Backend-as-a-service economics · July 18, 2026
Supabase pricing: each meter and what the alternatives replace
Supabase looks like one product because the dashboard unifies Postgres, Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Functions. The invoice does not: plan, project compute, egress, users, storage, messages, and add-ons scale differently.
Method
What this comparison measures
- Decompose backend demand into project compute, database, auth MAU, storage, cached and uncached egress, functions, Realtime, and add-ons.
- Compare Supabase with Firebase, Neon, Appwrite, Convex, and self-hosting by capability, not by the cheapest plan card.
- Use three product shapes: small SaaS, media community, and realtime collaboration.
- Treat spend caps as feature-specific controls and list every charge they do not cover.
$25 is the organization plan, not the final bill
Supabase bills per organization. A paid organization has a plan fee, while every active project runs dedicated Postgres compute. The organization receives compute credit that covers one default project; additional projects add compute even if traffic is low.[1][2]
Variable quotas are pooled across the organization for egress, storage, MAU, Functions, Realtime, and other usage. Compute, custom domains, IPv4, PITR, log drains, and provisioned disk performance follow separate rules. This is why a staging project can change the invoice before a single new customer arrives.[1][3]
| Meter | Included / baseline | Overage or separate charge | Typical trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | $25 per organization | Fixed | Production features and no project pausing |
| Project compute | $10 credit covers one Micro | Each active project and larger size | Staging, previews, replicas |
| Database disk | 8 GB per project | $0.125/GB beyond quota | Rows, indexes, WAL |
| Egress | 250 GB organization quota | $0.09/GB documented uncached rate | Storage, database, functions, realtime |
| Auth MAU | 100,000 | $0.00325/additional MAU | Signed-in users in billing cycle |
| Realtime | 5m messages / 500 peak connections | $2.50/m messages; connection overage | Presence, chat, live dashboards |
| Functions | 2m invocations | $2/million | Webhooks, API endpoints, jobs |
The spend cap has a boundary
Supabase’s Spend Cap covers variable items such as disk size, egress, Functions, logs, MAU, Realtime, image transforms, and storage. It does not cover compute, branching compute, replicas, custom domains, provisioned IOPS or throughput, IPv4, log drains, phone MFA, or PITR.[4]
Many excluded items require explicit provisioning, so the boundary is understandable. It still means “Spend Cap on” does not guarantee that the invoice stays below that amount. A solo operator should inventory both capped usage and opted-in resources.
The alternatives do not replace the same thing
Neon is strongest as serverless Postgres with autoscaling, branching, and scale-to-zero. It now includes Auth, but it is not automatically a drop-in replacement for Supabase Storage, Realtime, Functions, and every dashboard workflow. Its own billing includes CU-hours, database and history storage, branches, and network transfer.[5]
Appwrite Cloud more closely matches the integrated BaaS shape: database, Auth, Storage, Functions, Realtime, and messaging. Convex is a reactive application backend with function-call, database I/O, search, storage, and egress meters. Firebase is a broad proprietary BaaS whose document operations and Google Cloud integration create a different cost model.[6][7][8]
| Option | Database | Auth | Files | Realtime / functions | Operations burden |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase Cloud | Dedicated Postgres | Included | Included | Included | Low |
| Firebase | Firestore / RTDB | Included | Included | Included | Low; proprietary data model |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres | Included tier | Bring another service | Bring another service | Medium composition |
| Appwrite Cloud | Appwrite databases | Included | Included | Included | Low |
| Convex | Reactive document backend | Included path | Included | Included actions | Low; proprietary runtime |
| Self-hosted Supabase | Your Postgres | You operate | You operate | You operate | High |
Choose by the meter your product stresses
A conventional SaaS with SQL, modest files, and ordinary authentication often fits Supabase’s base plan cleanly. A media product must model egress and image transforms. A realtime product must model messages and peak connections. A preview-heavy workflow must model active projects and branch retention.
Self-hosting becomes financially interesting after workload and recovery requirements are known. Before that point it exchanges a visible platform invoice for invisible backup, patching, observability, and incident labor.
Source register
Specifications and prices change. The links make this snapshot auditable.
Sources and commercial facts were checked on 2026-07-18. Prices exclude tax unless the source says otherwise.
- About billing on Supabase ↗Supabase · billing
- Billing FAQ ↗Supabase · billing
- Your monthly invoice ↗Supabase · billing
- Control your costs ↗Supabase · billing
- Neon pricing ↗Neon · pricing
- Appwrite pricing ↗Appwrite · pricing
- Convex pricing ↗Convex · pricing
- Firebase pricing ↗Google · pricing