Supabase Review 2026: Deep Dive for Solo Devs & Small Teams
Free tier limits, real costs per team size, and honest "not for" warnings. Everything you need to decide if Supabase fits your stack.
Quick Summary
💰 Monthly Cost by Team Size
🚫 Not Recommended For
- Apps needing sub-10ms latency (consider PlanetScale)
- Teams requiring MongoDB/NoSQL
- Production apps that can't tolerate free tier auto-pausing
Supabase Pricing (2026)
| Plan | Price | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Forever |
| Pro | $25/mo | monthly |
| Team | $599/mo | monthly |
| Enterprise | Custom | yearly |
Pros & Cons
✅ What We Like
- Full PostgreSQL with Row Level Security — real database, not NoSQL
- Free tier is incredibly generous (500MB DB, 50K MAU auth)
- Built-in auth, storage, and edge functions — full backend in one
- Open source — can self-host to avoid vendor lock-in
- Dashboard with SQL editor is developer-friendly
❌ What Could Be Better
- Free tier pauses after 7 days of inactivity (can lose data if not careful)
- Limited to 2 free projects (need Pro for more)
- Edge Functions are Deno-based (not Node.js — learning curve)
- Pro plan jumps from $0 to $25/mo with no middle tier
- Some features (Branching, Log Explorer) are Pro-only
Feature Breakdown
🏆 Our Verdict
Supabase scores 4.8/5 in our evaluation. Solo Dev Score: 9.5/10. It's best suited for Solo devs building full-stack apps who want a real database, Startups needing auth + DB + storage without managing infrastructure, Developers who want Firebase-like DX with PostgreSQL power. We recommend it as a top choice in its category.
📝 Editor's Note
Supabase has emerged as the leading open-source Firebase alternative. The PostgreSQL foundation means you never outgrow your database. Real-time subscriptions, auth, edge functions, and storage in one platform — with the ability to self-host if needed. The free tier (500MB database, 1GB storage) is genuinely usable for MVPs.
💡 Pricing Verdict: The free tier is the most generous BaaS offering available. Pro at $25/month (per project, not per user) is excellent value for startups. The pricing model scales more predictably than Firebase, which can produce bill shock with real-time reads.
🔄 Switching Tips: Coming from Firebase? Supabase has an official migration guide. Firestore to PostgreSQL requires schema redesign — denormalized NoSQL data needs to be normalized. Auth migration is straightforward with Supabase’s provider support.
See how it compares: Firebase, PlanetScale
Try Supabase Free →Frequently Asked Questions
Is Supabase worth the price in 2026?
Supabase starts at Free / $25/mo. Based on our evaluation, it scores 4.8/5 overall. Whether it's worth it depends on your team size and feature requirements — read our detailed breakdown above.
What are the main alternatives to Supabase?
Several tools compete with Supabase in its category. Check our comparison section above for head-to-head matchups with the top alternatives.
Does Supabase offer a free plan?
Check our pricing section above for the most up-to-date information on Supabase's free tier and paid plans.
Is Supabase good for small businesses?
Supabase can work for small businesses depending on your budget and requirements. Review our "Best For" section to see if it matches your use case.
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