Supabase vs Turso for Solo Developers

Comparing Supabase and Turso for solo developers. Features, pricing, pros and cons, and which one to pick for your next project.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Supabase	Turso
Type	Backend-as-a-service on PostgreSQL (new projects on PG15, PG17 opt-in now)	Edge-hosted SQLite built on libSQL
Free tier	$0: 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 50,000 monthly active users, 5 GB egress	$0: 5 GB storage, 100 databases, 500M row reads/mo, 10M row writes/mo
Paid entry tier	Pro at $25/mo: 8 GB disk, 100 GB storage, 100,000 MAU, 250 GB egress, $10 compute credit	Developer at $4.99/mo: 9 GB storage, unlimited databases, 2.5B reads, 25M writes
Scale tier	Team at $599/mo (org-wide, SOC2)	Scaler at $24.92/mo: 24 GB storage, 100B reads, 100M writes
GitHub stars	103,192 (supabase/supabase)	18,998 (tursodatabase/turso) plus 16,788 (libsql)
npm weekly downloads	19.8M (@supabase/supabase-js v2.106.2)	1.04M (@libsql/client v0.17.3)
Learning Curve	Easy	Easy
Best For	Full-stack apps needing a BaaS with PostgreSQL	Edge-first apps wanting SQLite simplicity with global distribution
Solo Dev Rating	10/10	8/10

Supabase Overview

Supabase is a complete backend-as-a-service built on PostgreSQL. You get a relational database, authentication, file storage, real-time subscriptions, edge functions, and auto-generated REST APIs. It replaces an entire backend for many applications, especially frontend-heavy projects built with React, Vue, or SvelteKit.

The free tier is where Supabase shines for solo developers. 500MB database, auth for 50,000 users, 1GB file storage. That's enough to build, launch, and validate most side projects. I've gone from idea to deployed MVP on Supabase's free tier more than once. The upgrade to Pro only happens when paying customers justify the $25/month.

Row-level security lets your frontend talk directly to the database with fine-grained access control. Define policies, and Supabase enforces them at the database level. No middleware, no API routes for basic CRUD. That's a lot of backend code you never have to write.

Turso Overview

Turso is SQLite at the edge. Built on libSQL (a fork of SQLite), Turso distributes your database across global edge locations. Your data lives close to your users. Read latency drops dramatically because the database replica is in the same region as the request.

The embedded replica feature is Turso's killer capability. You can embed a read replica of your Turso database directly inside your application. Reads hit the local embedded copy with zero network latency. Writes sync back to the primary. For read-heavy applications, this architecture delivers performance that no traditional client-server database can match.

Turso's free tier includes 5 GB of total storage, up to 100 databases, 500 million row reads per month, and 10 million row writes per month, with read overage billed at $1 per billion rows. That is generous for experimentation and small projects. If you outgrow it, the Developer plan at $4.99 per month lifts storage to 9 GB with unlimited databases, and the Scaler plan at $24.92 per month unlocks 24 GB of storage, 100 billion reads, and 100 million writes a month. All figures are from Turso's pricing page, checked 2026-05-29.

Key Differences

Database engine. Supabase runs PostgreSQL, a full-featured relational database with JSONB, full-text search, window functions, and a massive extension ecosystem. Turso runs libSQL (SQLite-compatible), which is simpler and faster for basic operations but lacks PostgreSQL's advanced features. If you need complex queries, Postgres wins. If simplicity and speed are priorities, libSQL delivers.

Scope of service. Supabase is a platform with auth, storage, real-time, and edge functions. Turso is a database service. If you need authentication alongside Turso, you're adding Clerk, Auth.js, or another auth service. Supabase bundles it all together. For solo developers who want fewer moving parts, Supabase's integrated approach saves time and money.

Edge distribution. Turso's core value proposition is global edge distribution. Your database exists in multiple locations simultaneously. Supabase databases run in a single region. For applications serving a global audience where read latency matters, Turso's architecture is genuinely better. For applications where your users are mostly in one region, the edge distribution is unnecessary.

Embedded replicas. Turso lets you embed a database replica in your application for zero-latency reads. Supabase doesn't offer anything comparable. If your application is extremely read-heavy and latency-sensitive, Turso's embedded replicas are a unique advantage.

Write model. Supabase (PostgreSQL) handles concurrent writes efficiently through MVCC. Turso inherits SQLite's single-writer limitation, though writes sync through the primary. For write-heavy applications with many concurrent users, Supabase is more robust. For read-heavy applications with moderate writes, Turso performs exceptionally well.

Ecosystem and tooling. PostgreSQL has decades of tooling, extensions, and community support. libSQL is newer with a smaller ecosystem. ORMs, migration tools, and monitoring solutions all have better PostgreSQL support. If you rely on specific PostgreSQL extensions or tools, Supabase is the safer choice.

By the Numbers (2026)

All figures below were checked on 2026-05-29 against the sources listed at the end.

Adoption and momentum. The Supabase monorepo sits at 103,192 GitHub stars with 12,575 forks, one of the most-starred developer platforms on the site. Turso's footprint is split across two repos because the project is mid-migration: the original libSQL fork has 16,788 stars, and the newer Rust rewrite, tursodatabase/turso, has 18,998 stars. On the client side, the gap is starker. The @supabase/supabase-js SDK pulled 19,829,221 npm downloads in the week of 2026-05-22, while @libsql/client pulled 1,040,148 in the same week. Supabase ships roughly 19 times the client volume, which is worth weighing when you reason about Stack Overflow answers, ecosystem libraries, and how fast an AI coding assistant has seen your stack.

Current versions. The published @supabase/supabase-js release is v2.106.2 and it requires Node 20 or newer. The Supabase CLI is on v2.102.0, published 2026-05-29. The @libsql/client driver is on v0.17.3, and the Turso Rust database engine is on v0.6.1, released 2026-05-22. New Supabase projects currently provision PostgreSQL 15, with PostgreSQL 17 available as an opt-in since 2026-04-08 and slated to become the default for new projects around mid-June 2026.

Free tier, side by side. Supabase Free gives you a 500 MB database, 1 GB of file storage, 50,000 monthly active users for auth, and 5 GB of egress, for $0. Turso Free gives you 5 GB of storage, up to 100 databases, 500 million row reads, and 10 million row writes per month, also for $0. They are not measuring the same thing. Supabase caps you on database size and auth seats; Turso caps you on read and write operations. That difference drives the cost math below.

Paid tiers. Supabase Pro is $25 per month and includes 8 GB of disk (then $0.125 per GB), 100 GB of file storage (then $0.0213 per GB), 100,000 monthly active users (then $0.00325 each), 250 GB of egress (then $0.09 per GB), and $10 of monthly compute credit. Turso's first paid step is the Developer plan at $4.99 per month, then Scaler at $24.92 per month, the closest like-for-like to Supabase Pro. Supabase's next tier up is Team at $599 per month, which is an organization-wide plan, not a per-project bump.

Real Cost at Solo-Dev Scale

Here is a concrete, repeatable workload so you can run the same arithmetic on your own project. Assume a launched side project that has outgrown both free tiers: a 6 GB database, 30 GB of file storage (user uploads), 20,000 monthly active users, 80 GB of egress, 5 billion row reads per month, and 20 million row writes per month.

Supabase. That workload sits inside Pro's included allowances. The 6 GB database is under the 8 GB included disk, 30 GB of storage is under the 100 GB included, 20,000 MAU is under the 100,000 included, and 80 GB of egress is under the 250 GB included. So you pay the Pro base of $25 per month, and the $10 compute credit covers a Micro instance. Supabase does not meter row reads or writes at all, so the 5 billion reads cost nothing extra. Total at this workload: about $25 per month.

Turso. Turso meters reads and writes, which is exactly where this read-heavy workload lands. The Developer plan ($4.99) includes 2.5 billion reads, so 5 billion reads would blow past it. Scaler at $24.92 includes 100 billion reads and 100 million writes, comfortably covering 5 billion reads and 20 million writes, plus 24 GB of storage covers the 6 GB database. So the right plan is Scaler at about $24.92 per month, with no overage at this volume. Total: about $24.92 per month.

At this particular workload the two land within pennies of each other, roughly $25 a month either way. The headline is not the dollar figure, it is what you get for it. The Supabase $25 buys a database plus auth, storage, real time, and edge functions. The Turso $24.92 buys a database. If you would otherwise pay separately for an auth provider (Clerk's paid plans start around $25 per month for example, check current pricing), Supabase's bundle is materially cheaper at the same headline number.

Where the math flips is at the extremes. If your app is genuinely read-heavy at scale, Turso's metered reads are cheap (overage is $0.80 per billion rows on Scaler), and embedded replicas can cut your read traffic to the cloud to near zero, so you may never hit an overage at all. If your app is write-heavy or storage-heavy with modest reads, Supabase's flat, unmetered read and write model is more predictable because you are billed on resources, not operations. Re-run the workload above with your real numbers before committing.

When to Choose Supabase

You want a complete backend without writing backend code
You need auth, storage, and real-time alongside your database
Your application has significant concurrent write operations
You prefer PostgreSQL's feature set and ecosystem
You want to start free and upgrade only when revenue justifies it

When to Choose Turso

You're building an edge-first application and latency matters globally
Your application is heavily read-oriented
You want embedded replicas for zero-latency local reads
You're already using SQLite and want to add global distribution
You value SQLite's simplicity but need it in the cloud

The Verdict

For most solo developers, Supabase is the better choice. The 10/10 vs 8/10 rating reflects the breadth of value Supabase delivers. You get a database, auth, storage, real-time, and edge functions in one service with a generous free tier.

Turso is a specialized tool that excels at a specific use case: globally distributed, read-heavy applications where latency matters. The embedded replica feature is genuinely innovative, and for the right project, Turso's architecture delivers performance that Supabase can't match.

But most solo developer projects don't need global edge distribution. They need a database, auth, and maybe file storage. Supabase handles all of that in one place. Turso handles only the database, and you need to assemble the rest yourself.

My recommendation: start with Supabase unless you have a specific need for edge-distributed reads. If you're building a content platform, a globally-distributed API, or an application where every millisecond of read latency matters, evaluate Turso. For everything else, Supabase gives you more for less effort.