Supabase: a data-backed look

Supabase overview

Supabase is a developer-friendly backend platform that brings together Postgres, authentication, and file storage in one place. It allows teams to build with SQL while supporting real-time updates through websockets for responsive applications.

Best suited for product teams building modern web and mobile apps, Supabase offers a unified environment for managing user access, storing content, and interacting with data, along with built-in monitoring, backups, and performance tools.

How much do businesses spend on Supabase?

The chart below illustrates average quarterly spending on Supabase across different business sizes.

Micro businesses maintain relatively stable spending levels with modest fluctuations across quarters. Small and medium-sized companies demonstrate more pronounced growth, particularly accelerating in the latter half of the year.

Mid-market and enterprise organizations show the most dramatic spending increases, with especially strong growth momentum building through the second and third quarters before plateauing slightly in the final quarter.

All three business segments trend upward overall, but the growth trajectories differ significantly in scale and timing. The data suggests that larger organizations are adopting Supabase more aggressively and investing at higher levels, while smaller businesses maintain more conservative, steady spending approaches.

The convergence of growth patterns across all segments indicates broad market adoption of the platform across the business spectrum.

Who is Supabase best for?

The chart below breaks down Supabase’s user base by industry and business size.

Micro businesses represent the dominant portion of Supabase's customer base, forming the overwhelming majority of users. Small and medium-sized companies constitute the second-largest segment, while mid-market and enterprise organizations make up the smallest portion of the user base.

This distribution suggests that Supabase has found particularly strong product-market fit among smaller organizations, likely due to its developer-friendly approach, ease of implementation, and cost-effective pricing structure.

The platform appears to be especially well-suited for startups, solo developers, and small teams who need robust backend infrastructure without the complexity and overhead typically associated with enterprise solutions.

While larger organizations do use Supabase, the data indicates the platform's sweet spot lies with micro and small businesses that value simplicity and rapid deployment capabilities.

Supabase key features

Real-time listeners

• What it does: Hosts a standard Postgres database with support for real-time listeners on tables and rows.
• Key benefit: Lets applications subscribe to data changes instantly, reducing the need for polling and custom WebSocket setups.

Authentication and authorization

• What it does: Manages user sign-ups, logins, and social providers, and enforces row-level security policies in the database.
• Key benefit: Ensures secure access control without additional middleware, reducing development overhead and potential security gaps.

Storage and CDN

• What it does: Stores files and media in buckets and automatically serves them through an edge-based content delivery network.
• Key benefit: Delivers static assets quickly to end users while providing a simple API for uploads and downloads.

Auto-generated APIs and client libraries

• What it does: Automatically creates REST and GraphQL endpoints for Postgres tables and views, with type-safe client libraries for JavaScript, Python, and more.
• Key benefit: Eliminates manual API coding, allowing developers to focus on application logic instead of building endpoints.

Edge functions

• What it does: Runs serverless functions at edge locations to handle background jobs, webhooks, and custom API logic close to users.
• Key benefit: Improves latency for server-side operations and lets teams execute custom logic without managing separate servers.

Built-in monitoring and analytics

• What it does: Provides dashboards to track database performance, query metrics, storage usage, and authentication events.
• Key benefit: Gives visibility into critical system metrics, helping teams identify performance issues and usage trends early.

Supabase pricing

Supabase pros and cons

Supabase is a good fit if:

• You need instant client updates tied to SQL data changes.
• You prefer working with PostgreSQL and want to avoid stitching together. separate services for auth, storage, and access control.
• You need row-level security and role-based access rules enforced directly at the database layer.

Consider alternatives if:

• You need a serverless NoSQL backend that scales automatically without requiring infrastructure management.
• Your project requires visual app-building tools or low-code workflows for rapid prototyping.
• You rely on deep analytics or advanced edge compute features.
• Your team prefers managed platforms with longer track records and enterprise-focused support.