head to head · open source
Supabase vs postgres
Supabase has 114,446 GitHub stars, 15,770 forks, 1,128 open issues and last shipped yesterday. postgres has 8,745 stars, 402 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Supabase leads on adoption by 1,209% (114,446 vs 8,745 stars). Supabase is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; postgres is written in JavaScript under Unlicense. Supabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, postgres 5%. Supabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, deno), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 114K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 402 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Supabase if
- You weight community size — 114K 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 postgres if
- You want the postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postgres 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 postgres
🚀 Fastest full featured node & deno client 🏷 ES6 Tagged Template Strings at the core 🏄♀️ Simple surface API 🖊️ Dynamic query support 💬 Chat and help on Gitter 🐦 Follow on Twitter Getting started Installation Usage Create your sql database instance Simply import for use elsewhere ESM dynamic imports The library can be used with ESM dynamic imports as well as shown here. Table of Contents Connection Queries Building queries Advanced query methods Transactions Data Transformation Listen & notify Realtime subscribe Numbers, bigint, numeric Result Array Connection details Custom Types Teardown / Cleanup Error…
read the full postgres overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Supabase or postgres more popular?
Supabase has 114,446 GitHub stars and postgres has 8,745. Supabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Supabase and postgres free?
Both are open source. Supabase is licensed under Apache-2.0 and postgres under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Supabase and postgres?
Supabase is written in TypeScript and postgres in JavaScript. 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 postgres?
Choose Supabase if you want the larger community (114,446 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose postgres if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.