Managed databases

Supabase vs Firebase

Supabase gives each project a dedicated, open-source Postgres database with auth and storage; Firebase uses Google’s proprietary Firestore and Realtime Database with client SDKs, offline sync and per-operation billing.

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The short answer

Both bundle a database, authentication and storage, and both include 50,000 auth MAU free. The data model differs: Supabase is SQL on Postgres with row-level security and generated REST and GraphQL APIs; Firebase stores NoSQL documents (Firestore) or a JSON tree (Realtime Database) that client SDKs read directly, with offline caching.

Pricing follows from that. Supabase Pro lists $25 a month per organization plus hourly compute per project, and its $10 credit covers only one Micro instance. Firebase Blaze bills per operation: in us-central1, $0.03 per 100,000 reads and $0.09 per 100,000 writes. On free plans, Supabase gives two projects with a 500 MB database that pause after a week idle; Firebase Spark gives 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes a day with no payment method.

Lock-in differs too. Supabase is open source and self-hostable; Firestore is proprietary and runs only on Google Cloud, so leaving means rewriting data access.

Choose Supabase if

Your data is relational and you want SQL joins and Postgres extensions
You may want to self-host or move your database later
You prefer a plan fee plus compute to per-read billing

Choose Firebase if

You are building a mobile or Flutter app that needs realtime sync and offline mode
You want a free plan with no payment method and daily-resetting quotas
You want messaging, crash reporting and hosting in the same console

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Side by side

	Supabase	Firebase
Stages	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is	Managed Postgres backend platform	Backend platform with document and realtime databases
From	From $25/mo (Pro, per organization, includes $10 compute credit)	Pay as you go (Blaze): Firestore from $0.03 per 100,000 reads beyond the free quota
Free tier	2 active projects, 500 MB database on shared CPU with 500 MB RAM, 1 GB file storage, 5 GB egress, 50,000 auth MAU, 500,000 edge function calls; projects pause after 1 week of inactivity and have no automatic backups	Spark plan, no payment method: Firestore 1 GiB stored, 50,000 reads, 20,000 writes and 20,000 deletes per day, 10 GiB egress a month; Realtime Database 1 GB stored, 10 GB/month download, 100 connections; Authentication up to 50,000 MAU; Hosting 10 GB storage and 360 MB/day transfer
Engines	PostgreSQL	Firestore (document), Realtime Database (JSON)
Scale to zero	No; per-project compute billed hourly	Yes; per-operation billing, no instances
Branching	Yes, $0.01344 per branch-hour (paid plans)	No
Backups	Daily: 7 days Pro, 14 days Team; PITR add-on	Scheduled backups and PITR, billed on Blaze
Open source	Yes	No
Self-hostable	Yes	No
EU data residency	Available	Available
Compliance	SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA	Not stated
Checked	28 Sept 2026	28 Sept 2026
Strengths	Database, auth, storage, functions and realtime in one project with shared permissions Plain Postgres, so data and SQL skills stay portable Open source and self-hostable Free tier includes 50,000 auth MAU and two projects	Free plan with no payment method and daily-resetting quotas Client SDKs with realtime sync and offline support across mobile, web and Flutter Authentication, hosting, messaging and crash reporting in one console No servers to size; billing is per operation
Limitations	Free projects pause after one week of inactivity and have no automatic backups Compute is billed per project, so several projects on Pro cost more than the $25 headline Point-in-time recovery costs $100/mo per 7 days of retention SOC 2 and ISO 27001 reports and dashboard SSO require the $599/mo Team plan	Proprietary NoSQL APIs create lock-in to Google Cloud Per-read billing can spike with chatty listeners or unindexed query patterns Backups, PITR and named databases have no free quota and need Blaze Database location cannot be changed after creation

Sources: Supabase pricing, Firebase pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

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Plans

Supabase

Free 2 active projects, 500 MB database, 1 GB storage, 5 GB egress, 50,000 MAU; pauses after 1 week idle	$0
Pro 8 GB disk per project, 250 GB egress, 100 GB storage, 100,000 MAU, daily backups 7 days; $10 compute credit covers one Micro instance	$25/mo
Team SOC 2 and ISO 27001, dashboard SSO, 14-day backups, 28-day logs, HIPAA as paid add-on	$599/mo
Enterprise Uptime SLAs, AWS PrivateLink, 24x7 support, designated support manager	Custom

Firebase

Spark Daily Firestore quotas, 1 GB Realtime Database, 50,000 auth MAU, Hosting; no Cloud Functions	Free
Blaze Spark quotas included, then Google Cloud rates; Firestore reads $0.03, writes $0.09, deletes $0.01 per 100,000 (us-central1)	Pay as you go

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