Supabase vs Turso
Two sides of the database decision: backend platform and managed database. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.
SupabaseBackend platformllms.txtMCPCLIIn Bolt, Lovable, v0Which fits you
- You want the database, auth and file storage in one project, and plain SQL you can take elsewhere
Use it whenYou want one service for most of the backend and a SQL database you can take with you.
Trade-offAuth, storage and database in one vendor makes leaving harder later, and free projects pause after a week without activity.
- SQLite at the edge, or one database per customer.
Use it whenEach customer should get their own isolated database, or reads need to happen close to users worldwide.
Trade-offSQLite semantics — one writer at a time, fewer extensions — suit read-heavy apps better than write-heavy ones.
At a glance
| Used by | 564 makers' products · 75 open-source projects | 13 makers' products · 33 open-source projects |
|---|---|---|
| Cost at default usagedatabase size 8 GB, data transfer 50 GB, document or row reads 10 million reads, document or row writes 2 million writes | $25/mo Pro | $5.99/mo Developer |
| Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 2024 | fewer than 3 | 11 from Supabase |
| Downloads | 25.4M/wk+96% vs npm | 2.2M/wk+102% vs npm |
| Pricing | Free tier (inactive projects pause); paid plans per project plus usage. · paid from $25/mo | Free tier; paid plans by databases and usage. · paid from $4.99/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes · self-hostable | Yes · self-hostable |
| Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status page | 50+ (16 major) | no public status feed |
Cost as you grow
Both cost $0 up to 0.5 GB; from 1 GB Turso costs less ($0 vs $25); from about 50 GB Supabase does ($36 vs $37); from about 100 GB Turso does ($67 vs $70). They're different kinds of tool — backend platform and managed database — so the prices don't buy the same thing.
Who moves from one to the other
Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "Supabase to Turso" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.
- Migrate from Supabase to Turso (libSQL/SQLite)profullstack/meshhook · 2026-08-11
- refactor: migrate database storage from Supabase to Turso and update …schraderweb/schraderweb · 2026-08-08
- Add a one-shot Supabase to Turso data migrationkaleinoue/For-the-boys · 2026-07-28
- Migrate backend from Supabase to Turso (libSQL)sylvaindiv/atomic-crm · 2026-07-23
- Migrate from Supabase to Turso (libSQL) + Auth.jsaruntemme/creed · 2026-06-24
- feat(etl): add Supabase to Turso data migration script with SOCKS proxy supportpkking/action-insight · 2026-06-07
- Migrate database from Supabase to Turso, fix auth/routing/state bugsxitali/emanuelw.pl · 2026-04-07
- Migration: db change from supabase to tursoff1892/communality · 2026-02-27
- Migrate from Supabase to Turso with ULID supportopenstory-so/openstory · 2025-11-17
- Migrate Watchlist Favorites/Ratings Data from Supabase to Tursocinemagoria/cinemagoria · 2025-11-15
What makers say
Makers on using it for database, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.
One Postgres with RLS on every table is the reason a solo founder can ship contracts, invoices and a client portal without a backend team. Auth, storage and realtime came for free.
Supabase made it dead simple to manage db and the best part is that we can connect it to Claude for product analysis without having to set up Posthog or other event tracking tools.
For powering our backend and database. Managing user uploads and conversion jobs efficiently is critical, and Supabase's real-time capabilities keep everything running smoothly! 🔥
We wanted to build application that has single tenant databases for each organization. Turso handles that super nicely. In addition the ability to have embedded replicas is killer feature for building local RAG.
We love Turso because it combines the simplicity of SQLite with the scalability we need for production. It works seamlessly for edge and serverless applications, which makes it perfect for the kind of projects we build.
Turso is my database! Turso made it really easy to switch from local development to hosted on the cloud.
Loved and watch-outs
Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.
- One project covers Postgres, auth, storage and realtime, so a solo founder ships without stitching vendors or hiring a backend team. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
- It is real Postgres with SQL, row-level security and pgvector rather than a proprietary store. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
- Open source and self-hostable, which reduces vendor lock-in. PHPH 2HNPH 3
- It keeps SQLite's simplicity while scaling for edge and serverless apps, and moving from local development to hosted is easy. PHHN
- A database per tenant and embedded replicas make single-tenant designs and local-first or offline apps straightforward. PHPH 2HN
- The Rust rewrite adds async I/O, concurrent writes, encryption, change data capture and vector search while staying SQLite file-compatible. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
- The Rust rewrite is still beta, with panics, data-corrupting bugs and thin test coverage that undermine trust for production. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
- The split between libSQL and the new Turso packages is confusing, and libSQL showed memory leaks on large write jobs. HNHN 2HN 3
- Compatibility with SQLite is incomplete; for example, another process cannot read a WAL database it has open. HNHN 2
