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Head-to-head · Database systems

Neon vs Supabase

Supabase bundles a portable Postgres backend; Neon pairs serverless Postgres with branching and usage-based billing.

Neon

7.0/10
VS

Supabase

7.5/10

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Short answer

Most buyers should pick Supabase.

Choose Supabase for a broader all-in-one backend and a listed $25/month Pro plan. Its free plan includes 50,000 monthly active users, but limits you to two active projects and pauses projects inactive for a week. Choose Neon for serverless Postgres, branching and Databricks’ AI Gateway. Neon Launch shows a $15 typical monthly spend, but it is usage-based, not a fixed subscription. Compare expected compute and storage before choosing on price alone.

01Side by side

NeonSupabase
Starting price$15 typical monthly Launch spend; usage-based$25/month for Pro
Free plan100 projects; 100 CU-hours monthly per project50,000 MAUs; 2 projects; pauses after inactivity
Best forUsage-priced, branching serverless PostgresPortable Postgres with a bundled backend
Core strengthAutoscaling Postgres and database branchingAuth, storage, APIs, functions and realtime
Learning curveReview ease-of-use score: 6Review ease-of-use score: 7.5
Integrations and dataDatabricks AI Gateway; S3-compatible object storagePortable Postgres; REST APIs and Row Level Security
Team and seat costsUnlimited team members on FreeSeat pricing not published; Team is $599/month
SupportReview support score: 5Review support score: 6

Choose Neon if

  • Choose Neon if you want serverless Postgres with branching.
  • Choose Neon if Databricks’ AI Gateway fits your stack.
  • Choose Neon if you prefer usage-based billing and can budget it.

Choose Supabase if

  • Choose Supabase if you want auth, storage, APIs and functions together.
  • Choose Supabase if portable Postgres and Row Level Security matter.
  • Choose Supabase if you prefer a listed $25/month Pro price.

02Pricing compared

Supabase lists Pro at $25 per month, with 100,000 monthly active users, 8 GB of disk per project, 250 GB of egress and 100 GB of file storage. Compute is separate: paid plans include $10 in compute credits, and additional projects start at $10 per month. Overages can add to the bill.

Neon Launch lists a typical spend of $15 per month, not a fixed subscription price. It charges $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month of database storage. Its Scale plan shows a typical $701 monthly spend. Both paid tiers also charge for items such as branches, history and storage. Free tiers differ: Neon gives 100 projects with per-project limits; Supabase gives two active projects, which pause after a week inactive. Annual prices are not published for either product.

03Features and depth

Both products put Postgres at the center, but their feature bundles differ. Neon’s Lakebase Postgres offers branching and autoscaling; the homepage says it monitors database load ten times a second. Its listed backend includes Better Auth-based authentication, functions that run close to the database without timeouts, S3-compatible object storage, and Databricks’ AI Gateway for frontier and open-source models.

Supabase bundles a portable Postgres database with Auth and Row Level Security, file storage, Edge Functions, realtime sync and ready-to-use REST APIs. Its product description also lists vectors, scheduled jobs and message queues. That makes Supabase’s published feature set more directly focused on common app-backend pieces, while Neon’s differentiators include database branching, autoscaling and the Databricks-powered AI Gateway. Supabase also lists branching, but charges $0.01344 per branch-hour. Neon lists additional branches at $0.002 per branch-hour on Launch and Scale. Check the full usage costs, not just the headline plan price.

04Ease of use and learning curve

The published plans make the main trade-off fairly clear: Supabase puts database, authentication, storage, functions, realtime and APIs in one backend, so teams looking for those pieces together can start from a single product. Its free tier has a concrete constraint: only two active projects, and projects pause after a week inactive.

Neon’s free plan allows 100 projects and unlimited team members, but caps each project at 100 CU-hours monthly and 1 GB of storage. Its paid plans are usage-based, so teams need to keep an eye on compute and storage rather than assume Launch’s $15 typical spend is a fixed bill. If predictable base pricing matters most, Supabase Pro’s listed $25 monthly price is simpler to compare; if branching and serverless Postgres are central, weigh Neon’s metered costs.

Questions people ask

Is there anything better than Supabase?

There is no universal winner in the published details. Supabase is a fit if you want Postgres, Auth, storage, functions, realtime and APIs together, with a listed $25 monthly Pro plan. Neon is worth comparing if serverless Postgres, branching, autoscaling or Databricks’ AI Gateway matter more. Compare usage costs against your workload.

What is Supabase?

Supabase is a Postgres-based backend platform. Its listed features include a portable Postgres database, authentication with Row Level Security, file storage, Edge Functions, realtime sync and ready-to-use REST APIs. It also describes tools for vectors, scheduled jobs and message queues.

What are the pros and cons of Supabase?

Its breadth is a plus: Supabase combines Postgres, Auth, storage, functions, realtime and APIs, and Pro is listed at $25 per month. The trade-offs include usage-based add-ons and free-plan limits: 50,000 monthly active users, 500 MB database per project, two active projects, and pausing after a week inactive.

Do any big companies use Supabase?

The published product and pricing information does not name large-company customers, so we can’t verify that from these sources. Supabase describes support for large-scale applications on Enterprise, with custom pricing, technical account management, uptime SLAs and 24×7×365 premium support.