Supabase vs Convex 2026: Which Backend Platform Should You Choose?

January 16, 2026 10 min read

So you're building something new. You've got your React app or Next.js project, and now you need a backend. But here's where it gets messy... do you go with Supabase, the open-source PostgreSQL powerhouse that everyone's talking about? Or Convex, the TypeScript-first reactive database that promises to make real-time features actually work?

I've spent the last few months digging into both platforms (building real projects, not just reading docs), and honestly? The answer isn't as straightforward as "use this one." It depends on what you're building and how you think about databases.

Let me walk you through this.

What You're Actually Choosing Between

First, let's get something straight. These aren't just "backend platforms" or "Firebase alternatives." They're fundamentally different approaches to how your app talks to data.

Supabase is basically PostgreSQL with superpowers. You get a real relational database, instant REST and GraphQL APIs, auth that actually works, file storage, and edge functions. It's open source (Apache 2.0), you can self-host it, and you're writing SQL. If you've worked with databases before, this feels familiar.

Convex is... different. It's a reactive database where your queries are just TypeScript functions. No SQL. No ORMs. Your database queries live right next to your frontend code, and everything updates in real-time automatically. It's newer (started in 2022 vs Supabase in 2020), and it's rethinking how backends should work.

Here's what shocked me: Convex went open source in February 2025. That was the big concern people had... vendor lock-in. Now you can self-host it with PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite.

The Real-Time Story (This Is Where It Gets Interesting)

You know how Firebase made real-time easy but your data model ended up a mess? Both platforms handle this differently.

Supabase's Approach

Supabase uses PostgreSQL's Write-Ahead Log (WAL) for real-time. You subscribe to database changes, and when rows get inserted, updated, or deleted, you get notified. It works... but here's the thing.

You're watching database transactions, not queries. That means for complex filtered queries, you need to set things up carefully. If you want to show "all messages from users in this workspace where the status is active," you're going to write some careful subscription logic.

Here's what that looks like:

const supabase = createClient(url, key)

// Subscribe to changes
const channel = supabase
  .channel('messages')
  .on(
    'postgres_changes',
    {
      event: '*',
      schema: 'public',
      table: 'messages',
      filter: 'workspace_id=eq.123'
    },
    (payload) => {
      console.log('Change received!', payload)
    }
  )
  .subscribe()

// Query your data
const { data, error } = await supabase
  .from('messages')
  .select('*')
  .eq('workspace_id', 123)
  .eq('status', 'active')

It's powerful. You get PostgreSQL's reliability. But you're managing two things: your query and your subscription.

Convex's Approach

With Convex, real-time isn't something you add. It's just... how it works. You write a query function, your component subscribes to it, and when any data that query depends on changes, your component reruns automatically.

Here's the same thing in Convex:

import { query } from "./_generated/server";
import { v } from "convex/values";

export const getActiveMessages = query({
  args: { workspaceId: v.string() },
  handler: async (ctx, args) => {
    return await ctx.db
      .query("messages")
      .filter((q) =>
        q.and(
          q.eq(q.field("workspaceId"), args.workspaceId),
          q.eq(q.field("status"), "active")
        )
      )
      .collect();
  },
});

// In your React component
import { useQuery } from "convex/react";
import { api } from "../convex/_generated/api";

function MessageList() {
  const messages = useQuery(
    api.messages.getActiveMessages,
    { workspaceId: "123" }
  );

  // That's it. Updates automatically.
  return <div>{messages?.map(m => ...)}</div>
}

You write the query once. Real-time happens automatically. No separate subscription setup.

The catch? You're learning Convex's query syntax instead of SQL. For some people, that's a dealbreaker. For others (especially TypeScript developers), it's liberating.

The Database Philosophy Difference

This is where you need to think about how you actually build things.

Supabase = SQL All The Way

With Supabase, you're working with PostgreSQL. That means:

You write migrations with SQL
You use Row Level Security (RLS) policies for auth
Complex business logic often lives in database functions or triggers
You can connect pgAdmin or any PostgreSQL tool

Here's a typical Supabase mutation:

// Insert a new message
const { data, error } = await supabase
  .from('messages')
  .insert([
    {
      user_id: userId,
      body: messageText,
      channel_id: channelId
    }
  ])
  .select()

// Update existing data
const { data, error } = await supabase
  .from('messages')
  .update({ read: true })
  .eq('user_id', userId)

You're calling database operations. It's explicit, you know exactly what's happening.

Convex = TypeScript Functions as Your Database Interface

Convex flips this. Your database operations are TypeScript functions that run on the server:

import { mutation } from "./_generated/server";
import { v } from "convex/values";

export const sendMessage = mutation({
  args: {
    body: v.string(),
    channelId: v.id("channels")
  },
  handler: async (ctx, args) => {
    const user = await ctx.auth.getUserIdentity();
    if (!user) throw new Error("Not authenticated");

    const messageId = await ctx.db.insert("messages", {
      userId: user.subject,
      body: args.body,
      channelId: args.channelId,
      createdAt: Date.now()
    });

    return messageId;
  },
});

// In your component
import { useMutation } from "convex/react";

const sendMessage = useMutation(api.messages.sendMessage);

await sendMessage({
  body: "Hello world",
  channelId: selectedChannel
});

Everything's type-safe. Your IDE autocompletes. If you change your schema, TypeScript yells at you before you deploy.

Pricing: The Real Numbers

Let's talk money, because this matters.

Supabase Pricing (2026)

Free tier:

500 MB database storage
50,000 monthly active users (MAUs)
1 GB file storage
Projects pause after 7 days inactivity (this is the killer)

Pro: $25/month

8 GB database storage
100,000 MAUs
100 GB file storage
50 GB database egress
No auto-pause
Email support

What you'll actually pay: Most production apps hit $35-75/month once you factor in overage fees. The big cost drivers:

Additional MAUs: $0.00325 per user over limit
Database egress: $0.09 per GB over 50 GB
Storage: scales with your data

If you hit 500,000 MAUs, you're paying $1,300/month just for auth. That's... significant.

Convex Pricing (2026)

Free tier:

1 million function calls/month
0.5 GB database storage
1 GB file storage
No auto-pause on inactivity

Professional: $25/developer/month

25 million function calls/month
50 GB database storage
100 GB file storage
Better performance (256+ concurrent queries vs 16)

What you'll actually pay: For a small team (3 devs) on Professional, you're at $75/month base. Then you pay for overages:

Function calls: $2 per million over limit
Database bandwidth: $0.20 per GB
Action compute: $0.30 per GB-hour

The function call pricing is interesting. If you're building a highly interactive real-time app (like a collaborative editor), those calls can add up. But for typical CRUD apps, you'll stay well within limits.

Startup program note: Convex offers startups up to 1 year free Professional tier with 30% off usage fees up to $30k. That's actually pretty generous.

When Supabase Makes Sense

You should probably go with Supabase if:

You know SQL and like SQL. If you're comfortable with databases, you'll be productive immediately. No new mental model to learn.

You need zero vendor lock-in. Supabase is fully open source. You can export your PostgreSQL database and move anywhere. That's powerful peace of mind.

You're building traditional CRUD apps. If real-time is a "nice to have" rather than core to your product, Supabase gives you PostgreSQL's power without the complexity.

You need complex relational queries. Joins, aggregations, window functions... PostgreSQL does this stuff beautifully. If your app has complex reporting or analytics, SQL shines.

You want the industry standard. PostgreSQL has been battle-tested for decades. Hiring developers who know it is easy. Your company's DBA can help if needed.

I built a project management tool on Supabase and it was great. The RLS policies let me handle complex permissions ("users can see projects in their workspace unless they're archived and they're not an admin"), and writing raw SQL for complex dashboard queries felt natural.

When Convex Makes Sense

You should probably go with Convex if:

You're building something highly interactive. Collaborative tools, chat apps, multiplayer games, real-time dashboards... anything where instant updates are the core experience. Convex handles this effortlessly.

You love TypeScript and want full type safety. From your schema to your queries to your React components, everything is typed. You catch errors before deployment, not in production.

You want to move fast. No database migrations to manage. No ORM to fight with. Schema changes are just code changes. Deploy and go.

You're a small team. With 1-3 developers, you don't need to manage database infrastructure. Convex handles scaling, caching, optimization... you just write functions.

You hate managing state. Convex eliminates so much boilerplate. No Redux, no cache invalidation, no websocket setup. Your UI is always in sync with your database.

I rebuilt a real-time collaboration tool from Supabase to Convex, and the code reduction was wild. What was 800 lines of state management and subscription logic became 200 lines of clean TypeScript functions.

The Migration Question

Here's something nobody talks about: can you switch later?

Moving off Supabase: Easier. It's PostgreSQL. You can dump your database and import it anywhere. Your SQL knowledge transfers. The auth might need reimplementation, but your data model stays intact.

Moving off Convex: Harder. You're moving from a document database to SQL. You'd need to write scripts to transform your data structure. Your TypeScript queries become SQL queries. It's doable but not trivial.

That said, with both platforms now being self-hostable open source, the risk is lower than it used to be.

The Syntax Comparison (Because You Want To See Code)

Let's build the same feature in both platforms.

Goal: Create a todo, mark it complete, list all incomplete todos.

Supabase Version

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'

const supabase = createClient(url, key)

// Create a todo
async function createTodo(text) {
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from('todos')
    .insert([{ text, completed: false }])
    .select()

  return data
}

// Mark complete
async function completeTodo(id) {
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from('todos')
    .update({ completed: true })
    .eq('id', id)
    .select()

  return data
}

// List incomplete todos
async function getIncompleteTodos() {
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from('todos')
    .select('*')
    .eq('completed', false)
    .order('created_at', { ascending: false })

  return data
}

// Real-time subscription
const channel = supabase
  .channel('todos-changes')
  .on('postgres_changes',
    { event: '*', schema: 'public', table: 'todos' },
    (payload) => {
      // Handle the change
      refetchTodos()
    }
  )
  .subscribe()

Convex Version

import { mutation, query } from "./_generated/server";
import { v } from "convex/values";

// Define schema
export const schema = {
  todos: defineTable({
    text: v.string(),
    completed: v.boolean(),
  }).index("by_completed", ["completed"])
}

// Create a todo
export const create = mutation({
  args: { text: v.string() },
  handler: async (ctx, args) => {
    return await ctx.db.insert("todos", {
      text: args.text,
      completed: false
    });
  },
});

// Mark complete
export const complete = mutation({
  args: { id: v.id("todos") },
  handler: async (ctx, args) => {
    await ctx.db.patch(args.id, { completed: true });
  },
});

// List incomplete todos (automatically real-time)
export const listIncomplete = query({
  args: {},
  handler: async (ctx) => {
    return await ctx.db
      .query("todos")
      .withIndex("by_completed", (q) =>
        q.eq("completed", false)
      )
      .order("desc")
      .collect();
  },
});

// In your React component
import { useQuery, useMutation } from "convex/react";
import { api } from "../convex/_generated/api";

function TodoList() {
  // Automatically subscribes and updates in real-time
  const todos = useQuery(api.todos.listIncomplete);
  const createTodo = useMutation(api.todos.create);
  const completeTodo = useMutation(api.todos.complete);

  return (
    <div>
      {todos?.map(todo => (
        <div key={todo._id}>
          {todo.text}
          <button onClick={() => completeTodo({ id: todo._id })}>
            Complete
          </button>
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Notice the difference? With Supabase, you're making explicit database calls. With Convex, you're calling TypeScript functions that happen to run on the server.

Performance and Scale

Let's be honest about what happens when things get big.

Supabase leverages PostgreSQL's decades of optimization. It handles large analytics queries efficiently. But under heavy real-time load (5,000+ concurrent connections), you might see 100-200ms p99 latencies. That's still good, but not instant.

The win? You can scale PostgreSQL however you want. Read replicas, connection pooling, custom indexes... all the PostgreSQL tooling works.

Convex can sustain sub-50ms read/write latency even at 5,000 concurrent connections. That's wild for real-time features. The reactive sync is fast.

The catch? You're limited to what Convex optimizes for. You can't drop into raw PostgreSQL optimization tricks.

For most apps (under 100,000 users), both platforms will feel instant. At scale, your specific use case determines which architecture fits better.

What Developers Actually Say

I spent time in both Discord communities. Here's what I learned:

Supabase community feedback:

"Documentation is incredible, solved 90% of issues just reading docs"
"RLS policies are powerful but can get complex"
"Love that it's just PostgreSQL underneath"
"Realtime works but setup for complex queries takes thought"

Convex community feedback:

"Developer experience is fantastic, convention over configuration nailed"
"Real-time just works, don't have to think about it"
"TypeScript integration is magical"
"Wish there was broader language support beyond TypeScript/JavaScript"

Both communities are active and helpful. Supabase has 96,000+ GitHub stars vs Convex's 9,000+, but that's partly because Supabase has been around longer.

My Honest Take

After building with both, here's what I'd do:

Use Supabase for:

E-commerce sites
SaaS apps with complex business logic
Projects where you need PostgreSQL specifically
Teams with database expertise
When you absolutely need self-hosting control

Use Convex for:

Collaborative tools (docs, whiteboards, project management)
Chat applications
Real-time dashboards
Multiplayer experiences
MVP sprint where you need to move fast
When your team is TypeScript-first

The truth is, both platforms are excellent in 2026. The question isn't "which is better" but "which matches how you think about building apps."

Do you think in terms of databases, tables, and SQL? Supabase feels natural.

Do you think in terms of functions, types, and reactive updates? Convex feels natural.

Decision Framework

Ask yourself these questions:

Is real-time a core feature or a nice-to-have? Core → lean Convex. Nice-to-have → either works.
Do you know SQL well? If yes and you like it → Supabase gives you superpowers. If you'd rather avoid it → Convex.
How big is your team? Solo/small (1-3) → Convex reduces infrastructure headaches. Larger teams → Supabase's familiarity might matter.
How complex is your data model? Tons of complex joins and relations → PostgreSQL shines. Simpler document-style → Convex is cleaner.
What's your exit strategy? Need to self-host eventually → both work now, but Supabase migration is simpler.

What I'd Do Today

If I was starting a new project right now?

For a SaaS product where I'm charging money and need complex permissions and billing logic, I'd use Supabase. The PostgreSQL foundation gives me confidence I won't hit weird limitations.

For a collaborative tool or anything where real-time is the main feature, I'd use Convex without hesitation. The development speed and built-in reactivity are too good to pass up.

For an MVP where I'm not sure what I'm building yet, I'd probably start with Convex because I can iterate faster. The risk of having to migrate later is real but manageable.

The best part? Both platforms have generous free tiers. Build a small prototype in both and see which one clicks for you. Your gut feel after writing real code matters more than any comparison article.

Now go build something.

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