Is Supabase Actually a Database?

Is Supabase Actually a Database? Sorting Out Supabase, Firebase, Appwrite, PocketBase, and Neon
For a good chunk of my early days learning backend stuff, I genuinely believed Supabase, Firebase, and Appwrite were databases. Just straight up databases, no different from PostgreSQL or MongoDB in my head.

And honestly, the way tutorials talk about them didn't help at all. One video would tell you to just use Supabase and move on. The next would swear by Firebase instead. Then someone else would come along and say skip all of that, just learn PostgreSQL properly.

At some point I genuinely lost track of what I was even picking between. Was I choosing a database? A backend? Some kind of hosting service? Honestly I couldn't tell you at the time.

If that confusion sounds familiar, this should clear most of it up.

The one thing you need to get straight first

A database and a backend platform are not the same thing, and mixing them up is where basically all the confusion starts.

Think about building a house for a second. You need bricks, sure, but you also need wiring, plumbing, security systems, furniture, all of it. The bricks are just one piece of a much bigger picture.

A database works the same way inside your backend. It's just one piece of the whole thing. Modern platforms tend to bundle a bunch of backend services together under one roof, and that's exactly why people end up mistaking the whole platform for just the database part.

So what does a database actually do

A database really only has one job, and it's not glamorous. It stores your data. That's the entire job description.

Take PostgreSQL for example. It stores things in tables.

Users

It genuinely doesn't care what you're building on top of it, whether that's an online store, a social app, or some banking system. Its only concern is storing and pulling back data when asked.

Okay, so what is Supabase then

Here's the thing people keep getting wrong. Supabase is not a database.

Supabase is a backend platform, and one of the things it happens to include is a PostgreSQL database.

Picture it more like this.

Supabase

├── PostgreSQL Database
├── Authentication
├── File Storage
├── Realtime Engine
├── Edge Functions
├── Dashboard
└── APIs

See how the database is just one item in that list, not the whole thing. Supabase basically hands you a bunch of backend pieces that are already wired together, so instead of setting up each one separately, you get a working backend pretty much out of the box.

What if you skip Supabase entirely

Nothing's actually stopping you from building this exact same setup yourself, piece by piece.

Express

├── PostgreSQL
├── JWT Authentication
├── AWS S3 Storage
├── Socket.IO
├── REST API
└── Docker Deployment

You get total control doing it this way, no argument there. But you're also signing up for a lot more setup work, and honestly a lot more things that can go wrong along the way.

And Firebase

Firebase is also a backend platform, but it's built around a different core. Instead of PostgreSQL, its main database is Firestore, which is a document database, meaning your data lives as documents rather than rows in a table.

Firebase brings along its own bundle of services too.

Firebase

├── Firestore
├── Authentication
├── Cloud Functions
├── Cloud Storage
├── Analytics
├── Hosting
└── Push Notifications

If you've ever built an Android app, you've probably had Firebase suggested to you constantly, and that's mostly because Google has baked it so deeply into its mobile ecosystem.

So is Firebase actually better than Supabase

There's no clean answer here, and honestly anyone who gives you one confidently is probably oversimplifying. They're just solving different problems.

Supabase makes a lot of sense if you're comfortable with PostgreSQL and SQL in general. Firebase makes more sense if your app genuinely benefits from Firestore's structure or from being deep in Google's ecosystem. Which one wins really comes down to what you're building, not which platform is objectively superior.

Where does Appwrite fit in

Appwrite is chasing a pretty similar goal to Supabase. It gives you authentication, a database, file storage, functions, messaging, the usual suite.

What sets it apart is that it's really built with self hosting in mind from the start. If the idea of running your own backend infrastructure instead of leaning on someone else's managed cloud appeals to you, Appwrite is worth a proper look.

And PocketBase

PocketBase is a much smaller, lighter animal compared to Supabase or Firebase. Under the hood it's running on SQLite, which is itself a relational SQL database, and it pairs that with the handy stuff like auth and file storage.

Its whole setup is refreshingly simple.

PocketBase

├── SQLite
├── Authentication
├── File Storage
└── Dashboard

Because it's so lightweight, PocketBase has become a favorite for quick prototypes, demos, and smaller side projects. It's just not usually what people reach for when they're building something that needs to scale up seriously.

Then what exactly is Neon

Compared to everything above, Neon is honestly refreshingly simple to explain. Neon is basically managed PostgreSQL. That's genuinely it, nothing more hidden underneath.

So if someone tells you they're using Neon, all that really means is their PostgreSQL database is being hosted and managed by Neon. There's no built in auth system, no storage service, no bundled backend platform sitting alongside it. Just the database.

Application

↓

Neon

↓

PostgreSQL

That's exactly why a lot of developers pair Neon with something else on top, like Prisma, Drizzle, Clerk, Better Auth, or their own setup on AWS.

Laying them all out side by side

Look closely and the pattern is obvious. Neon is the only one that's really just about hosting the database itself. Everyone else on that list gives you a whole backend ecosystem wrapped around one.

So which one should a beginner actually go with

Don't pick based on whatever's trending on YouTube this month, that's honestly how a lot of people end up confused in the first place. Pick based on what you're actually trying to learn.

If you want to genuinely understand relational databases, plain PostgreSQL is a solid starting point. If you want authentication, storage, and a dashboard without burning days configuring everything yourself, Supabase is a great pick. If you're building mobile apps and want tight integration with Google's ecosystem, Firebase is the logical choice. If you're just messing around with side projects or prototypes, PocketBase is genuinely convenient. And if owning your own infrastructure matters to you, Appwrite is worth exploring properly.

The mistake almost everyone makes early on

A lot of people end up comparing PostgreSQL directly with Supabase, and honestly that comparison just doesn't hold up. It's a bit like comparing an engine to an entire car.

The comparisons that actually make sense look more like this. PostgreSQL against Firestore. Or Supabase against Firebase. One of those is a database versus database comparison, the other is a platform versus platform comparison. Once that distinction clicks, a huge chunk of the confusion just disappears on its own.

Wrapping up

Whenever some new backend tool crosses your radar, there's really just one question worth asking before anything else. Is this actually a database, or is it a platform built around one?

That single question quietly untangles most backend architecture confusion. Once you know exactly what each piece of the puzzle is actually responsible for, choosing between tools stops feeling like a random guessing game and starts feeling a lot more deliberate.

Next time, I want to go one level up from the database itself and tackle another question beginners run into constantly, what exactly is an ORM, and why do people reach for tools like Prisma or Drizzle instead of just writing raw SQL themselves?