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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Supabase Has Free Edge Functions — Run Server-Side TypeScript Globally Without Managing Servers

#supabase #deno #typescript #serverless

Why Supabase Edge Functions?

Supabase Edge Functions let you deploy TypeScript functions to Deno Deploy's global edge network — zero server management, sub-50ms cold starts, and native access to your Supabase database.

While AWS Lambda requires complex IAM roles and API Gateway configs, Supabase gives you supabase functions deploy and you're live.

Quick Start 

npx supabase init
npx supabase functions new hello-world
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import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts"
import { createClient } from "https://esm.sh/@supabase/supabase-js@2"

serve(async (req) => {
  const supabase = createClient(
    Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_URL")!,
    Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY")!
  )

  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from("users")
    .select("*")
    .limit(10)

  return new Response(JSON.stringify({ data, error }), {
    headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  })
})
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Deploy in Seconds 

supabase functions deploy hello-world
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Your function runs globally on Deno Deploy's 35+ edge locations.

Real Use Cases

Webhook handler:

serve(async (req) => {
  const payload = await req.json()

  if (payload.type === "checkout.session.completed") {
    const supabase = createClient(
      Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_URL")!,
      Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY")!
    )
    await supabase
      .from("orders")
      .update({ status: "paid" })
      .eq("stripe_session_id", payload.data.object.id)
  }

  return new Response("ok")
})
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Image resizer:

import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts"

serve(async (req) => {
  const url = new URL(req.url)
  const imageUrl = url.searchParams.get("url")
  const width = url.searchParams.get("w") || "400"

  const response = await fetch(
    `https://images.weserv.nl/?url=${imageUrl}&w=${width}&output=webp`
  )

  return new Response(response.body, {
    headers: { "Content-Type": "image/webp", "Cache-Control": "public, max-age=31536000" }
  })
})
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Edge Functions vs Alternatives

Feature Supabase Edge AWS Lambda Vercel Functions
Cold start <50ms 100-500ms 50-250ms
Language TypeScript/Deno Any Node.js/Python
DB access Native Via SDK Via SDK
Pricing 500K/mo free 1M/mo free 100K/mo free
Deploy 1 command SAM/CDK Git push

The Killer Feature: Database Integration

Edge Functions have native access to your Supabase Postgres database, Auth, Storage, and Realtime — no extra config. Environment variables are auto-injected.

Need to extract data from any website at scale? I build custom web scrapers — 77 production scrapers running on Apify Store. Email me at spinov001@gmail.com for a tailored solution.

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