Neon vs Supabase
A comparison of Neon and Supabase built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
- Pick Neon if
- Workloads that are idle most of the time, and teams who want a real database per pull request. Compute suspends after five minutes and storage is billed separately, so a staging branch costs almost nothing while nobody is using it.
- 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.
4 sourced criteria separate them:
- Pricing model
- Neon: Usage-based with no minimum monthly fee on paid plans: $0.106/CU-hour compute and $0.35/GB-month storage on Launch, $0.222/CU-hour on Scale
- Supabase: Fixed monthly plan per organisation plus per-project compute, billed hourly by instance size
- Storage (entry plan)
- Neon: No included allowance on the Launch plan; storage is metered at $0.35/GB-month. The Free plan includes 0.5 GB per project.
- Supabase: 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free
- Connection limit
- Neon: Scales with compute size: 104 direct connections at 0.25 CU (1 GB RAM), 419 at 1 CU, 2517 at 6 CU; up to 10,000 through the pooler
- Supabase: 60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size
- When idle
- Neon: Compute suspends after 5 minutes idle on Free and Launch, and can be disabled on Launch; configurable from 1 minute to always-on on Scale. The database is not deleted or paused — the next query restarts the compute.
- Supabase: Free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be restored manually; paid projects are not paused
At a glance.
| Criterion | Neon | Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Usage-based with no minimum monthly fee on paid plans: $0.106/CU-hour compute and $0.35/GB-month storage on Launch, $0.222/CU-hour on Scale | Fixed monthly plan per organisation plus per-project compute, billed hourly by instance size |
| Limits | ||
| Storage (entry plan) | No included allowance on the Launch plan; storage is metered at $0.35/GB-month. The Free plan includes 0.5 GB per project. | 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free |
| Execution | ||
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported |
| Data | ||
| Engine | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL |
| Connection limit | Scales with compute size: 104 direct connections at 0.25 CU (1 GB RAM), 419 at 1 CU, 2517 at 6 CU; up to 10,000 through the pooler | 60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size |
| When idle | Compute suspends after 5 minutes idle on Free and Launch, and can be disabled on Launch; configurable from 1 minute to always-on on Scale. The database is not deleted or paused — the next query restarts the compute. | Free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be restored manually; paid projects are not paused |
| Database branching | Supported | Supported |
Where they differ.
Pricing model
- Neon
- Usage-based with no minimum monthly fee on paid plans: $0.106/CU-hour compute and $0.35/GB-month storage on Launch, $0.222/CU-hour on Scale
- Supabase
- Fixed monthly plan per organisation plus per-project compute, billed hourly by instance size
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Neon plans — Neon Docs ↗
“On Launch and Scale plans, you pay only for what you use; there's no minimum monthly fee. Usage for compute, storage, extra branches, and other features is billed at the published rates”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- Pricing & Fees — Supabase ↗
“First project included. Additional projects from $10/mo. [...] Paid plans include $10/mo in compute credits, enough to cover one Micro instance.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
Storage (entry plan)
- Neon
- No included allowance on the Launch plan; storage is metered at $0.35/GB-month. The Free plan includes 0.5 GB per project.
- Supabase
- 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Neon plans — Neon Docs ↗
“Storage 0.5 GB/project $0.35/GB-month $0.35/GB-month”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- Pricing & Fees — Supabase ↗
“8 GB disk size per project”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
Connection limit
- Neon
- Scales with compute size: 104 direct connections at 0.25 CU (1 GB RAM), 419 at 1 CU, 2517 at 6 CU; up to 10,000 through the pooler
- Supabase
- 60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Connection pooling — Neon Docs ↗
“Neon uses PgBouncer to provide connection pooling, enabling up to 10,000 concurrent connections. [...] In Neon, this limit is defined by max_connections, which varies by compute size: Compute size (CU) RAM max_connections 0.25 1 GB 104 0.50 2 GB 209 1 4 GB 419”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Pricing & Fees — Supabase ↗
“1 GB RAM / 2-core ARM CPU / Connections: Direct 60, Pooler 200”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
When idle
- Neon
- Compute suspends after 5 minutes idle on Free and Launch, and can be disabled on Launch; configurable from 1 minute to always-on on Scale. The database is not deleted or paused — the next query restarts the compute.
- Supabase
- Free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be restored manually; paid projects are not paused
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Neon plans — Neon Docs ↗
“Scale to zero After 5 min After 5 min, can be disabled Configurable (1 minute to always on)”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Pricing & Fees — Supabase ↗
“Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity. Limit of 2 active projects.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
Which should you choose?
Choose Neon if…
Workloads that are idle most of the time, and teams who want a real database per pull request. Compute suspends after five minutes and storage is billed separately, so a staging branch costs almost nothing while nobody is using it.
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…
- Neon: You need predictable monthly billing. Usage pricing with no minimum fee cuts both ways, and a runaway query on an autoscaling compute is billed at the rate it ran.
- 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.
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.