# Supabase vs Prisma Postgres

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/supabase-vs-prisma-postgres/

Every value below is read from Supabase's and Prisma Postgres's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Supabase | Prisma Postgres |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $25/month for the Pro plan, including the first project and $10/mo of compute credits; additional projects from $10/mo | $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance. |
| Pricing model | Fixed monthly plan per organisation plus per-project compute, billed hourly by instance size | A plan fee plus usage: requests, memory GB-hours, active vCPU-hours and outbound bandwidth are each metered — $1 per million requests beyond the allowance, $0.006 per GB-hour, $0.064 per vCPU-hour, $0.025 per GB out. |
| Storage (entry plan) | 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free | 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond. |
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported |
| Engine | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL. |
| Connection limit | 60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size | 100 pooled connections on Starter and 10 direct; 10 pooled on Free, 500 on Pro and 1,000 on Business. |
| When idle | Free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be restored manually; paid projects are not paused | Scales to zero when idle, and Prisma states an idle app costs nothing. |
| Backup retention | 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. | Daily backups with 7-day retention on Starter and Pro, 30 days on Business. The free plan has none. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Supabase: $25/month for the Pro plan, including the first project and $10/mo of compute credits; additional projects from $10/mo ([source](https://supabase.com/pricing))
- Prisma Postgres: $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

### Pricing model

- Supabase: Fixed monthly plan per organisation plus per-project compute, billed hourly by instance size ([source](https://supabase.com/pricing))
- Prisma Postgres: A plan fee plus usage: requests, memory GB-hours, active vCPU-hours and outbound bandwidth are each metered — $1 per million requests beyond the allowance, $0.006 per GB-hour, $0.064 per vCPU-hour, $0.025 per GB out. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

### Storage (entry plan)

- Supabase: 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free ([source](https://supabase.com/pricing))
- Prisma Postgres: 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

### Engine

- Supabase: PostgreSQL ([source](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/connecting-to-postgres))
- Prisma Postgres: PostgreSQL. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

### Connection limit

- Supabase: 60 direct and 200 pooled connections on the Micro instance included with Pro; both scale with instance size ([source](https://supabase.com/pricing))
- Prisma Postgres: 100 pooled connections on Starter and 10 direct; 10 pooled on Free, 500 on Pro and 1,000 on Business. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

### When idle

- Supabase: Free projects are paused after one week of inactivity and must be restored manually; paid projects are not paused ([source](https://supabase.com/pricing))
- Prisma Postgres: Scales to zero when idle, and Prisma states an idle app costs nothing. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

### Backup retention

- 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. ([source](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/backups))
- Prisma Postgres: Daily backups with 7-day retention on Starter and Pro, 30 days on Business. The free plan has none. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

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.

Pick Prisma Postgres if Prisma ORM users who want the database and the client from one vendor, with a pooled connection limit stated per plan rather than left to be discovered.

Consider something else: 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.

Consider something else: Prisma Postgres — Four separate meters — requests, memory, vCPU and bandwidth — sit on top of the plan fee, so the monthly number is a floor rather than a bill.

## Documented by only one

- Egress over allowance: Supabase: $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.
- Included bandwidth: Supabase: 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
- Regions: Supabase: 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.
- Database branching: Supabase: Supported
- Point-in-time recovery: 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.
- Read replicas: Supabase: Supported

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Supabase or Prisma Postgres?**

Supabase: $25/month for the Pro plan, including the first project and $10/mo of compute credits; additional projects from $10/mo
Prisma Postgres: $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance.

**Storage (entry plan): Supabase or Prisma Postgres?**

Supabase: 8 GB disk per project on the Pro plan; 500 MB on Free
Prisma Postgres: 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond.

**Should I choose Supabase or Prisma Postgres?**

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.
Pick Prisma Postgres if Prisma ORM users who want the database and the client from one vendor, with a pooled connection limit stated per plan rather than left to be discovered.