Supabase is a popular backend choice for prototypes and production projects where minimal infra management is desired. Below is a concise account of how Supabase can accelerate shipping a fullstack application and the situations that may require extra decisions.
What I used from Supabase
- Auth (email, OAuth providers)
- Postgres (managed, with row-level security)
- Realtime subscriptions (for live updates)
Why I picked Supabase
- Speed: I can get auth and a database up in minutes.
- Familiarity: Postgres under the hood means I don't have to learn a new query language.
- Full feature set: Auth + DB + storage + realtime gives me most server needs without wiring multiple providers.
The build story (short)
- Modelled user and post tables using the Supabase SQL editor.
- Enabled row-level security and implemented a policy allowing authenticated users to insert posts.
- Integrated front-end auth using the Supabase JS client; the auth flow is straightforward.
- Employed Realtime to push new posts to subscribed clients for a live feed.
When Supabase removed friction
- No infra setup for Postgres — saves a week when you’re just trying to prototype.
- Auth and OAuth flows are boringly simple; that’s a good thing.
- Storage + signed URLs made file handling easy without S3 config.
Pain points and considerations
- Policies & RLS: Row-level security is powerful but easy to misconfigure. Test your policies thoroughly.
- Realtime scale: Works great for low-to-medium traffic apps; for massive realtime workloads you may need to think about architecture and limits.
- Vendor lock-in: Supabase is largely Postgres-compatible, but some managed features (Edge Functions, Storage APIs) will tie you into their platform.
- Local development: Supabase local emulators exist, but syncing state with the cloud can get tricky — keep a staging project for reliable testing.
Tips & tricks I picked up
- Use typed Postgres clients (generate types from your schema) to avoid runtime errors.
- Keep RLS policies in source control by scripting migrations (SQL files), not only editing in the dashboard.
- Cache read-heavy queries on the client with TanStack Query to reduce DB load.
- Combine Edge Functions for small server tasks (email sending, webhook handling) to keep the client simple.
Suitability and final thoughts
Supabase frequently hits the sweet spot between speed and capability for many projects. For hyper-scale or highly specialized database workloads, a managed Postgres provider with separate services may be more appropriate, but Supabase can accelerate delivery for the majority of typical applications.
An example Supabase policy or a sample Edge Function can be provided on request.