What is Supabase?
The landscape of web development has drastically changed over the years, particularly when it comes to building scalable, data-driven applications. While traditional relational databases remain fundamental in the stack, a lot of attention has shifted toward serverless architectures, RESTful APIs, and real-time databases. Firebase has been a dominant player in this space, providing a suite of tools that allow developers to build applications without managing a back-end.
However, Firebase comes with its own set of restrictions. Being a proprietary service, it can limit the scope of customization and can become expensive at scale. Additionally, Firebase’s NoSQL database, Firestore, may not be the best fit for applications that require complex queries and transactions, something that traditional SQL databases excel at.
That’s where Supabase comes into play. Unlike Firebase, Supabase is open-source, which means you’re not locked into a proprietary ecosystem. This makes it a more flexible option for businesses that need greater control over their data and architecture. But what truly sets Supabase apart is its foundation on PostgreSQL, one of the most powerful, open-source relational databases. PostgreSQL supports a wide range of data types, including JSON, allowing for complex queries and transactions that are often difficult or cumbersome to achieve in a NoSQL database.
