Supabase trends on GitHub as open-source Firebase alternative built on Postgres

Supabase is an open-source development platform that provides hosted PostgreSQL databases with Firebase-like features. It combines multiple enterprise-grade tools including PostgREST for REST APIs, GoTrue for JWT authentication, Realtime for websocket subscriptions, and pg_graphql for GraphQL support. The project offers both hosted and self-hosted deployment options, with official client libraries for JavaScript/TypeScript, Flutter, Swift, and Python, plus community libraries for C#, Go, Kotlin, and others.

Architecture and components

• Core database: PostgreSQL with 30+ years of active development as the object-relational foundation
• PostgREST: Web server that exposes PostgreSQL directly as a RESTful API
• GoTrue: JWT-based authentication API for user management and sessions
• Realtime: Elixir server using PostgreSQL replication to broadcast database changes as JSON over websockets
• Storage: RESTful API for S3 file management with Postgres-backed permissions
• pg_graphql: PostgreSQL extension providing native GraphQL API
• Envoy: Cloud-native edge and service proxy
• Deployment: Fully hosted platform with local development and self-host options

Why it matters

Supabase provides a fully open-source alternative to Google's Firebase, reducing vendor lock-in while leveraging PostgreSQL's reliability and ecosystem. Its modular client library approach and multi-language support make it accessible across web, mobile, and game development stacks.