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Yevhen Kozachenko 🇺🇦
Yevhen Kozachenko 🇺🇦

Posted on • Originally published at ekwoster.dev

🔥 How I Replaced My Entire Backend With Supabase in 3 Hours — Real Talk, Real Code

#supabase #webdev #backend #postgres

🔥 How I Replaced My Entire Backend With Supabase in 3 Hours — Real Talk, Real Code

Supabase Logo

What if I told you that you could replace your entire backend — from authentication to database to RESTful APIs — in 3 hours, securely and scalably, with practically no server setup? Sounds like clickbait?

Not today. I'm here to report my experience of migrating a fully custom Node.js + PostgreSQL backend to Supabase. I hit real walls, found real solutions, and wrote real code. Buckle up, let’s go full-stack.

⏱️ TL;DR

  • Replaced custom backend with Supabase in ~3 hours.
  • Got Auth (OAuth, email, magic link), DB (PostgreSQL), Realtime, API, Role-based Access Control.
  • All secure by default.
  • Reduced backend code by 80%.
  • No monthly bill yet (free tier generous).

💡 Why Move to Supabase?

My original setup:

  • 🍃 Node.js Express server
  • 🐘 Hosted PostgreSQL on Heroku
  • 🛡️ Custom auth logic with JWT
  • 🚧 REST API built manually with validation
  • 📩 Nodemailer for email magic links

What I wanted:

  • Fewer moving pieces
  • More time for frontend work (which users actually see)

Supabase promised:

"Firebase, but open source and powered by PostgreSQL."

So I bit the bullet.

⚙️ Migration Overview

1. 🔧 Setting Up Supabase

You can start with a free hosted Supabase project:

npx supabase init
npx supabase start  # if you want a local dev instance
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OR create your project directly in Supabase Studio.

2. 🧠 Migrating My PostgreSQL Schema

I already had a schema.sql file. Importing it was as easy as:

supabase db push
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Supabase uses native PostgreSQL under the hood — so ANY SQL you used before will work here.

🔥 Bonus: Supabase auto-generates REST & GraphQL APIs based on your schema!

3. 👥 Replacing Authentication

Instead of coding OAuth from scratch, Supabase gives you a prebuilt auth system.

With a simple setup, I had:

  • Email/password sign in
  • Magic links
  • Google & GitHub OAuth 
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(YOUR_SUPABASE_URL, YOUR_SUPABASE_KEY);

// Sign up a user
const { user, error } = await supabase.auth.signUp({
  email: 'hello@example.com',
  password: 'securepassword'
});
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You can also listen to auth state changes:

supabase.auth.onAuthStateChange((event, session) => {
  console.log('Auth event:', event);
});
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All tokens are handled with localStorage or cookies.
You get SSR-friendly APIs (especially with Next.js).

4. 📦 Replacing API Endpoints

Here’s where it gets magical.

From PostgreSQL tables, Supabase automatically gives you REST endpoints:

GET /rest/v1/tasks
POST /rest/v1/tasks
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Need GraphQL? It's also enabled by default:

POST /graphql/v1
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Want filters?

GET /rest/v1/tasks?user_id=eq.42&completed=is.false
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Security? Use Supabase's Row-Level Security (RLS) using PostgreSQL policies:

CREATE POLICY "Users only access their tasks"
  ON tasks
  FOR SELECT USING (auth.uid() = user_id);
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Now, Supabase enforces that users only read their own tasks. No custom backend logic. 🤯

5. 🔄 Replacing Realtime Functionality

I had a chat feature using WebSockets and Redis pub/sub.

Supabase Realtime lets you subscribe to PostgreSQL changes directly:

supabase
  .channel('messages')
  .on('postgres_changes', { event: '*', schema: 'public', table: 'messages' }, (
payload) => {
    console.log('New message:', payload);
  })
  .subscribe();
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No servers, just pure magic.

6. ⬇️ Reducing Codebase Size

After migrating:

  • Backend files dropped from 55 → 7.
  • No more CORS config.
  • No auth edge cases.
  • No API docs creation — Supabase Studio does it automatically.

Everything is connected via environment variables and secure JWT auth. Step 1 to production ready.

🧪 Real Case: Task Tracker Migration

I created a minimal tasks CRUD app.

  • ✅ Authenticated users
  • ✅ Tasks table with triggers for timestamps
  • ✅ Auto-generated REST API for data access
  • ✅ RLS to enforce auth

Frontend used Vue with Supabase client. Here's basic CRUD:

// Fetch tasks
const { data } = await supabase
  .from('tasks')
  .select('*')
  .order('created_at', { ascending: false });

// Add task
await supabase.from('tasks').insert({ title: 'Buy milk' });

// Update task
await supabase.from('tasks').update({ completed: true }).eq('id', 42);

// Delete task
await supabase.from('tasks').delete().eq('id', 42);
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🛡️ Gotchas You Might Hit

  • RLS is off by default. You need to enable row-level security + add policies for each table.
  • Supabase keys vs JWT confusion. Read docs carefully.
  • Local dev can be tricky. Supabase CLI has improved, but starting locally can still trip you up — Docker required.

📊 Pros and Cons After 1 Week

🔥 Pros 💩 Cons
PostgreSQL inside 🐘 No fine-grain GraphQL filters
Push to production fast Limited built-in triggers
Integrated Auth + Storage Less control vs custom server
Free tier is generous Still growing (beta features)

🧠 When Supabase Is Right for You

✅ Perfect for rapid MVPs, internal tools, data-centric apps.

✅ Tight budgets (free tier generous).

✅ When you want to focus on UX, not backend plumbing.

🚫 Not ideal yet for complex multi-tenant SaaS or super low-latency apps.

🧩 Final Thoughts

Supabase is production-capable, if you're okay with some abstraction. It’s basically Postgres with superpowers like instant APIs, Auth, and Realtime.

If Firebase didn't sit right with your OSS heart, Supabase will.

If you love SQL, you'll feel at home.

🧙‍♂️ My backend now feels like a plugin — I can focus 90% of my time on frontend UX. Honestly, that's the future.

📎 Resources

👇 Have you tried Supabase? What was your experience?

Share it in the comments below or tweet @me with your wins or fails!

⚡️ If you need this done – we offer Fullstack Development services.

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