Supabase vs Rest Api
Hi everyone,
I'm new to Supabase and I have a few questions before deciding whether to skip building a custom backend and rely on Supabase instead:
How secure is Supabase from a production standpoint?
How well does Supabase scale with growing user activity?
If needed, can I later replace Supabase with my own REST API and still use the same PostgreSQL database?
How easy is it to migrate both the database and the users from Supabase to another system if needed?
When is it better to use Supabase versus building a custom REST API from the start?
I've just finished building the frontend for my MVP and I'm aiming to launch as quickly as possible. The app is similar to Tinder in concept, so my main concern is whether Supabase can handle real-time user growth and scaling if traction picks up.
Thanks in advance for your insights!
6 Replies
Subase is good as a backend/database.
what type of project do you develop?
Yeah as @Mr.Traveller already said. It is an good backend system. But will try to give you my anaylyse as we went trough almost the same questions:
1. Secure: Supabase offers enterprise-grade security comparable to managed services, provided you implement best practices like RLS, key safety, and access policies.
2. Scale: Checkout the benchmark: https://supabase.com/docs/guides/realtime/benchmarks Not sure what you are trying to build but in our case it was more then enough.
3. Direct PostgreSQL connection: Yeah you can connect directly to PostgreSQL. See this documentation about ORM's: https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/connecting-to-postgres
4. Migration: So Supabase is PostgreSQL in the base, so everything is saved in Postgress and accessable. Like the users are in the auth schema in the users table. See this Github discussion for an full answer: https://github.com/orgs/supabase/discussions/3897
5. When using Supabase: So this answer is mainly based on my own opinion. But I think you should always start with Supabase and then go from their. Because you get speed-to-market with production-ready features and backed by Postgres, start with Supabase. We even manage to do some complex business logic with Supabase Functions so that we don't need an custom API for it. But if you require a non-SQL database from day one, or maybe connect a lot of systems together then a custom API may be more appropriate.
For launching your MVP fast with built-in auth, real-time features, and database control, Supabase is a great fit. Just be mindful of:
- Implementing RLS and security best practices.
- Optimizing schema and queries for scale.
- Having a migration strategy for both data and auth in case you outgrow managed services.
If traction picks up, you’re not locked in—you can scale within Supabase and, down the road, swap in custom APIs without rearchitecting your database.
Hope this helps!
Benchmarks | Supabase Docs
Scalability Benchmarks for Supabase Realtime.
Connect to your database | Supabase Docs
Connect to Postgres from your frontend, backend, or serverless environment
GitHub
Export Users and passwords · supabase · Discussion #3897
If we ever need to migrate away from Superbase will it be possible to export users with the hashed passwords so they could be reimported to another platform? See link below for an example: https://...
Thanks man, thanks for your time, Yeah I've already start with it and I'm almost done with the Beta.
My app is about to find the right Roommate, room or entire place, it will be Swipe like a Tinder
nice project.
If you want to test it, I can add link the the group once I'm done 🙂
haha, thanks. Are you a developer?
is this your personal project? If you need a dev for your project, I can help u