Alternatives

Supabase alternatives, with prices attached.

Most people arriving here want Postgres without the parts of Supabase they are not using, or a bill that does not move when a second project appears.

Supabase bundles a Postgres database with authentication, storage, realtime and generated APIs. That bundle is the reason to use it and the reason people leave it: if you only wanted the database, you are paying for compute per project on top of the plan. Published prices below, checked 22 August 2026.

The Postgres database moves with pg_dump like any other. The generated APIs, the row-level security policies, the auth tables and the storage buckets above it have to be rebuilt.

The options

NeonFree tier, then usage-based
Serverless Postgres with branching. The closest thing to Supabase’s database alone, without the auth and storage layers.
FirebaseSpark free, Blaze pay-as-you-go
The other end of the same idea: a document database rather than Postgres, with auth and hosting attached. Metered per read and write.
DockupFree, then $5 or $20
Managed PostgreSQL at $0.10 per GB-month with no public hostname by default, next to the container that uses it. No generated API layer — you write the backend.
PlanetScalePaid plans, usage-based
MySQL rather than Postgres, with schema branching. Worth considering only if MySQL is what you actually want.
Self-hosted SupabaseFree, plus your server
The whole stack is open source and runs on your own machine. Genuinely free if you do not count operating it, which most people should.
Staying on SupabaseFree, from $25, from $599
If you use the auth, the storage and the generated APIs, nothing below replaces all three at once. The Pro plan starts at $25 a month and includes $10 of compute credits — one Micro instance.

Why the bill grows when you add a project

Supabase bills compute per project. The Pro plan is $25 a month and includes $10 of compute credits, which covers one Micro instance -- so the first project feels bundled. A second project draws its own compute on top, and a staging environment is a second project.

That is not a hidden charge, it is on the pricing page, and it catches people anyway because the mental model from the first project is that compute came with the plan. If you run production and staging and a side project, do the multiplication before comparing anything else.

What actually costs you when leaving Supabase

The database moves in an afternoon: pg_dump out, pg_restore in, like any Postgres. That is the part people worry about and it is the easy part.

The expensive part is everything built on top. Row-level security policies encode your authorisation rules in the database, the auth tables carry your users and sessions, and the generated REST and realtime APIs are what your frontend actually calls. None of that moves. Replacing it means an auth library, a real backend and a rewrite of every call the client makes.

So the decision is not really about Postgres hosting. It is about whether you are using the bundle. If you are, staying is usually right; if the database is all you ever wanted, you are paying for the rest.

Is self-hosting Supabase a real option?

The whole stack is open source and it does run on your own machine. Whether that is free depends on whether you count operating it as free -- it is several services rather than one, and keeping them healthy and upgraded is the job you would be taking on.

It makes sense when data residency or cost at scale forces it. It rarely makes sense purely to avoid $25 a month.

Questions this page gets asked

What is the cheapest Supabase alternative?

For the database alone, Neon’s free tier or Dockup’s free plan, which grants $10 of infrastructure credit and does not sleep. Self-hosting Supabase is free in licence terms and costs whatever the server and your time cost.

Why does my Supabase bill grow with more projects?

Compute is billed separately per project. The Pro plan includes $10 a month of compute credits, which covers one Micro instance; a second project draws its own compute on top. Published pricing, checked 22 August 2026.

Is there a Supabase alternative with plain Postgres?

Yes — Neon and Dockup both give you a normal PostgreSQL instance with a connection string and nothing generated on top. You write your own API, which is more work and fewer surprises.

Can I move my Supabase database somewhere else?

The database yes, with pg_dump and pg_restore like any Postgres. What does not move is the auth tables, the row-level security policies and the generated API surface — those have to be rebuilt against whatever replaces them, and that is usually the real cost of leaving.

Compare something else

Try it against your own workload.

The free plan grants $10 of infrastructure credit at signup, needs no card, and does not sleep.

Start free with $10 credit See the rates