Alex Spinov

Posted on Mar 26

Supabase Has a Free Tier — Build a Full Backend (Database, Auth, Storage, Realtime) Without Writing Server Code

#supabase #api #webdev #database

Most developers still spin up Express servers, configure PostgreSQL, set up JWT auth, and deploy to AWS — just to get a basic backend running.

Supabase gives you a full backend for free: PostgreSQL database, authentication, file storage, edge functions, and realtime subscriptions — all through a REST API or client library.

No server code. No DevOps. No monthly bill (for small projects).

What You Get for Free

Supabase's free tier includes:

Database: 500 MB PostgreSQL with full SQL access
Auth: 50,000 monthly active users (email, OAuth, magic link)
Storage: 1 GB file storage with CDN
Edge Functions: 500K invocations/month
Realtime: Broadcast and Presence channels
API: Auto-generated REST + GraphQL from your tables

That's enough to build and ship a real product.

Quick Start: Build a CRUD API in 3 Minutes

1. Create a Project

Go to supabase.com, create a free project. Grab your API URL and anon key from Settings > API.

2. Create a Table (SQL Editor)

CREATE TABLE posts (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  title TEXT NOT NULL,
  content TEXT,
  author TEXT,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- Enable Row Level Security
ALTER TABLE posts ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

-- Allow public read access
CREATE POLICY "Public read" ON posts FOR SELECT USING (true);

3. Your REST API Is Instantly Ready

# Read all posts
curl "https://YOUR_PROJECT.supabase.co/rest/v1/posts" \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_ANON_KEY" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ANON_KEY"

# Insert a post
curl -X POST "https://YOUR_PROJECT.supabase.co/rest/v1/posts" \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_ANON_KEY" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ANON_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "My First Post", "content": "Hello world", "author": "dev"}'

# Filter posts
curl "https://YOUR_PROJECT.supabase.co/rest/v1/posts?author=eq.dev" \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_ANON_KEY" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ANON_KEY"

No Express. No route handlers. No ORM. Just a URL.

JavaScript Client (Even Easier)

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

const supabase = createClient('YOUR_URL', 'YOUR_ANON_KEY')

// Read
const { data } = await supabase.from('posts').select('*')

// Insert
await supabase.from('posts').insert({ title: 'New Post', content: 'Hello' })

// Realtime subscription
supabase
  .channel('posts-changes')
  .on('postgres_changes', { event: 'INSERT', schema: 'public', table: 'posts' },
    payload => console.log('New post:', payload.new))
  .subscribe()

Authentication in 5 Lines

// Sign up
await supabase.auth.signUp({ email: 'user@example.com', password: 'password' })

// Sign in
await supabase.auth.signInWithPassword({ email: 'user@example.com', password: 'password' })

// OAuth (Google, GitHub, Discord, etc.)
await supabase.auth.signInWithOAuth({ provider: 'github' })

// Get current user
const { data: { user } } = await supabase.auth.getUser()

No Passport.js. No JWT middleware. No session management.

Supabase vs The Alternatives

Feature	Supabase	Firebase	PlanetScale	Neon
Database	PostgreSQL	NoSQL (Firestore)	MySQL	PostgreSQL
Auth built-in	Yes	Yes	No	No
Storage built-in	Yes	Yes	No	No
Realtime	Yes	Yes	No	No
Open source	Yes	No	No	No
Free tier DB	500 MB	1 GB	5 GB	512 MB
SQL access	Full	No	Full	Full
Self-host option	Yes	No	No	No

4 Things You Can Build This Weekend

1. SaaS MVP

Database + Auth + Storage = complete backend. Add a React frontend and you have a shippable product.

2. Blog with CMS

Create a posts table, build a simple admin panel, use Storage for images. Done.

3. Chat App

Realtime subscriptions + Auth. Messages appear instantly across all connected clients.

4. File Sharing Service

Storage API with signed URLs + Row Level Security. Users upload files, share links, control access.

The Bottom Line

Supabase replaced my need for:

Express/Fastify server ($0 saved, hours saved)
Auth0 or Clerk ($23/month saved)
AWS S3 ($5/month saved)
Pusher for realtime ($25/month saved)

One platform. One dashboard. Zero server code.

If you're still writing app.get('/api/posts', ...) for every new project, you're solving problems that Supabase already solved.

Need a custom backend, data pipeline, or API integration? I build full-stack tools for dev teams. Email spinov001@gmail.com — or check out my developer resources on GitHub.

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