Supabase vs Self-Hosted PostgreSQL

These are not the same product. Supabase is Postgres plus Auth, Storage, and Realtime. Ankik does not use Supabase; we tested self-hosted Supabase for a client Stack Review and for learning. Ankik runs PostgreSQL on the same VM as the app. Starting point in reviews: managed Supabase. Self-hosting the full stack becomes credible only after comparing the VM bill with backups, upgrades, monitoring, incidents, and team time.

Figures below are historical snapshots from our notes, not current vendor rate cards. Supabase Cloud is usage-based and changes. Self-host figures exclude the hours needed to operate the stack.

Self-hosted Supabase on a 2GB VM crashed; 4GB was the floor and 6GB+ was more stable. Cloudflare proxy on the storage hostname broke uploads until we disabled it. Upgrades are manual docker pulls. Self-hosted Postgres on Ankik had a different failure: one OOM restart on a too-small VM, then Uptime Kuma → Telegram alerts. RDS had done daily backups and patches; we now run off-box dumps and a restore drill every 15 days.

Choose Supabase Cloud to ship quickly when nobody owns infrastructure. Evaluate self-hosted Supabase only if managed spend, data-location needs, and a named owner justify the ops tax. Use Firebase if you need mobile SDKs and push out of the box. Self-host Postgres alone if load is modest (our note: roughly under ~10k users and ~20GB, mileage varies), someone has basic Docker competence, and you will run backups and restore drills. Keep RDS or other managed Postgres if no one will own ops, you cannot improvise multi-hour recovery, or you need point-in-time recovery without building it.

Do not treat “self-host Postgres” and “self-host Supabase” as interchangeable. Saving about $20 a month while spending five hours maintaining infrastructure is not a saving at a high founder hourly rate. We say this in Stack Reviews: recommend Cloud when that is the honest call.

Evidence Sources & Reference Slugs