Supabase vs Firebase (2026)

Facts checked October 26, 2026 on official pages · part of Best databases & backend

Verdict

Pick Supabase if you want a SQL (Postgres) backend with auth, file storage and realtime in one dashboard, and an easy way to move out later. It's our #1 database pick.

Pick Firebase if you're building a mobile or Google-stack app, want Firestore's NoSQL model and a free plan that needs no payment method, and plan to use Firebase's other tools such as push messaging and Crashlytics, which are listed as no-cost. It's our #4 database pick.

Supabase is Postgres; Firebase's main database, Firestore, is a NoSQL document database. Both have a free plan with a catch. A Supabase free project pauses after 1 week of inactivity. On Firebase's Spark plan, going over a product's quota shuts that product off for the rest of the month, and Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage and App Hosting need the paid Blaze plan.

Side by side

	Supabase #1 Databases & backend	Firebase #4 Databases & backend
Paid price	Pro from $25/mo, which includes $10/mo of compute credits (one Micro instance). Extra projects from $10/mo. Team from $599/mo. Source, checked 2026-10-26	Blaze is pay-as-you-go: you pay per product for usage above the no-cost quotas. For example, Cloud Functions are $0.40 per million invocations after 2M a month, and Hosting data transfer is $0.15/GB after 360 MB a day. Source, checked 2026-10-26
Free plan	$0: 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users, 1 GB file storage, 5 GB egress, up to 2 active projects. Source, checked 2026-10-26	Spark, no payment method needed. Firestore: 1 GiB stored, 50K reads and 20K writes a day. Auth: 50K monthly active users. Hosting: 10 GB storage, 360 MB a day transfer. Realtime Database: 1 GB, 100 simultaneous connections. Source, checked 2026-10-26
Free-plan catch	Free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity, and only 2 can be active. No automatic backups on Free; Supabase recommends exporting with the CLI's db dump. Source, checked 2026-10-26	If you exceed a no-cost quota for a product in a calendar month, that product is shut off for the rest of the month (for every app in the project) until you upgrade to Blaze. Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage and App Hosting show "Not applicable" on Spark, and phone auth is billed per SMS on Blaze only. Source, checked 2026-10-26
Limits to know	Free: shared CPU with 500 MB RAM. Pro: 100,000 monthly active users then $0.00325 each, 8 GB disk then $0.125/GB, 250 GB egress then $0.09/GB. Pro has a spend cap switched on by default. Source, checked 2026-10-26	Firestore bills per document read, write and delete, with a free quota of 50K reads, 20K writes and 20K deletes a day. On Blaze, Firebase advises setting budget alerts; we did not verify whether a hard spending cap exists. Source, checked 2026-10-26
Best for	A full backend in one dashboard. AgentRank #1 database. AgentRank ranking, checked 2026-10-26	Mobile and Google-stack apps. AgentRank #4 database. AgentRank ranking, checked 2026-10-26
What you can export or own	Standard Postgres: export with supabase db dump or pg_dump. Supabase can also be self-hosted with Docker. Source, checked 2026-10-26	Firestore's managed export needs the Blaze plan and costs one read per document exported. Exports can be imported into another Firestore database or loaded into BigQuery. We found no self-host route (unverified). Source, checked 2026-10-26

Prices and limits change. Each cell links the official page we checked; confirm there before you buy. Rankings come from our methodology and are never paid.

FAQ

Is Supabase or Firebase better?

On AgentRank, Supabase ranks #1 and Firebase #4 among databases. Pick Supabase for a Postgres backend with auth, storage and realtime in one dashboard. Pick Firebase for mobile and Google-stack apps built around Firestore.

Is Firebase free?

Partly. The Spark plan needs no payment method and includes no-cost quotas, for example 1 GiB of Firestore storage and 50K reads a day. If you go over a quota, that product is shut off for the rest of the month unless you upgrade to Blaze (checked 2026-10-26).

Does the Supabase free plan pause?

Yes. Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity, and you can have 2 active projects (checked 2026-10-26).

Does Firebase have a SQL database?

Firebase SQL Connect uses Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. The pricing page lists a 3-month no-cost trial for the first instance, then pricing from $9.37/month depending on region and configuration; an instance not upgraded to Blaze by the end of the trial is archived (checked 2026-10-26).

Can I move from Firebase to Supabase?

Firestore is NoSQL and Supabase is Postgres, so the data model has to be redesigned; it isn't a straight export-and-import. Firestore's managed export needs the Blaze plan. Test the move with a copy of your data first.