Supabase: The Open-Source Postgres Development Platform

TL;DR: supabase/supabase is the open-source repository for the Supabase platform: a Postgres development stack with auth, realtime, storage, and AI features. Apache-2.0, TypeScript, 109,759 stars.

What it is

supabase/supabase describes itself as “The Postgres development platform. Supabase gives you a dedicated Postgres database to build your web, mobile, and AI applications.” The repo lives under the supabase organisation, the language is TypeScript, the license is Apache-2.0, and the repository has 109,759 stars and 14,046 forks. It is not archived.

Topics span the breadth of the platform: ai, alternative, auth, database, deno, embeddings, example, firebase, nextjs, oauth2, pgvector, postgis, postgres, postgresql, postgrest, realtime, supabase, vectors, websockets. The homepage is https://supabase.com.

What it does well

The Supabase platform packages a set of pieces that each have a strong open-source lineage behind them.

• Postgres core. The platform is a thin wrapper around Postgres, which is the part you would not want to replace in production.
• Auth. OAuth2, email, and SSO providers wired against the same database, so user data does not live in a separate identity store.
• Realtime. WebSocket-based change feeds over the same database tables, useful for collaborative UIs and dashboards.
• AI-ready. Native pgvector support plus embeddings helpers, which is the path most teams now take when they need retrieval-augmented generation against their application data.
• Self-hostable. Because the entire stack is open source, teams that need to keep data on their own infrastructure can run Supabase themselves rather than depending on the hosted service.

How to try it

For a hosted quick start, https://supabase.com walks you through project creation; for a self-hosted install:

git clone https://github.com/supabase/supabase.git
cd supabase/docker
# follow the repo's docker compose instructions for a local stack

Either path gives you a Postgres database, an auth endpoint, and a realtime channel within minutes.

When it fits, and when it doesn’t

Supabase fits teams that want a Postgres-first backend with auth, realtime, and AI features bundled in, especially when self-hosting matters. It is less attractive if you need exotic Postgres extensions that the platform does not expose, or if your data is so specialised that a hosted cloud database already meets your needs.

The 109k star count plus Apache-2.0 places Supabase firmly in the established tier of open-source BaaS projects.

Source and Accuracy Notes

• Project page: https://github.com/supabase/supabase
• Source repository: supabase/supabase (verified via GitHub API html_url)
• License: Apache-2.0 (verified via GitHub API license.spdx_id)
• Stars at time of writing: 109,759
• Language: TypeScript
• Homepage: https://supabase.com
• Topics: ai, alternative, auth, database, deno, embeddings, example, firebase, nextjs, oauth2, pgvector, postgis, postgres, postgresql, postgrest, realtime, supabase, vectors, websockets