Why Supabase is my default backend in 2025

Every new project starts with the same question: which backend. After three years of Supabase as default, I keep coming back.

What you get out of the box Postgres 17 with row-level security, auth (email, OAuth, magic link), object storage with CDN, realtime via WAL streaming, edge functions running Deno. All in one panel.

The free tier is real 500MB Postgres, 1GB storage, 50,000 monthly auth users. For most personal projects and early-stage products, you never leave the free tier.

Where it falls down - Compute is small until you upgrade. The free Postgres is a 0.125 vCPU, fine for prototypes, painful at scale. - Edge functions cold-start in ~150ms, not great for low-latency requirements. Vercel functions are faster. - Realtime is excellent but documentation lags real behaviour by months.

What I use it for Most client work. Internal tools. The Sarmalinux site itself runs on Supabase for blog posts, contact form, admin chat leads.

Alternatives I have ruled out Firebase: Firestore queries are painful for relational data. Pricing punishes high reads. Neon: brilliant Postgres, but you still need separate auth, storage, etc. Adds three integrations. PlanetScale: fast but no longer free.

When to leave When you need a multi-region write topology, or when you outgrow a single Postgres instance. Both of those are problems most teams will never have.

If you are spinning up your own VPS for backend instead, [DigitalOcean has £200 free credit through this link](https://m.do.co/c/3389d86ebe0c).