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Amazon RDS vs Supabase

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Amazon RDS and Supabase built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 22 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Amazon RDS if…

Teams already inside AWS, where the database sitting in the same VPC as everything else is worth more than any single feature on this page. Six engines, up to 35 days of point-in-time recovery, and read replicas you create and delete yourself.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Supabase if…

Teams who want Postgres plus auth, storage and generated APIs from one vendor on a fixed monthly bill, and who would otherwise assemble those pieces themselves.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Amazon RDS: You want a database per pull request. RDS documents no branching, and replicas are manual — AWS states outright that it does not autoscale them.
  • Supabase: You want only a database. Much of the $25 covers a platform you may not use, and free projects are paused after a week of inactivity, which is not the same as scaling to zero.

8 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Amazon RDS documentationVisit Supabase documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAmazon RDSSupabase
Execution
Managed connection poolingSupportedSupported
Data
EnginePostgreSQL, alongside MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2. Each engine is a separate RDS product with its own version list and its own feature support, so a capability documented for one is not a capability of RDS as a whole.PostgreSQL
Connection limitNot a fixed number: RDS for PostgreSQL sets max_connections by formula from the instance's memory — LEAST({DBInstanceClassMemory/9531392}, 5000) — so a bigger instance class gets more connections and the ceiling is 5,000 however large it is. The parameter can be set by hand anywhere from 6 to 262,143, which is a limit on what you may configure rather than what an instance will serve. Other engines use different divisors: MySQL is memory/12582880 with no cap.60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size
Point-in-time recoveryAny point inside the configured backup retention period, so up to 35 days. Transaction logs are uploaded to S3 every five minutes, which is what bounds how close to now the latest restorable time can be.Point-in-time recovery is a paid add-on on Pro, Team and Enterprise, and needs at least a Small compute add-on alongside it. Worst-case recovery point is 2 minutes. Without it, restores go back only to a daily backup.
Read replicasSupported — 15 per primary, raisable on requestSupported
Backup retentionBetween 0 and 35 days, set per DB instance; 0 disables automated backups entirely. The default depends on how the instance was created — one day via the API or CLI, seven days via the console — so there is no single default to quote. Multi-AZ DB clusters cannot be set below 1 day.Daily backups: 7 days on Pro, 14 days on Team, up to 30 days on Enterprise. Free projects get no automatic backups at all — Supabase tells free users to export their own data with the CLI.
Compliance
SOC 2Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; report available to Enterprise and Team customers via the dashboard.
ISO 27001Covered under AWS's account-wide ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification — not scoped per-service the way SOC, HIPAA and PCI DSS are on AWS's own site.ISO 27001 certified; certificate available to Enterprise and Team customers via the dashboard.
HIPAAListed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.HIPAA compliant; customers may store PHI after signing a BAA and meeting shared-responsibility obligations.
GDPR / data residencyAWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.Projects hosted in EU regions keep primary database data in-region; a DPA is available.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Engine

Amazon RDS
PostgreSQL, alongside MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2. Each engine is a separate RDS product with its own version list and its own feature support, so a capability documented for one is not a capability of RDS as a whole.
Supabase
PostgreSQL
Sources (2) →

Connection limit

Amazon RDS
Not a fixed number: RDS for PostgreSQL sets max_connections by formula from the instance's memory — LEAST({DBInstanceClassMemory/9531392}, 5000) — so a bigger instance class gets more connections and the ceiling is 5,000 however large it is. The parameter can be set by hand anywhere from 6 to 262,143, which is a limit on what you may configure rather than what an instance will serve. Other engines use different divisors: MySQL is memory/12582880 with no cap.
Supabase
60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size
Sources (2) →

Point-in-time recovery

Amazon RDS
Any point inside the configured backup retention period, so up to 35 days. Transaction logs are uploaded to S3 every five minutes, which is what bounds how close to now the latest restorable time can be.
Supabase
Point-in-time recovery is a paid add-on on Pro, Team and Enterprise, and needs at least a Small compute add-on alongside it. Worst-case recovery point is 2 minutes. Without it, restores go back only to a daily backup.
Sources (2) →
  • Restoring a DB instance to a specified time for Amazon RDS — Amazon Relational Database Service User Guide ↗

    “RDS uploads transaction logs for DB instances to Amazon S3 every five minutes. To see the latest restorable time for a DB instance, use the AWS CLI describe-db-instances command and look at the value returned in the LatestRestorableTime field for the DB instance. [...] You can restore to any point in time within your backup retention period.”

    Read 2026-09-09 · official docs

  • Database Backups — Supabase Docs ↗

    “Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) allows you to back up a project at shorter intervals, giving you the option to restore to any chosen point with up to seconds of granularity. [...] Pro, Team and Enterprise Plan projects can enable PITR as an add-on. Projects that want to use PITR must also use at least a Small compute add-on to ensure smooth functioning. [...] in the worst case scenario, PITR achieves a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of two minutes.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs

Backup retention

Amazon RDS
Between 0 and 35 days, set per DB instance; 0 disables automated backups entirely. The default depends on how the instance was created — one day via the API or CLI, seven days via the console — so there is no single default to quote. Multi-AZ DB clusters cannot be set below 1 day.
Supabase
Daily backups: 7 days on Pro, 14 days on Team, up to 30 days on Enterprise. Free projects get no automatic backups at all — Supabase tells free users to export their own data with the CLI.
Sources (2) →
  • Backup retention period — Amazon Relational Database Service User Guide ↗

    “If you create a DB instance using the Amazon RDS API or the AWS CLI and if you don't set the backup retention period, the default backup retention period is one day. If you create a DB instance using the console, the default backup retention period is seven days. [...] You can set the backup retention period of a DB instance to between 0 and 35 days. Setting the backup retention period to 0 disables automated backups. For a Multi-AZ DB cluster, you can set the backup retention period to between 1 and 35 days.”

    Read 2026-09-09 · official docs

  • Database Backups — Supabase Docs ↗

    “We automatically back up all Pro, Team, and Enterprise Plan projects on a daily basis. [...] Pro Plan projects can access the last 7 days of daily backups. Team Plan projects can access the last 14 days of daily backups, while Enterprise Plan projects can access up to 30 days of daily backups. [...] We recommend that free tier plan projects regularly export their data using the Supabase CLI db dump command and maintain off-site backups.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs

SOC 2

Amazon RDS
Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
Supabase
SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; report available to Enterprise and Team customers via the dashboard.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Amazon RDS
Covered under AWS's account-wide ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification — not scoped per-service the way SOC, HIPAA and PCI DSS are on AWS's own site.
Supabase
ISO 27001 certified; certificate available to Enterprise and Team customers via the dashboard.
Sources (2) →
  • ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Compliance — AWS ↗

    “AWS has certification for compliance with ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017:2015, and 27018:2019. These certifications are performed by independent third-party auditors.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site

  • Supabase Security ↗

    “Supabase is ISO 27001 certified.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site

HIPAA

Amazon RDS
Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.
Supabase
HIPAA compliant; customers may store PHI after signing a BAA and meeting shared-responsibility obligations.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Amazon RDS
AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.
Supabase
Projects hosted in EU regions keep primary database data in-region; a DPA is available.
Sources (2) →
  • GDPR — Amazon Web Services ↗

    “AWS customers can use all AWS services to process personal data [...] in compliance with the GDPR. [...] Customers have control of their customer data. With AWS, customers can: Determine where their customer data will be stored, including the type of storage and geographic region of that storage.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site

  • Supabase Security ↗

    “Projects hosted in EU regions keep your primary database data in-region.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

Free tierSupabase: Yes
Entry paid planSupabase: $25/month for the Pro plan, including the first project and $10/mo of compute credits; additional projects from $10/mo
Pricing modelSupabase: Fixed monthly plan per organisation plus per-project compute, billed hourly by instance size
Egress over allowanceSupabase: $0.09 per GB for uncached egress and $0.03 per GB for cached, charged only above the plan's quota. Egress restrictions clear at the next billing cycle, or immediately on upgrading or disabling the spend cap.
Storage (entry plan)Supabase: 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free
Included bandwidthSupabase: 250 GB uncached and 250 GB cached egress a month on Pro and Team, pooled across Database, Auth, Storage and every other service as one Unified Egress Quota
RegionsSupabase: 17 specific AWS regions across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America, plus broader 'general region' groupings that place the project on an available AWS region within an area. General regions do not support read replicas or API management.
When idleSupabase: Free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be restored manually; paid projects are not paused
Database branchingSupabase: Supported
PCI DSSAmazon RDS: Listed as PCI DSS-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
Encryption at restSupabase: AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit; sensitive tokens/keys get application-level encryption before storage.
Role-based access controlSupabase: Organization members can be granted access to specific resources, including read-only and billing-only roles.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Should I choose Amazon RDS or Supabase?

Pick Amazon RDS if Teams already inside AWS, where the database sitting in the same VPC as everything else is worth more than any single feature on this page. Six engines, up to 35 days of point-in-time recovery, and read replicas you create and delete yourself.

Pick Supabase if Teams who want Postgres plus auth, storage and generated APIs from one vendor on a fixed monthly bill, and who would otherwise assemble those pieces themselves.

Provider pages

Amazon RDSAWS managed relational database service running PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2 on provisioned DB instances.SupabaseManaged Postgres bundled with auth, storage, edge functions and auto-generated APIs, billed per project with a fixed monthly plan.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.