Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Supabase VS Django

Compare Supabase VS Django and see what are their differences

Supabase logo Supabase

An open source Firebase alternative

Django logo Django

The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines
  • Supabase Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-27
  • Django Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

Supabase features and specs

  • 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 of Supabase

  • 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.

Django features and specs

  • Rapid Development
    Django allows developers to swiftly create web applications with its 'batteries-included' philosophy, providing built-in features and tools out-of-the-box.
  • Scalability
    Django is designed to help developers scale applications. It supports a pluggable architecture, making it easy to grow an application organically.
  • Security
    Django includes various security features like protection against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, and more, promoting the creation of secure web applications.
  • ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)
    Djangoโ€™s powerful ORM simplifies database manipulation by allowing developers to interact with the database using Python code instead of SQL queries.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Django offers detailed and extensive documentation, aiding developers in effectively understanding and utilizing its features.
  • Community Support
    With a large and active community, Django benefits from numerous third-party packages, plugins, and extensive support forums.

Possible disadvantages of Django

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For beginners, Djangoโ€™s complex features and components can be challenging to grasp, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Monolithic Framework
    Djangoโ€™s monolithic structure can limit flexibility, potentially resulting in over-engineered solutions for simpler, smaller projects.
  • Template Language Limitations
    Djangoโ€™s template language, while useful, is less powerful compared to alternatives like Jinja2, limiting functionality in complex frontend requirements.
  • Heavyweight
    Django's comprehensive feature set can result in high overhead, making it less ideal for lightweight applications or microservices.
  • Opinionated Framework
    Django follows a โ€˜Django wayโ€™ of doing things, which can be restrictive for developers who prefer less constrained, highly customized coding practices.
  • Lack of Asynchronicity
    Djangoโ€™s built-in functionalities do not fully support asynchronous programming, which can be a limitation for handling real-time applications and processes requiring concurrency.

Analysis of Supabase

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.

Supabase videos

Basic demo

More videos:

  • Review - Supabase in 100 Seconds by Fireship

Django videos

Python Django

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Supabase and Django)
Developer Tools
71 71%
29% 29
Web Frameworks
26 26%
74% 74
Realtime Backend / API
100 100%
0% 0
Python Web Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Supabase and Django

Supabase Reviews

10 Top Firebase Alternatives to Ignite Your Development in 2024
Supabase makes it incredibly easy to migrate from Firebase. Its data structure and APIs are designed to feel familiar, so you can switch without a major learning curve. Plus, the open-source nature means you have complete control over your code and data.
Source: genezio.com
Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
Community Support and Longevity: Investigate the size and activity of the platform's community. A larger, more active community can provide better support and resources. Platforms like Parse and Supabase have strong community support.
Source: signoz.io
5 Best Vercel Alternatives for Next.js & App Router
Supabase distinguishes itself through its focus on data and community-driven development. Self-hosting capabilities allow you to deploy Supabase's suite of products within your own infrastructure. This maintains data ownership while still leveraging Supabase's tools.
Source: il.ly
Best Serverless Backend Tools of 2023: Pros & Cons, Features & Code Examples
Create an account, a project, and a database. Unlike a NoSQL database like Firebaseโ€™s, you need to have a structure ready to be able to manipulate data. But once this step is doneโ€•and youโ€™ll have ready-to-use templates to help speed up this partโ€•you can call Supabase like so:
Source: www.rowy.io
2023 Firebase Alternatives: Top 10 Open-Source & Free
Supabase is another trusted platform in our list that calls itself an open-source alternative to Firebase. You can also name it one of the newest cloud service providers similar to Firebase because it launched in 2020. Indeed, with great scalability and documentation support, Supabase could be an ideal option.

Django Reviews

The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
The first of these Laravel alternatives is Django. Djangoโ€™s like that one-stop shop where you grab everything you need for a full-blown web project, all off one shelf. Itโ€™s the big-brained Python framework that anticipates your moves, keeping you steps ahead with a crazy stack of built-in features.
Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
The best frameworks for web development include React, Angular, Vue.js, Django, Spring, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flask and Express.js. Each of these frameworks has its own advantages and distinctive features, so it is important to choose the framework that best suits the needs of your project.
Source: www.kiwop.com
25 Python Frameworks to Master
You wonโ€™t go wrong by choosing Django for your next web project. Itโ€™s a powerful web framework that provides everything you need to build fast and reliable websites. And if you need any additional features โ€” say, the ability to create a REST API to use with modern frontend frameworks like React or Angular โ€” you can use extensions like Django REST framework.
Source: kinsta.com
3 Web Frameworks to Use With Python
myproject/ is the directory that contains the configuration and settings for the Django project__init__.py is an empty script that tells Python that this directory should be treated as a Python packageasgi.py is a script that defines ASGI application (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) for serving this project. ASGI is a specification for building asynchronous web...
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
Phoenix borrows heavily from other frameworks built on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, like Rails and Django, providing a large part of everything you need to develop a web app out of the box, albeit in a less โ€œbatteries includedโ€ manner.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Supabase seems to be a lot more popular than Django. While we know about 521 links to Supabase, we've tracked only 15 mentions of Django. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Supabase mentions (521)

  • Optimize Read Performance in Supabase with Postgres Materialized Views
    This tutorial explains how I improved my application's read performance using Postgres materialized views in Supabase. - Source: dev.to / 4 days ago
  • Mastering Postgres Window Functions for Data Analysis in Supabase
    All examples in this blog are tested on Supabase, an open source backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platform that simplifies backend development for web and mobile applications. Supabase provides full support for Postgres databases. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • Data Integrity First: Mastering Transactions in Supabase SQL for Reliable Applications
    But relying on these safeguards isn't as simple as sprinkling BEGIN and COMMIT into your code. You still have to address challenges like race conditions, constraint violations, and mid-transaction failures across API layers. Supabase helps solve these issues by building on Postgres and handling the transaction logic directly at the database itself. It exposes the logic through streamlined interfaces that preserve... - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • Build a Real-Time Chat App with Flutter and Supabase
    If you don't have an account, head over to supabase.com and sign up. Once you're in, create a new project. Give it a name, generate a secure database password, and choose a region. Your project will be ready in a couple of minutes. - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • Cheat Sheet for Basic Python for Postgres
    Instead of setting up a local Postgres instance, I decided to use Supabase because it provides a fully managed, hosted Postgres database out of the box, simplifying the setup time and database management. This allows us to focus entirely on writing and deploying the application code without worrying about infrastructure details. First, visit Supabase and create a free account if you don't have one yet. - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
View more

Django mentions (15)

  • Emails Setup in Django Using AWS
    Let's dive into a quick implementation of this using AWS and Django. We will be using a couple of ideas from the AWS Official Blog. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Top 10 Backend Frameworks in 2022
    Django is a high-level Python web framework. It is an Model-View-Template(MVT)-based, open-source web application development framework. It was released in 2005. It comes with batteries included. Some popular websites using Django are Instagram, Mozilla, Disqus, Bitbucket, Nextdoor and Clubhouse. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Boss wants me to make a student management system
    This seems like a job for Django. MDN offers a really good tutorial here. To be honest, it would be a massive undertaking so Iโ€™d recommend going for a prebuilt solution like PowerSchool and the like. Source: about 3 years ago
  • What's django equivalent to ruby gems? Django beginner here
    The first party docs are second to none. Start out with the official tutorial on https://djangoproject.com . Source: over 3 years ago
  • What's django equivalent to ruby gems? Django beginner here
    Im teaching myself to build a backend SaaS. Can you build it just as fast as with RoR and gems? Is it all on the documentation on djangoproject.com? Just learning how to use it atm, any good tutorials as well? Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Supabase and Django, you can also consider the following products

Firebase - Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications for mobile and web.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Next.js - A small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript apps

Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...

AppWrite - Appwrite provides web and mobile developers with a set of easy-to-use and integrate REST APIs to manage their core backend needs.

ASP.NET - ASP.NET is a free web framework for building great Web sites and Web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.