Software Alternatives & Startups

Public API VS Supabase

Compare Public API VS Supabase and see what are their differences

Public API

Discover, compare, and integrate public APIs using real-time health monitoring, OpenAPI documentation, and live availability signals.

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Rating
0 reviews
Supabase

An open source Firebase alternative

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Supabase seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 561 times since March 2021.

social mentions
0 vs 561
Developer Tools popularity
1% vs 99%
alternatives listed
13 vs 240+

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

PAP
Public API
Supabase
Website public-api.org supabase.com
Pricing —
Open source Official pricing
Company — Startup from the United States
Listed in

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

PAP
Public API 5 features
Supabase 6 features
  • Free to Use
    Public API is completely free, making it accessible to developers of all levels without any financial barrier to entry. This is particularly beneficial for hobbyists, students, and those working on personal projects.
  • Comprehensive Directory
    The platform provides a well-organized directory of hundreds of free public APIs across numerous categories such as animals, finance, weather, games, and more, making it easy to discover useful APIs for various projects.
  • Simple and Clean Interface
    The website offers a straightforward, easy-to-navigate interface that allows developers to quickly browse, search, and filter APIs by category, HTTPS support, CORS availability, and authentication requirements.
  • Open Source
    The project is open source, meaning the community can contribute to it, suggest new APIs, report issues, and help maintain the directory, ensuring it stays up-to-date and relevant.
  • Useful Metadata
    Each API listing includes helpful metadata such as whether it supports HTTPS, requires authentication, and supports CORS, which helps developers quickly assess if an API meets their technical requirements before diving deeper.

Possible disadvantages

  • No Quality Assurance
    The platform acts as a directory and does not verify or guarantee the reliability, uptime, or quality of the listed APIs. Some APIs may be outdated, broken, or poorly maintained without any indication on the listing.
  • Limited API Details
    The listings provide only basic information about each API. Developers often need to visit the actual API documentation separately to understand endpoints, rate limits, response formats, and other critical details.
  • Outdated Listings
    Some APIs listed on the platform may no longer be active or may have changed their terms, endpoints, or availability. The directory doesn't always reflect the current status of every listed API in real time.
  • No User Reviews or Ratings
    The platform lacks a community feedback system such as user reviews, ratings, or usage statistics, making it harder for developers to gauge the real-world reliability and usefulness of a listed API before committing to it.
  • Limited Search and Filtering
    While basic category browsing is available, the search and filtering capabilities are relatively limited compared to more advanced API marketplaces. There is no ability to filter by popularity, response speed, or data format, for example.
  • Real-time capabilities
    Supabase offers real-time database features that allow you to subscribe to database changes and sync data with your frontend seamlessly.
  • PostgreSQL foundation
    Supabase is built on PostgreSQL, a robust, mature, and highly extensible SQL database, providing strong data integrity and reliability.
  • Open-source
    Supabase is open-source, which means you can inspect, modify, and contribute to the source code. This fosters community engagement and transparency.
  • Ease of use
    Supabase provides an intuitive dashboard and auto-generated APIs, making it easy for developers to manage databases without extensive backend knowledge.
  • Authentication and Authorization
    Supabase includes pre-built authentication and authorization modules, supporting various sign-in methods like email, OAuth, and more, simplifying user management.
  • Scalability
    Supabase is designed to scale with your application, offering plans that can handle from small to large-scale traffic and data operations.

Possible disadvantages

  • New and evolving
    As a relatively new platform, Supabase is still evolving, which means it might lack some features found in more mature solutions and could have occasional bugs or stability issues.
  • Limited integration
    Currently, Supabase has fewer third-party integrations compared to other established backend-as-a-service (BaaS) providers, which might limit its utility in diverse tech stacks.
  • Learning curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, there could be a learning curve for those unfamiliar with PostgreSQL or real-time database concepts.
  • Pricing for advanced features
    While Supabase offers a free tier, advanced features, and higher usage plans come with a cost. This might be limiting for startups or hobby projects with tight budgets.
  • Limited geographic presence
    Supabase's infrastructure might have limited geographic data centers compared to larger cloud providers, potentially affecting latency and performance for users in certain regions.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

PAP
Public API
Supabase

Overall verdict

  • Public API (public-api.org) is a useful directory and aggregator site that helps developers discover free and public APIs across many categories, but it is a curation/listing service rather than an API provider itself, so its value depends on the quality and reliability of the third-party APIs it links to.

Why this product is good

  • Offers a centralized, searchable directory of numerous free and public APIs across diverse categories
  • Saves developers time by aggregating API options instead of searching individually across the web
  • Often includes brief descriptions, categories, and links to documentation for quick evaluation
  • Useful for discovering lesser-known or niche APIs that might not be found through mainstream searches
  • Generally free to browse and use as a discovery tool

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to quickly find free or public APIs for a project
  • Students and hobbyists exploring API integration for learning purposes
  • Startups seeking cost-effective third-party API options during early development
  • Researchers or hackathon participants needing rapid access to varied data sources
  • Anyone wanting a starting point for API discovery rather than a guaranteed production-grade API provider

Overall verdict

  • Supabase is a strong choice for developers looking for an affordable, open-source solution to manage their application's back-end with real-time data and user authentication.

Why this product is good

  • Supabase is an open-source alternative to Firebase, providing a robust back-end platform for web and mobile applications.
  • It offers real-time capabilities, authentication, and auto-generated APIs with PostgreSQL, making it versatile and efficient.
  • The platform is developer-friendly with excellent documentation and an active community.
  • Being open-source allows for greater flexibility and control over your projects.

Recommended for

  • Developers seeking an open-source alternative to Firebase.
  • Teams that require real-time data synchronization.
  • Projects needing a scalable and easy-to-use back-end solution.
  • Individuals or teams working with PostgreSQL.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

PAP
Public API 0 videos + Add
Supabase 2 videos + Add

No Public API videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Basic demo

More videos

  • - Supabase in 100 Seconds by Fireship

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
PAP
Public API
Supabase
1% 1%
99% 99%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%

User comments

Share your experience with using Public API and Supabase. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

PAP
Public API no reviews yet
Supabase no reviews yet

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

PAP
Public API 0 mentions
Supabase 561 mentions

Tracking Public API since Jan 2026.

  • Best Free APIs for Developers : The Complete, Categorized List
    Free tier, permanent. Requires an API key, but the free quota resets every month or day and never expires on its own. Examples: Groq, Resend, Supabase, ROIC.ai. - Source: dev.to / 15 days ago
  • Supabase vs Appwrite vs Nhost: I built two apps with Claude Code
    If you let Claude Code build an app on your backend and never mention security, where does it put the access rules? And does it get them right? I tried it by building two apps on Supabase, Appwrite and Nhost through their CLIs, with the... - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
  • From YouTube Transcript to Structured Technical Knowledge
    { "name": "Supabase", "aliases": ["supabase"], "category": "database", "role": "backend and authentication", "mention": "used", "evidence": [ { "quote": "we use Supabase for auth and the database", "start": 761 } ], ... - Source: dev.to / 21 days ago

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Alternatives to Public API and Supabase

When comparing Public API and Supabase, you can also consider the following products.