Technology
Supabase
Supabase is Postgres you can see, plus auth and storage. We use it so the prototype is already on the real data layer, and so you keep the keys.
What it is
Supabase is an open-source backend platform built around PostgreSQL: a hosted database, auth, file storage, realtime, edge functions, and a dashboard. It is the closest thing to 'Firebase, but Postgres' that a TypeScript team can actually like. Mozilla and a long list of startups use it as the data layer for a product.
The source of truth is still Postgres. Row Level Security is the access model. The generated APIs are convenience. If you treat it only as a Firebase clone, you will miss the schema, which is the whole point.
What it does
Teams use Supabase to get auth, a database, and storage without standing up each piece. Next.js apps talk to it with a typed client. Realtime is there for lists that have to move. Vector features sit next to the same Postgres.
We keep the project in your org. Migrations in the repo. Policies you can read. We do not keep a studio-owned instance as leverage.
Why we use it
Auth, database, and storage without a lock-in host.
Postgres first. Auth when the product needs accounts. Storage for the files that belong to a row. You click the product. The tables are already the ones we would keep. A tenth page does not need a developer. Keys you can rotate. We leave.
If you cannot open the table, you do not own the product.
Built on it
Mozilla
A public Supabase customer for product and internal tools.
GitHub
Has used Supabase in experimental and internal Next.js work.
PwC
Has been listed among enterprise Supabase adopters.
Humata
An AI product built on Supabase as the application database.
Chatbase
A known AI customer using Supabase for multi-tenant data.
Tell us what needs to ship.
You use a working prototype before the production build goes ahead.