Drizzle vs Supabase for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Drizzle Overview

Drizzle ORM is a lightweight TypeScript ORM that maps closely to SQL. You write queries that look almost exactly like the SQL they produce. There is no heavy abstraction, no code generation step, and the bundle size is tiny. If you have ever been frustrated by an ORM generating mystery queries behind your back, Drizzle is the antidote.

For solo developers, Drizzle works well because you get full type safety without giving up control. You define your schema in TypeScript, and your queries are type-checked at compile time. The migration system is straightforward. You own the SQL, you own the schema, and you can pair it with any Postgres, MySQL, or SQLite provider you want.

The trade-off is that Drizzle only handles the ORM layer. Authentication, file storage, realtime subscriptions, and row-level security are all things you need to build or source separately. That means more decisions and more integration work for a solo developer who just wants to ship.

Supabase Overview

Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative built on top of Postgres. You get a managed Postgres database plus authentication, file storage, realtime subscriptions, edge functions, and row-level security policies all in one dashboard. Sign up, create a project, and you have a working backend in minutes.

The free tier is generous for solo developers. You get two free projects, 500 MB of database storage, 1 GB of file storage, and 50,000 monthly active users on auth. That is more than enough to validate an idea and get your first paying customers.

Where Supabase shines for solo developers is speed of iteration. Need auth? Toggle it on. Need file uploads? Use the storage API. Need realtime? Enable it per table. You skip weeks of plumbing work and focus on the parts of your product that actually matter.

Head-to-Head Comparison

When to Pick Drizzle

Pick Drizzle when you already have a database host you like and you want a thin, performant ORM on top of it. Maybe you are running Postgres on Neon, PlanetScale for MySQL, or even a local SQLite file. You want full query control, minimal abstraction, and a tiny runtime footprint.

Drizzle also makes sense when you are deploying to serverless or edge environments where cold start time matters. The bundle is small enough that it loads fast in Cloudflare Workers or Vercel Edge Functions. If you already handle auth with Clerk or Auth.js and storage with Cloudflare R2, Drizzle slots into your existing stack cleanly.

Choose Drizzle if you are the kind of developer who prefers composing your own stack from best-in-class pieces rather than relying on an all-in-one platform.

When to Pick Supabase

Pick Supabase when you want to move fast and not think about infrastructure. If you are building a SaaS, a mobile app backend, or a side project and you need auth, a database, file storage, and maybe realtime, Supabase gives you all of that on day one.

It is also the right pick when you are a solo developer who does not want to wire together five different services. Every integration point is a place where something can break. Supabase reduces the number of moving parts you have to manage.

Supabase is particularly strong if you plan to use row-level security policies to enforce data access rules at the database level. This means your API layer can be thinner because Postgres itself handles authorization. For a solo developer without a security team, that is a meaningful advantage.

The Verdict

These tools solve different problems, and the comparison is a bit apples-to-oranges. Drizzle is a query layer. Supabase is an entire backend platform that happens to include a database.

If you want speed to launch and fewer moving parts, go with Supabase. You will ship faster and spend less time on infrastructure.

If you want maximum control, a lean stack you fully understand, and the flexibility to swap database providers, go with Drizzle paired with whatever hosting and services you prefer.

For most solo developers building their first product, Supabase will get you to launch faster. You can always introduce Drizzle later if you outgrow the Supabase client library or need more query control. They are not mutually exclusive either. Some developers use Drizzle with a Supabase-hosted Postgres database to get the best of both worlds.