Firebase Auth vs Supabase
Side-by-side — pricing, strengths, tradeoffs, and fit.
Firebase Auth
Drop-in authentication from Google Firebase with generous free tier and easy social login.
Supabase
The open-source Firebase alternative with Postgres
At a glance
Free TierEnterprise
● Established·From $0 (pay for phone auth/Identity Platform)
Open SourceFree TierEnterprise
● Established·From Freemium
Overview
One-liner
One-liner
Drop-in authentication from Google Firebase with generous free tier and easy social login.
One-liner
The open-source Firebase alternative with Postgres
Maturity
Maturity
EstablishedMaturity
EstablishedOpen source
Open source
✕ NoOpen source
✓ YesPricing
Free tier
Free tier
✓ AvailableUnlimited email/social auth; phone auth metered
Free tier
✓ AvailableStarts at
Starts at
$0 (pay for phone auth/Identity Platform)
Starts at
Freemium
Model
Model
Usage-based
Model
Hybrid
Enterprise
Enterprise
✓ AvailableEnterprise
✓ AvailableBest for
✓ Best for
Mobile and web apps already on FirebaseNative integration with Firestore and GCP
Side projects needing free authFree email/social at any scale
✓ Best for
Startup founders and indie developers who need a complete backend-as-a-service with auth, database, and storage in one place
Teams moving from Firebase who want a relational database with a generous free tier
Developers who want to self-host their database infrastructure while keeping a familiar UI
Not ideal for
✕ Not for
—
✕ Not for
Teams needing a horizontally sharded database for massive write throughput
Enterprises requiring SOC 2 on the free plan without upgrading to a paid tier
Strengths
↑ Strengths
Generous free tier
Tight Firebase/GCP integration
Fast to integrate
↑ Strengths
Postgres database
Authentication
Auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs
Realtime subscriptions
Weaknesses
↓ Weaknesses
Lock-in to Firebase/Google
Limited enterprise SSO without Identity Platform
↓ Weaknesses
Free tier projects are automatically paused after one week of inactivity, limiting continuous availability for hobby projects.
Custom SMTP integration for authentication emails fails with Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook, breaking standard email workflows.
The Supabase Node.js client causes ESM handling issues that break Vitest testing environments.
Extension version pinning is deprecated, forcing users to accept default versions and ignoring explicit version specifications.