly, including 10 USD per month of compute credits, 8 GB disk per project, 100 GB file storage, 100,000 MAUs, 250 GB egress and 2 million Edge Function invocations. Team: from 599 USD per month with the same usage quotas as Pro. Enterprise: custom. Compute is billed hourly per project (the compute documentation lists Micro at 0.01344 USD per hour, about 10 USD per month), and each additional project adds compute cost. Listed overages on Pro and Team include 0.125 USD per GB of database disk, 0.09 USD per GB egress, 0.0213 USD per GB of file storage, 0.00325 USD per MAU and 2 USD per million Edge Function invocations.

Firebase. Listed on the Firebase pricing page in October 2026. Spark is no-cost and needs no payment method; its quotas include, for Firestore Standard edition, 1 GiB stored, 50,000 reads, 20,000 writes and 20,000 deletes per day and 10 GiB per month of egress; for the Realtime Database, 1 GB stored and 100 simultaneous connections; and 50,000 MAUs for Authentication (50 MAUs for SAML/OIDC). Blaze is pay as you go at Google Cloud rates, includes the Spark no-cost usage, and is required for Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage for Firebase and Firestore managed export. Blaze charges per operation, stored GB and network transfer for each product; for example, Cloud Functions list 0.40 USD per million invocations beyond the no-cost quota of 2 million per month. Google lists a 300 USD credit for eligible new Blaze users.

The two models differ in kind: Supabase charges mainly for plan, compute hours and usage beyond quotas, whereas Firestore charges per document read, write and delete, so cost depends heavily on how many reads your screens trigger. Neither vendor publishes a calculator result we can quote for a typical app, so estimate from your own expected usage.

Pricing checked on the vendors' official pages on 7 October 2026. Prices change; confirm before buying.

Where each one leads

Limitations

When to choose each

When neither is right

• You only need a managed PostgreSQL database, not auth, storage and functions: a serverless Postgres service may fit better; see Supabase vs Neon.
• You need a MySQL-compatible database with horizontal sharding: see Supabase vs PlanetScale.
• You want a document database without the Firebase platform: compare MongoDB vs PostgreSQL.
• You want to survey other options first: see Firebase alternatives and Supabase alternatives.

Final recommendation

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Supabase pricing
• Supabase documentation
• Supabase docs: Self-hosting
• Supabase docs: Compute and disk
• Supabase docs: Migrating to Supabase
• Supabase (GitHub repository, licence)
• Firebase pricing
• Cloud Firestore documentation
• Firebase Authentication documentation
• Cloud Functions for Firebase documentation
• Cloud Storage for Firebase: billing changes FAQ
• Firebase SQL Connect documentation

Checked October 2026.

How we research comparisons: our editorial method.