Prisma vs Supabase
Next-gen ORM + serverless data platform (Postgres + Accelerate + Pulse)
vs. The open source Firebase alternative with Postgres
Pricing tiers
Prisma
Prisma ORM (OSS)
$0. Apache-2.0. Unlimited self-hosted use with your own DB.
$0 base (usage-based)
Prisma Postgres — Free
$0. 100K queries/mo. 1GB storage. 3 DBs. Good for hobby/prototyping.
Free
Starter
$29/mo. 1M queries/mo. 10GB storage. Accelerate + Pulse included.
$29/mo
Pro
$99/mo. 5M queries/mo. 50GB storage. Priority + SLA.
$99/mo
Enterprise
Custom. HIPAA, SSO, dedicated, self-hosted Accelerate.
Custom
Supabase
Free
Perfect for experiments. Projects pause after 7 days inactivity.
Free
Pro
Production-ready. Usage-based overages apply.
$25/mo
Team
For teams; includes SOC2 attestation and priority support.
$599/mo
Enterprise
Custom quotas, HIPAA compliance, dedicated support.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing starter on Prisma vs free on Supabase.
| Metric | Prisma | Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| bandwidth gb | — | 5 GB/month |
| db storage gb | — | 0.5 GB |
| edge invocations | — | 500000 invocations/month |
| file storage gb | — | 1 GB |
| mau | — | 50000 users/month |
| realtime messages | — | 2000000 messages/month |
Features
Prisma · 13 features
- Client Extensions — Extend the client with middleware.
- Edge Runtime — Runs on Vercel/CF edge via Accelerate.
- End-to-end Type Safety — Types flow from schema to client.
- Prisma Accelerate — Global connection pool + query cache.
- Prisma Migrate — Schema migrations.
- Prisma Optimize — AI-driven query recommendations.
- Prisma ORM — OSS ORM for Node/TS.
- Prisma Postgres — Serverless Postgres built on Accelerate.
- Prisma Pulse — Database CDC streaming.
- Prisma Studio — GUI to browse + edit DB.
- Raw SQL + typedSql — Escape hatch for raw queries with types.
- Relation Querying — Nested include / select.
- Zero Cold Start Pool — Accelerate keeps a warm pool for serverless.
Supabase · 24 features
- Authentication — Complete JWT-based auth: passwords, magic links, OTP, OAuth, SSO, phone, MFA.
- Backups & PITR — Automatic daily backups + Point-in-Time Recovery (WAL-G). 14-day default PITR wi…
- Compute Instances — Upgradeable DB compute: Micro, Small, Medium, Large. Affects CPU, RAM, and conne…
- Connection Pooling — Supavisor pooler: Session mode (persistent) and Transaction mode (serverless). D…
- Cron Jobs — Scheduled recurring jobs via pg_cron. Trigger DB functions, edge functions, or H…
- Custom Domains — Configure custom hostname for API endpoints with SSL certificate management.
- Database Webhooks — Async HTTP callbacks on INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE via pg_net extension.
- Edge Functions — TypeScript (Deno runtime) functions deployed globally at the edge. Supports secr…
- Full-Text Search — PostgreSQL native FTS: to_tsvector, to_tsquery, GIN indexes, fuzzy matching, wei…
- Image Transformations — On-the-fly resize, crop, quality (20-100), WebP auto-format. Smart CDN caching. …
- Log Drains — Route all stack logs to HTTP, Datadog, Loki, Sentry, S3, OTLP, or Axiom. Up to 2…
- Metrics API — ~200 Prometheus-compatible Postgres metrics. OpenTelemetry export to Datadog, Gr…
- Network Restrictions — CIDR allowlist for database access. Multiple IP ranges supported. Pro+ plan.
- OAuth 2.1 Server — Use Supabase Auth as OAuth provider. Custom Access Token Hooks for claim injecti…
- pgvector — Store and search vector embeddings in Postgres. Supports HNSW/Flat indexes, cosi…
- PostgreSQL Database — Full PostgreSQL per project: SQL editor, table editor, CSV import, 50+ extension…
- PostgreSQL Extensions — 50+ pre-installed extensions: uuid-ossp, pgvector, pg_cron, plv8, pgtap, pg_net,…
- Preview Branches — Ephemeral or persistent DB branches for isolated testing. Git integration, auto-…
- Queues — Exactly-once message queues built on pgmq. Stored in Postgres with configurable …
- Read Replicas — Async read-only replicas in multiple regions. Geo-routing, replication lag monit…
- Realtime — WebSocket subscriptions for DB changes (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE), broadcast, and pr…
- Row Level Security — SQL-native access control; policies auto-filter rows based on auth.uid() / auth.…
- SSL Enforcement — Require TLS for all DB connections. Configurable: required, preferred, disabled.
- Storage — Files, Analytics (Iceberg), and Vector buckets with global CDN (285+ cities) and…
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Prisma | Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | prisma CLI | Supabase CLI |
| SDK | @prisma/client | C# SDK, Flutter SDK, JavaScript SDK, Kotlin SDK, Python SDK, Swift SDK |
| REST | — | Management API, REST API (PostgREST) |
| GRAPHQL | — | GraphQL (pg_graphql) |
| MCP | — | Supabase MCP Server |
| OTHER | Prisma Accelerate, Prisma Data Platform, Prisma Optimize, Prisma Postgres, Prisma Pulse (CDC) | Realtime (WebSocket) |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Prisma and Supabase are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.