Supabase has rapidly emerged as a compelling open-source alternative to Firebase, offering developers a suite of tools to build scalable backends with ease. Its foundation on PostgreSQL, coupled with features like real-time subscriptions, authentication, and storage, makes it an attractive option for projects ranging from passion projects to enterprise-grade applications. However, understanding the true cost associated with Supabase involves looking beyond the basic subscription fees. This comprehensive guide will delve into Supabase’s pricing structure, the intricacies of integrating it into your application, the potential costs of hiring an expert team, and how we at MetaCTO can help you navigate this landscape.

Introduction to Supabase

Supabase offers a backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platform designed to be predictable in its pricing and to scale with your application’s growth. At its core, Supabase provides a dedicated PostgreSQL database for every project, which is a powerful and widely-used relational database. Around this, Supabase builds essential backend functionalities, including:

• Authentication: Built-in user authentication supporting email/password, social logins (like Google), and other third-party providers.
• Real-time Database: Functionality for live data refreshing and real-time updates to your application.
• Storage: Solutions for managing large files like images and videos.
• Edge Functions: Serverless functions to run custom backend logic.
• Auto-generated APIs: RESTful endpoints are automatically created for your database tables, simplifying data access.

One of the key attractions is the ability to start building for free, making it accessible for developers to experiment and launch smaller projects without upfront financial commitment.

How much it costs to use Supabase

Supabase’s pricing is structured to be predictable and to scale with your needs. You can begin building for free, and then opt into paid plans as your project grows. Let’s break down the various cost components.

Supabase Pricing Plans

Supabase offers four main pricing tiers: Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise.

Free Plan

• Cost: $0 per month
• Ideal for: Passion projects & simple websites.
• Key Features & Inclusions:
  • Unlimited API requests
  • 50,000 monthly active users (MAUs)
  • 500 MB database size
  • Shared CPU • 500 MB RAM
  • 5 GB bandwidth
  • 1 GB file storage
  • Community support
• Limitations:
  • Projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity.
  • Limit of 2 active projects.
  • No automatic backups storage.
  • 1-day log retention (API & Database).
  • Basic CDN.
  • Max file upload size of 50 MB.
  • Audit trails retention of 1 hour.
  • No removing Supabase branding from emails.

This plan is excellent for getting started, prototyping, or running small-scale applications.

Pro Plan

• Cost: From $25 per month
• Ideal for: Production applications with the power to scale.
• Key Features & Inclusions (includes everything in Free, plus):
  • $10 in compute credits per month (covers one Micro instance or offsets other instances).
  • 100,000 MAUs (Third-Party MAUs also 100,000).
  • 8 GB disk size per project.
  • 250 GB bandwidth.
  • 100 GB file storage.
  • Email support.
  • Daily backups stored for 7 days.
  • 7-day log retention (API & Database and Audit trails).
  • Never paused due to inactivity.
  • Advanced disk config included.
  • Spend Cap enabled by default (can be switched off to scale beyond included quota).
  • Metrics endpoint.
  • Leaked password protection, single session per user, session timeouts.
  • Removing Supabase branding from emails.
  • Max file upload size of 50 GB.
  • Smart CDN.
  • Vanity URLs.
• Overage Costs:
  • Monthly Active Users: $0.00325 per MAU over 100,000.
  • Disk Size: $0.125 per GB over 8 GB.
  • Bandwidth: $0.09 per GB over 250 GB.
  • File Storage: $0.021 per GB over 100 GB.

The Pro plan is designed for serious projects that require more resources, support, and features like daily backups and the ability to handle more users and data. The spend cap is a great feature for cost control.

Team Plan

• Cost: From $599 per month
• Ideal for: Teams needing collaboration features, compliance, and higher limits.
• Key Features & Inclusions (includes everything in Pro, plus):
  • $10 in compute credits per month.
  • SOC2 compliance.
  • Project-scoped and read-only access roles (Owner, Admin, Developer, Read-only, Predefined project scoped roles).
  • HIPAA available as a paid add-on.
  • SSO for Supabase Dashboard (Contact Us for pricing/details).
  • Priority email support & SLAs.
  • Daily backups stored for 14 days.
  • 28-day log retention (API & Database and Audit trails).
  • Dashboard Audit trails.
  • Security Questionnaire Help.
  • Auth Hooks: All types.
• Overage Costs: Same as Pro plan for MAUs, disk, bandwidth, file storage, etc.

This plan caters to businesses and larger teams requiring advanced security, compliance, and support features.

Enterprise Plan

• Cost: Custom (Contact Us)
• Ideal for: Large-scale applications running Internet scale workloads.
• Key Features & Inclusions (includes everything in Team, plus):
  • Designated Support manager.
  • Uptime SLAs.
  • BYO Cloud support.
  • 24×7×365 premium enterprise support.
  • Private Slack channel.
  • Custom Security Questionnaires.
  • Custom database size, bandwidth, MAUs, storage, etc.
  • Automatic backups storage: Custom.
  • Log retention (API & Database): 90 days.
  • Advanced security features (Contact Us).
  • Bringing your own storage provider.
  • Realtime Concurrent Peak Connections: Custom with volume discount.
  • Realtime Messages Per Month: Volume discounts.
  • Edge Functions Invocations: Custom.
  • Log Drain: Custom.
  • SSO (Platform Security and Compliance): Contact Us.
  • Access Roles: Custom project scoped roles.
  • Custom Domains: 1 included, $10/month for additional.
  • On Boarding Support.
  • Designated Customer Success Team.

The Enterprise plan is tailored for organizations with specific, high-demand needs, offering maximum customization and support.

Compute Costs

Every project on the Supabase Platform comes with its own dedicated Postgres instance. Paid Plans (Pro, Team, Enterprise) include $10 per month in compute credits, which can cover one Micro compute instance or offset the cost of any other instance. Compute instances are billed hourly, and you can scale them up or down at any time. Compute can scale up to 64 cores and 256 GB RAM.

Here’s a breakdown of available compute sizes:

Compute Size	Price (USD/month)	CPU	Dedicated	Memory	Direct Connections	Pooler Connections
Micro	$10	2-core ARM	Not included in Free Plan	1 GB	60	200
Small	$15	2-core ARM	Not included in Free Plan	2 GB	90	400
Medium	$60	2-core ARM	Not included in Free Plan	4 GB	120	600
Large	$110	2-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	8 GB	160	800
XL	$210	4-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	16 GB	240	1,000
2XL	$410	8-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	32 GB	380	1,500
4XL	$960	16-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	64 GB	480	3,000
8XL	$1,870	32-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	128 GB	490	6,000
12XL	$2,800	48-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	192 GB	500	9,000
16XL	$3,730	64-core ARM	Included in Pro Plan	256 GB	500	12,000
>16XL	Contact Us	Custom	Included in Pro Plan	Custom	Custom	Custom

Choosing the right compute size depends on your application’s load, connection needs, and memory requirements.

Storage Costs (Database & Files)

Database Size

• Free Plan: 500 MB per project included.
• Pro & Team Plans: 8 GB disk size per project included. Overages cost $0.125 per GB.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom.

Advanced Disk Configurations

For Pro, Team, and Enterprise plans, advanced disk configurations allow scaling database storage up to 60 TB. This is not included in the Free plan.

• General Purpose Disk:
  • Offers a balance between price and performance.
  • Max Size: 16 TB.
  • Size Cost: 8 GB included, then $0.125 per GB.
  • IOPS Cost: 3,000 IOPS included, then $0.024 per IOPS.
  • Throughput Cost: 125 MB/s included, then $0.095 per MB/s.
  • Durability: 99.9%.
• High Performance Disk:
  • For mission-critical applications.
  • Max Size: 60 TB.
  • Size Cost: $0.195 per GB.
  • IOPS Cost: $0.119 per IOPS.
  • Throughput: Scales automatically with IOPS.
  • Durability: 99.999%.

File Storage

• Free Plan: 1 GB included. Max file upload size 50 MB.
• Pro & Team Plans: 100 GB included. Overages cost $0.021 per GB. Max file upload size 50 GB.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom.

Bandwidth Costs

• Free Plan: 5 GB included.
• Pro & Team Plans: 250 GB included. Overages cost $0.09 per GB.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom.

Usage-Based Costs

Beyond plan inclusions, several features are billed based on usage, primarily on Pro and Team plans.

Monthly Active Users (MAUs)

• Free Plan: 50,000 MAUs included (also for Third-Party MAUs).
• Pro & Team Plans: 100,000 MAUs included (also for Third-Party MAUs). Overages cost $0.00325 per MAU.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom.
• Total users (registered accounts) are unlimited on all plans.

Realtime Features

• Concurrent Peak Connections:
  • Free Plan: 200 included.
  • Pro & Team Plans: 500 included. Overages cost $10 per 1000 connections.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom concurrent connections and volume discount.
• Messages Per Month:
  • Free Plan: 2 Million included. Max message size 250 KB.
  • Pro & Team Plans: 5 Million included. Overages cost $2.50 per Million messages. Max message size 3 MB.
  • Enterprise Plan: Volume discounts on messages. Custom max message size.

Edge Functions

• Invocations:
  • Free Plan: 500,000 included.
  • Pro & Team Plans: 2 Million included. Overages cost $2 per 1 Million invocations.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom.

Add-on Costs

Supabase offers several add-ons that can enhance functionality but also add to the monthly bill:

• Custom Domain:
  • Pro & Team Plans: $10 per domain per month per project.
  • Enterprise Plan: 1 included, then $10 per domain per month for additional custom domains.
  • Not included in the Free plan.
• Point in Time Recovery (PITR):
  • Pro, Team, & Enterprise Plans: Starts from $100 per month per 7 days retention.
  • Enterprise Plan: Allows >28 days retention.
  • Not included in the Free plan.
• Branching:
  • Pro & Team Plans: $0.32 per branch, per day.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom.
  • Not included in the Free plan.
• Image Transformations:
  • Pro & Team Plans: 100 origin images included. Overages cost $5 per 1000 origin images.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom.
  • Not included in the Free plan.
• Advanced Multi-Factor Auth - Phone:
  • Pro & Team Plans: $75 per month for the first project, then $10 per month per additional project.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom.
  • Not included in the Free plan.
• Single Sign-On (SAML 2.0) for your application users:
  • Pro & Team Plans: 50 users included. Overages cost $0.015 per MAU.
  • Enterprise Plan: Contact Us.
  • Not included in the Free plan.
• Log Drain:
  • Team Plan: $60 per drain per month + $0.20 per million events + $0.09 per GB bandwidth.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom.
  • Not included in Free and Pro plans.
• HIPAA:
  • Team & Enterprise Plans: Available as a paid add-on.
  • Not included in Free and Pro plans.

Cost Control

A significant advantage, especially for the Pro Plan, is the Spend Cap. This is enabled by default, meaning your bill will not exceed the base plan price unless you explicitly disable it. If you need to scale beyond the plan’s included quota, you can switch off the spend cap to pay for additional resources. This offers peace of mind and predictability.

Self-Hosting Supabase

It’s important to note that Supabase is open-source. This means you can self-host Supabase on your own infrastructure. In this scenario, the direct cost from Supabase Labs is $0. However, you will be responsible for all infrastructure costs (servers, databases, storage, bandwidth), as well as the operational overhead of setup, maintenance, scaling, backups, and security. MetaCTO provides comprehensive services for self-hosted Supabase deployments, including infrastructure planning, deployment automation, monitoring setup, and ongoing maintenance.

What goes into integrating Supabase into an app

Integrating Supabase into a mobile or web application involves several key steps, leveraging its core features to build a robust backend. A typical integration might look like this:

1. Project Setup:

   • Creating a new project in the Supabase dashboard.
   • Obtaining your project URL and anon key (public key) for client-side access.

2. Database Schema Design:

   • Defining your data models and creating tables in the PostgreSQL database. Supabase provides a user-friendly table editor, or you can use SQL.
   • Establishing relationships between tables (e.g., foreign keys).
   • Implementing row-level security (RLS) policies to control data access. This is crucial for security.

3. Authentication Implementation:

   • Choosing authentication methods: email/password, magic links, social logins (Google, GitHub, etc.), or phone authentication.
   • Integrating the Supabase Auth library (e.g., supabase-js) into your frontend.
   • Building UI components for sign-up, login, password reset, and logout.
   • Managing user sessions and protecting routes that require authentication.

4. Data Operations (CRUD):

   • Using the Supabase client library to perform Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations on your database tables.
   • Writing queries to fetch specific data, filter, and sort results.
   • Leveraging Supabase’s auto-generated RESTful endpoints if preferred, or using the client library for a more integrated experience. For a mobile app prototype, for instance, one might use the RESTful endpoints automatically generated by Supabase.

5. Real-time Subscriptions:

   • Identifying parts of your application that require real-time updates (e.g., chat messages, live scores, collaborative features).
   • Using the Supabase client library to subscribe to database changes (inserts, updates, deletes) on specific tables or queries.
   • Updating the UI dynamically when new data arrives. For example, a mobile app prototype could use Supabase’s real-time database for live data refreshing.

6. Storage Integration:

   • Creating storage buckets for different types of files (e.g., user avatars, product images).
   • Implementing file upload functionality from your app to Supabase Storage.
   • Setting up access policies for buckets and files.
   • Displaying images and providing download links for stored files.

7. Edge Functions (Serverless Logic):

   • Writing custom backend logic in TypeScript/JavaScript that doesn’t fit neatly into database operations.
   • Deploying these functions to Supabase Edge Functions.
   • Invoking functions from your client application or via webhooks. This could be for tasks like payment processing, sending notifications, or complex data transformations.

8. Client-Side Setup:

   • Installing the supabase-js library (or platform-specific SDKs).
   • Initializing the Supabase client in your application with your project URL and anon key.
   • For mobile apps, particularly with frameworks like Expo, this involves easily connecting to the Supabase backend using built-in fetch and WebSocket capabilities.

A mobile app prototype might utilize Supabase for its backend to handle authentication, store data in its hosted PostgreSQL database, and update information in real-time. The app could use Supabase’s authentication (email, social login, or third-party providers), real-time subscriptions, and data endpoints to make the app dynamic and responsive.

Cost to hire a team to setup, integrate, and support Supabase

The cost of hiring a development agency or a team of freelancers to set up, integrate, and support your Supabase backend can vary significantly based on several factors:

• Scope and Complexity of the Application: A simple app with basic CRUD and authentication will cost less than a complex application with real-time features, intricate business logic in Edge Functions, third-party integrations, and stringent security requirements.
• Experience and Location of the Team: Agencies and developers in North America or Western Europe typically have higher hourly rates than those in other regions. Highly experienced Supabase specialists may also command premium rates.
• Specific Services Required:
  • Initial Setup & Configuration: This includes project creation, database schema design, RLS policies, and basic authentication setup.
  • Full Integration: Developing all backend logic, connecting frontend components, implementing real-time features, storage, and custom functions.
  • Ongoing Support & Maintenance: Monitoring, bug fixes, performance optimization, security updates, and feature enhancements.
  • Data Migration: If migrating from an existing system.
  • Consulting & Architecture: High-level planning and strategy for leveraging Supabase effectively.

While it’s difficult to give a precise number without project specifics, here’s a general idea:

• Small Projects/MVPs: For a relatively simple application or an MVP, integration might take a few weeks to a couple of months. If hiring freelancers, rates can range from $50 to $150+ per hour. An agency might quote a project fee ranging from a few thousand to $20,000-$30,000.
• Medium-Sized Projects: Applications with more features, complex data models, and real-time needs could take 2-6 months. Agency costs could range from $30,000 to $100,000+.
• Large/Enterprise Projects: These involve extensive custom development, high scalability requirements, enterprise integrations, and rigorous security. Such projects can take 6+ months and cost well over $100,000, potentially reaching several hundred thousand dollars.

MetaDesign Solutions, for example, offers cost-effective Supabase development through flexible hiring models, emphasizing competitive pricing and high ROI. They state their services stay within the customer’s budget due to efficient work and cheap hourly rates.

At MetaCTO, we focus on delivering comprehensive Supabase solutions that leverage Supabase’s full capabilities. Our process ensures a successful implementation that meets your business objectives while maximizing performance and scalability.

Why Integrating Supabase into a Mobile App Can Be Hard

While Supabase simplifies many backend tasks, integrating it effectively into a mobile app, especially a complex one, can present challenges:

1. Real-time Synchronization Complexity: Managing real-time data across numerous mobile clients, handling offline scenarios, and ensuring data consistency can be tricky. Optimizing real-time architectures for performance, security, and user experience requires expertise.
2. Robust Authentication Flows: Implementing secure and user-friendly authentication, including social logins, multi-factor authentication, session management, and token refresh logic across different mobile platforms, needs careful attention to detail.
3. Row-Level Security (RLS) Nuances: Correctly defining and testing RLS policies is critical for data security. Misconfigurations can lead to data breaches or users not being able to access their own data. Understanding PostgreSQL’s RLS in depth is key.
4. Offline Support: Mobile apps often require offline capabilities. Synchronizing local data with Supabase once connectivity is restored, handling conflicts, and ensuring a smooth user experience requires a well-thought-out strategy.
5. Scalability and Performance Optimization: As your user base grows, ensuring that your Supabase queries, functions, and real-time subscriptions scale efficiently is crucial. This involves proper indexing, query optimization, and potentially choosing the right compute and disk configurations. MetaCTO has extensive experience implementing scalable Supabase architectures.
6. Platform-Specific SDKs and Native Modules: While supabase-js works well in many JavaScript-based mobile frameworks (like React Native or NativeScript), sometimes deeper integration with native capabilities (iOS/SwiftUI, Android/Kotlin) is needed, which can add complexity.
7. Complex Data Modeling and Migrations: For apps with intricate data relationships, evolving the database schema over time with robust migration strategies (including thorough testing, sequencing changes, and backup strategies) is essential to avoid disrupting production services. MetaCTO’s deep PostgreSQL knowledge is invaluable here.
8. Storage Best Practices: Implementing Supabase storage requires following best practices for bucket organization, optimized file access patterns, metadata management, and efficient upload/download implementations to ensure security, performance, and cost-effectiveness.
9. Choosing the Right Frontend Framework: Selecting the optimal frontend framework for your specific mobile app use case and ensuring clean, efficient integration with the Supabase backend is a critical decision.

How Hiring MetaCTO Can Help

This is where partnering with an experienced mobile app development agency like MetaCTO can be invaluable. We have a proven track record of delivering comprehensive Supabase solutions. Here’s how we can help you effectively integrate Supabase:

• Deep Supabase and PostgreSQL Expertise: We leverage our deep PostgreSQL knowledge to fully utilize Supabase’s powerful database capabilities, including complex queries, stored procedures, advanced data modeling, and optimized RLS policies.
• Scalable Architecture Design: Our Supabase implementations are designed for growth, utilizing Supabase’s scalable infrastructure to ensure your application can handle increasing data volumes and user activity. We have extensive experience implementing scalable Supabase architectures that grow with your business.
• Seamless Frontend Integration: We implement complete Supabase backend solutions with seamless integration to your chosen frontend technologies (be it React Native, SwiftUI, Kotlin, or others), creating cohesive applications that perform flawlessly. We can provide guidance on selecting the optimal frontend framework for your specific use case.
• Best-Practice Security Implementation: We implement Supabase security following best practices, ensuring your application data remains protected while maintaining appropriate access for authenticated users.
• Optimized Real-time Solutions: We can help implement optimal Supabase real-time architectures that balance performance, security, and user experience for your specific application needs.
• Cost Optimization: We can help analyze your application requirements and usage patterns to determine the most cost-effective Supabase configuration, ensuring you get maximum value while maintaining optimal performance and scalability. This includes advising on plan selection, compute sizing, and add-on usage.
• Efficient Migration Strategies: If you’re migrating from another platform (like Firebase, where our clients have leveraged PostgreSQL’s advanced features while maintaining real-time capabilities through our help), we implement a rigorous approach to Supabase database migrations, ensuring a smooth transition.
• Self-Hosting Expertise: For clients considering self-hosting, we provide comprehensive services, including infrastructure planning, deployment automation, monitoring setup, and ongoing maintenance.
• Proven Process: Our proven process ensures a successful Supabase implementation that meets your business objectives. Our implementations are clean, well-documented, and designed to scale beautifully as your user base grows.
• Full Project Lifecycle Support: From initial mobile app strategy and design to development, launch, and ongoing support, we can manage the entire lifecycle of your Supabase-powered application.

With over 20 years of app development experience, more than 120 successful projects, and a 5-star rating on Clutch, we at MetaCTO are well-equipped to handle the complexities of Supabase integration, allowing you to focus on your core business while we ensure your backend is robust, scalable, and secure.

Conclusion

Supabase offers a powerful and flexible platform for building modern applications, with a pricing model designed to accommodate projects of all sizes. Understanding its costs involves looking at the base plan fees, potential overages for resources like MAUs, storage, and bandwidth, as well as the costs of compute instances and optional add-ons. The Free plan is a generous starting point, while the Pro plan provides a good balance for production applications with a helpful spend cap feature. Team and Enterprise plans cater to larger organizations with more demanding requirements.

Integrating Supabase, especially into complex mobile applications, requires careful planning and expertise in areas like real-time data synchronization, security, and scalable architecture. While Supabase simplifies many backend tasks, tackling challenges like offline support, nuanced RLS implementation, and performance optimization benefits significantly from experienced hands.

Hiring a specialized development agency like MetaCTO can de-risk your project and ensure you’re leveraging Supabase to its full potential. We bring deep expertise in Supabase, PostgreSQL, and mobile app development, helping you design scalable architectures, implement secure solutions, and optimize costs. Whether you’re starting a new project, migrating from another platform, or looking to scale your existing Supabase application, our team is ready to assist.

If you’re considering Supabase for your next project or need help optimizing your current implementation, we encourage you to reach out. Talk with a Supabase expert at MetaCTO today to discuss how we can integrate Supabase into your product efficiently and effectively, helping you launch an MVP or scale your application for success. Visit our Supabase technology page or explore our mobile app development services to learn more.