OpenInfra Index
Technical Spec Breakdown

Supabase vs Google Firebase

Compare Supabase vs Google Firebase. Detailed breakdown of pricing, open-source licensing, database engines, performance, and key trade-offs.

Supabase

Open Source

Open-source Firebase alternative powered by PostgreSQL.

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Google Firebase

Proprietary

Google's app development and serverless platform.

Visit Google Firebase →
Feature / SpecSupabaseGoogle Firebase
Pricing ModelFreemium / Usage-basedFreemium / Pay-as-you-go
Free Tier500MB DB, 50k MAU, 1GB Storage1GB NoSQL storage, 50k reads/day, 20k writes/day
Self-Hostable✅ Yes❌ No
Primary EnginePostgreSQLNoSQL (Firestore / Realtime DB)

Supabase Trade-offs

Pros
  • Standard PostgreSQL without vendor lock-in
  • Native Row Level Security (RLS) and pgvector support
  • Generous free tier for prototypes
Cons
  • Free tier databases pause after 1 week of inactivity
  • Self-hosting requires orchestrating multiple microservices

Google Firebase Trade-offs

Pros
  • Seamless integration with Google Cloud & mobile SDKs
  • Effortless automatic scaling without server tuning
Cons
  • Proprietary NoSQL format creates vendor lock-in
  • Uncapped queries can lead to unexpected billing spikes