Supabase
Open source Postgres development platform with auth, instant APIs, realtime, storage and edge functions.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $25 a month (Pro), plus usage above the included limitsOpen source yesStars 111knpm a week 35M
Firebase alternatives
9 tools you can use instead of Firebase, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Supabase, Redis and MongoDB Atlas are the most used. Stats updated 16 hours ago.
When Firebase is not a good fit
Firebase is Google's backend-as-a-service platform, offering a NoSQL database (Firestore and Realtime Database), authentication, static hosting, serverless functions and analytics for mobile and web apps. It started as a real-time sync startup called Envolve in 2011, was relaunched as Firebase in 2012, and Google acquired it in October 2014. Firebase runs on a free Spark plan and a pay-as-you-go Blaze plan billed through Google Cloud.
It is a weaker choice for:
- Apps that need a relational (SQL) database as the primary data store
- Teams that want an open source or self-hostable backend
- Workloads with unpredictable Cloud Functions or Firestore usage where Blaze costs are hard to forecast
The alternatives
Most used first.
Firebase vs Supabase
Redis
In-memory data store used as a cache, database and message broker, available self-hosted or as Redis Cloud.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from about $0.007 an hour, with a $5 a month minimum, for the Essentials planOpen source noStars 76.6knpm a week 17M
MongoDB Atlas
MongoDB's fully managed cloud database service, with a free tier and usage-based paid tiers.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from about $0.011 an hour (up to $30 a month) for the Flex tier, or $0.08 an hour for the smallest Dedicated (M10) tierOpen source noStars 28.6knpm a week 18M
Neon
Serverless Postgres platform with autoscaling and instant branching, owned by Databricks.
Pricing FreemiumOpen source yesStars 23.2knpm a week 5.1M
Pocketbase
Open source backend in a single executable file, with a database, auth and storage built in.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 61.3knpm a week 284k
Appwrite
Open source backend platform bundling database, auth, storage, functions and messaging.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $25 a month per project for the Pro planOpen source yesStars 57.6knpm a week 57.5k
Turso
Distributed SQLite database platform built on libSQL, with databases deployable close to users.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $4.99 a month for the Developer planOpen source noStars 17.3knpm a week 4M
Convex
Reactive backend platform with a TypeScript database, server functions and real-time sync built in.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $25 a developer a month for the Professional planOpen source noStars 12.7knpm a week 1.9M
PlanetScale
Managed database platform built on Vitess, now offering both MySQL and Postgres.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $5 a month for a single-node Postgres instanceOpen source noStars 1.2knpm a week 486k
Firebase and its alternatives, side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firebase | Freemium | Yes: the Spark plan, with no-cost usage limits and no payment method required | Blaze plan is pay-as-you-go on top of the same free limits, billed through Google Cloud | No | 5.1k |
| Supabase | Freemium | Yes: 2 active projects, 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users, 1 GB file storage. Projects pause after 1 week of inactivity. | $25 a month (Pro), plus usage above the included limits | Yes, Apache-2.0 | 111k |
| Redis | Freemium | Yes: Redis Cloud's free tier includes up to 30 MB of storage on a shared deployment | about $0.007 an hour, with a $5 a month minimum, for the Essentials plan | No | 76.6k |
| MongoDB Atlas | Freemium | Yes: the M0 tier, free forever, with 512 MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU | about $0.011 an hour (up to $30 a month) for the Flex tier, or $0.08 an hour for the smallest Dedicated (M10) tier | No | 28.6k |
| Neon | Freemium | Yes: 0.5 GB storage and 100 compute hours a month per project, no credit card required | Not listed | Yes, Apache-2.0 (core storage engine) | 23.2k |
| Pocketbase | Open source | Yes, PocketBase is free and self-hosted; there is no paid managed version | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 61.3k |
| Appwrite | Freemium | Yes: 75,000 monthly requests, bandwidth and storage included, unlimited projects | $25 a month per project for the Pro plan | Yes, BSD-3-Clause | 57.6k |
| Turso | Freemium | Yes: 100 databases, 5 GB storage, 500 million rows read and 10 million rows written a month | $4.99 a month for the Developer plan | No | 17.3k |
| Convex | Freemium | Yes: 25 million function calls, 50 GB database storage, 100 GB file storage and 50 GB data egress a month included | $25 a developer a month for the Professional plan | No | 12.7k |
| PlanetScale | Pay as you go | No, there is no free plan; the Base plan is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum contract | $5 a month for a single-node Postgres instance | No | 1.2k |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
Questions
What is the most popular alternative to Firebase?
By GitHub stars, Supabase is the most used alternative to Firebase listed on ScratchDB, with 111k stars.
Which Firebase alternatives are open source?
Supabase, Neon, Pocketbase and Appwrite are open source.
Which Firebase alternatives have a free plan?
Supabase, Redis, MongoDB Atlas, Neon, Pocketbase, Appwrite, Turso and Convex have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.