head to head · open source
Supabase vs mailcatcher
Supabase has 114,540 GitHub stars, 15,765 forks, 1,128 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mailcatcher has 6,784 stars, 605 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Supabase leads on adoption by 1,588% (114,540 vs 6,784 stars). Supabase is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; mailcatcher is written in Ruby under MIT. Supabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, mailcatcher 9%. Supabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Supabase | mailcatcher | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 115K | ★ 6.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 605 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Supabase if
- You weight community size — 115K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mailcatcher if
- You want the mailcatcher feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and mailcatcher fits your workflow better
About Supabase
Supabase Supabase is the Postgres development platform. We're building the features of Firebase using enterprise grade open source tools. [x] Hosted Postgres Database. Docs [x] Authentication and Authorization. Docs [x] Auto generated APIs. [x] REST. Docs [x] GraphQL. Docs [x] Realtime subscriptions. Docs [x] Functions. [x] Database Functions. Docs [x] Edge Functions Docs [x] File Storage. Docs [x] AI + Vector/Embeddings Toolkit. Docs [x] Dashboard Watch "releases" of this repo to get notified of major updates. Documentation For full documentation, visit supabase.com/docs To see how to Contribute, visit Getting…
read the full Supabase overview →
About mailcatcher
MailCatcher Catches mail and serves it through a dream. MailCatcher runs a super simple SMTP server which catches any message sent to it to display in a web interface. Run mailcatcher, set your favourite app to deliver to smtp://127.0.0.1:1025 instead of your default SMTP server, then check out to see the mail that's arrived so far. Features Catches all mail and stores it for display. Shows HTML, Plain Text and Source version of messages, as applicable. Rewrites HTML enabling display of embedded, inline images/etc and opens links in a new window. Lists attachments and allows separate downloading of parts…
read the full mailcatcher overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Supabase or mailcatcher more popular?
Supabase has 114,540 GitHub stars and mailcatcher has 6,784. Supabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Supabase and mailcatcher free?
Both are open source. Supabase is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mailcatcher under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Supabase and mailcatcher?
Supabase is written in TypeScript and mailcatcher in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Supabase or mailcatcher?
Choose Supabase if you want the larger community (114,540 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mailcatcher if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.