Raff wins on published PostgreSQL resources, explicit high-availability pricing, private Raff connectivity, and a database-first operating model. Supabase wins on integrated Auth, Storage, Realtime, generated APIs, Edge Functions, branching, and a much broader region footprint. Choose Supabase if those backend-as-a-service features replace application engineering; choose Raff if PostgreSQL operations, portability, and predictable capacity are the primary decision. Both offer permanent $0 tiers: Raff includes 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 2 GB database storage, while Supabase Free includes a 500 MB database and up to 2 active projects.
After free, Raff Managed PostgreSQL starts at $7.99/month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 25 GB NVMe. Supabase Pro starts at $25/month and includes $10 in compute credits, enough for one Micro instance with 1 GB RAM and a 2-core ARM CPU. Supabase can also bill for database disk, egress, file storage, monthly active users, Realtime, Edge Functions, branches, and point-in-time recovery. Raff uses provisioned database tiers plus explicit storage, HA, and replica modifiers.
Supabase vs Raff: which is right for you?
Supabase and Raff overlap at managed PostgreSQL, but they solve different scopes. Supabase is a PostgreSQL-centered backend platform. Raff Managed PostgreSQL is a focused database service that sits alongside Raff application, compute, storage, and networking products.
At Raff, our decision rule comes before the price table: are you replacing a database service, or are you replacing an application backend? If Auth, Storage, Realtime, generated APIs, and functions are requirements, Supabase is the broader product. If those concerns already have an owner, compare PostgreSQL operations directly.
| Decision factor | Choose Raff | Choose Supabase |
|---|
| Primary need | Managed PostgreSQL with explicit capacity | Integrated backend platform around PostgreSQL |
| Free database | 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 2 GB | 500 MB database, shared CPU, 500 MB RAM |
| Paid entry | $7.99/month for 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB | Pro from $25/month with $10 compute credits |
| Authentication | Use application or selected provider | Integrated Supabase Auth |
| Realtime | Application-defined | Integrated Realtime service |
| File storage | Separate Raff Object Storage product | Integrated Supabase Storage |
| Functions | Raff Apps / Raff Functions as separate products | Integrated Edge Functions |
| PostgreSQL version | 14–16 | Hosted platform currently defaults to PostgreSQL 17 |
| Region choice | us-east | 17 specific AWS regions plus general-region selection |
| HA model | Optional synchronous standby at +70% | Platform/read-replica model; no equivalent fixed +70% standby toggle |
Supabase is the stronger choice when its integrated services remove meaningful application work. Raff is the stronger choice when the team wants PostgreSQL to remain a portable, separately operated infrastructure component.
For the broader ownership model, read Managed vs Self-Hosted Databases and PostgreSQL for SaaS Apps.
Supabase overview
Supabase combines a dedicated PostgreSQL database with application-facing backend services. Every project includes database APIs, Auth, Storage, Realtime, Edge Functions, client tooling, and observability capabilities, with limits and feature access determined by plan.
Its current public pricing starts with:
- Free — $0/month: up to 2 active projects, 500 MB database size per project, shared CPU, 500 MB RAM, 50,000 monthly active users, 1 GB file storage, 5 GB egress, 5 GB cached egress, and community support. Free projects can pause after one week of inactivity.
- Pro — from $25/month: 100,000 MAU, 8 GB database disk per project, 250 GB uncached egress, 250 GB cached egress, 100 GB file storage, email support, and daily backups retained for 7 days.
- Team — from $599/month: adds collaboration, access-control, compliance, support, and 14-day backup-retention features.
- Enterprise — custom: adds negotiated infrastructure, support, security, and uptime commitments.
Paid plans include $10/month in compute credits. Supabase's current pricing page lists Micro compute at $10/month with 1 GB RAM, a 2-core ARM CPU, 60 recommended direct connections, and 200 pooler connections, so the credit covers one Micro project for a full billing month.
Supabase's product advantage is integration. Auth can connect application identity to database Row Level Security; Storage and Realtime share the platform; generated APIs reduce boilerplate; Edge Functions provide a server-side runtime; and Pro branching can create isolated preview environments. A preview branch has no separate flat fee but incurs its own usage, with default Micro branch compute starting at $0.01344/hour.
Supabase's hosted platform currently defaults to PostgreSQL 17. That is a version-coverage advantage over Raff for applications that specifically require PostgreSQL 17 today.
Raff overview
Raff Managed PostgreSQL provides managed PostgreSQL with published vCPU, RAM, and NVMe allocations, managed backups, point-in-time recovery for supported production workflows, monitoring, built-in connection pooling, private connectivity, storage expansion, and optional high availability.
Raff's permanent PostgreSQL free tier includes 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 2 GB storage, 60 direct connections, and 200 pooled connections.
Current paid reference tiers include:
| Raff PostgreSQL tier | Monthly price | Resources |
|---|
| Entry | $7.99 | 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB |
| Small production | $45.99 | 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB |
| Scale | $146.99 | 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 180 GB |
Raff Managed PostgreSQL starts at $7.99/month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 25 GB NVMe.
Additional managed-database storage is $0.12/GB-month. PostgreSQL high availability adds 70% to the selected plan, and a PostgreSQL read replica is $29.99/month. Raff currently supports PostgreSQL 14, 15, and 16.
The database service does not bundle Supabase-equivalent Auth, Realtime, generated client APIs, or file storage into the PostgreSQL product. Teams can combine Managed PostgreSQL with Raff Apps, Raff Functions, Object Storage, VPC networking, or their own application services without making those layers part of the database contract.
Raff supports 3,000+ customers and 15,000+ production VMs under a published 99.9% platform SLA. On August 16, 2026, Raff's Trustpilot profile displayed 4.5/5; G2 is 4.6/5.
Supabase pricing vs Raff pricing
The two pricing models should not be treated as matched performance tiers. Supabase Pro is an organization-level backend plan with project compute and usage meters, while Raff prices provisioned managed PostgreSQL capacity directly.
| Buying position | Raff Managed PostgreSQL | Supabase | Practical difference |
|---|
| Free development | $0 — 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 2 GB | $0 — 500 MB DB/project, shared CPU, 500 MB RAM, up to 2 active projects | Both have permanent free tiers; Supabase bundles more backend services |
| Entry paid | $7.99 — 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB | Pro $25 — includes $10 compute credit covering one Micro | Raff is database-first; Supabase includes BaaS allowances |
| Small production | $45.99 — 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB | Pro + Small compute totals $30 for one project after the $10 credit | Not a performance match; model workload and BaaS usage separately |
| HA / recovery position | $78.18 — $45.99 tier with +70% HA | PITR starts about $100/month for 7 days and requires at least Small compute | Raff HA and Supabase PITR solve different risks |
| Higher capacity | $146.99 — 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 180 GB | Compute scales separately up to larger paid instances | Compare actual workload, connections, disk, and service usage |
Comparison class: these are buying positions, not matched benchmark tiers. Supabase Pro bundles backend services; Raff prices managed PostgreSQL capacity and explicit operational modifiers.
A single Supabase Pro project on Small compute is illustrated in Supabase's billing documentation as $25 plan + $15 compute - $10 credit = $30/month before additional usage. A Micro project remains covered by the $10 compute credit, leaving the base Pro subscription at $25 when usage stays within included allowances.
Automated backups and recovery cost
Supabase automatically backs up Pro, Team, and Enterprise projects daily. Pro retains 7 days, Team 14 days, and Enterprise up to 30 days. Point-in-time recovery is a separate add-on: about $100/month for 7 days, $200 for 14 days, or $400 for 28 days, and the project must use at least Small compute.
Raff includes managed backups and supports PITR for supported production PostgreSQL workflows. Optional HA is priced separately at +70% because failover availability and historical recovery are different controls.
Usage and add-on costs
Supabase Pro includes 8 GB of database disk per project and then charges $0.125/GB for general-purpose disk capacity. It also meters categories such as egress, file storage, MAU, Realtime messages and connections, Edge Function invocations, branching, and selected add-ons.
Raff paid plans include their listed database storage allocation. Extra managed-database storage is $0.12/GB-month, PostgreSQL HA is +70%, and a PostgreSQL read replica is $29.99/month.
Bandwidth and transfer policy
Supabase Pro currently includes 250 GB of uncached egress and 250 GB of cached egress. Usage above those separate allowances is $0.09/GB uncached and $0.03/GB cached. Cached egress applies to Storage CDN traffic; database, Auth, Realtime, Functions, Supavisor, and other traffic can contribute to uncached egress.
Using 1 TB = 1,024 GB and applying overage only after the 250 GB allowance, the transfer math is:
| Monthly traffic in one egress category | Supabase uncached overage | Supabase cached overage |
|---|
| 1 TB | $69.66 | $23.22 |
| 5 TB | $438.30 | $146.10 |
| 10 TB | $899.10 | $299.70 |
| 50 TB | $4,585.50 | $1,528.50 |
These figures model each quota independently; a real Supabase bill depends on how traffic is split between cached and uncached categories.
Raff private VPC traffic is unmetered. For managed-database traffic that leaves Raff over a public path, verify the current billing for that route rather than assuming the VM-specific public bandwidth policy applies to databases.
Supabase has an advantage when Storage CDN delivery and application services are deliberately integrated into the same billing model. Raff has an advantage when application-to-database traffic stays private inside Raff and the team wants database networking separated from public content delivery.
Feature comparison: Supabase vs Raff
| Feature | Raff Managed PostgreSQL | Supabase |
|---|
| Core product | Managed relational database service | PostgreSQL backend-as-a-service |
| Permanent free tier | 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 2 GB | 500 MB DB/project, shared CPU, 500 MB RAM, 2 active projects |
| Paid entry | $7.99/month | Pro from $25/month |
| Current PostgreSQL versions | 14–16 | Hosted platform defaults to PostgreSQL 17 |
| Connection pooling | Built in | Direct and pooled connection endpoints |
| Authentication | Application / selected provider | Integrated Supabase Auth |
| Generated APIs | Application-defined | Integrated database APIs |
| Realtime | Application-defined | Integrated Realtime |
| File storage | Separate Raff Object Storage | Integrated Supabase Storage |
| Functions | Separate Raff Functions / Apps | Integrated Edge Functions |
| Branching | Separate database environments | Preview branches on paid plans |
| Backups | Managed | Daily on Pro/Team/Enterprise |
| PITR | Supported production workflows | Paid add-on from about $100/month |
| Traditional HA | Optional synchronous standby +70% | No directly equivalent fixed-price synchronous-standby toggle |
| Region model | 1 public region: us-east | 17 specific AWS regions plus general regions |
Supabase wins on application-backend integration, PostgreSQL 17, preview environments, and geographic choice. Raff wins on provisioned resource visibility, explicit HA pricing, a focused database operating model, and portability across separately selected application services.
Features and reliability: Raff vs Supabase
This is a non-VM comparison, so the useful evidence is feature and operating-model reliability rather than synthetic performance claims. Raff and Supabase have 0 controlled head-to-head database benchmarks in this comparison, and neither is declared faster.
Engine and version coverage
Raff Managed PostgreSQL currently supports PostgreSQL 14–16. Supabase states that PostgreSQL 17 is now the default on its hosted platform and has also moved its current self-hosted default to PostgreSQL 17.
Supabase therefore wins when PostgreSQL 17 is a hard requirement. A migration from Supabase PostgreSQL 17 to Raff must resolve version compatibility before data movement; it is not a routine downgrade.
High availability and replicas
Raff offers an optional synchronous standby and automatic failover model priced at +70% of the selected PostgreSQL plan. This exposes availability cost before deployment.
Supabase offers read replicas and platform-managed project infrastructure, but its public pricing does not expose a directly equivalent fixed-price synchronous-standby toggle. Supabase's pricing page places formal uptime SLAs at Enterprise, while Team includes support SLAs. Read replicas should not be treated as backups or as an exact equivalent to Raff's synchronous HA topology.
Backups and point-in-time recovery
Raff includes managed backups and supports point-in-time recovery for supported production workflows. The application team still owns recovery-point selection and validation after restore.
Supabase Pro includes 7 days of daily backups, Team 14 days, and Enterprise up to 30 days. PITR is available to paid projects as an add-on starting around $100/month for 7 days and requires at least Small compute.
Networking and connections
Raff provides built-in pooling, TLS, allowlist controls, and private connectivity for Raff-hosted workloads. Private VPC traffic is unmetered.
Supabase gives each project direct and pooled PostgreSQL connection options. Its Pro pricing includes 250 GB uncached and 250 GB cached egress, while AWS PrivateLink is listed for Team and Enterprise rather than Free or Pro.
Maintenance and upgrades
Raff handles service-level maintenance for supported managed PostgreSQL versions while the application team owns schema migrations, query compatibility, extensions, credentials, and release validation.
Supabase manages hosted project infrastructure and provides PostgreSQL upgrade workflows. Its 2026 platform direction uses PostgreSQL 17 as the default, so teams with older projects should treat major-version compatibility and extension support as explicit upgrade work.
Reliability and trust signals
Raff publishes a 99.9% platform SLA and supports 3,000+ customers and 15,000+ production VMs. Its Trustpilot profile displayed 4.5/5 on August 16, 2026.
Supabase reports 8 million developers and 100,000 GitHub stars as of April 2026, which demonstrates a much larger developer ecosystem. Its Trustpilot page displayed 2.7/5 when checked on August 16, 2026. Review-site ratings are user sentiment signals, not uptime measurements.
When you should choose Supabase over Raff
- Integrated backend services — Supabase combines PostgreSQL with Auth, Storage, Realtime, APIs, and Edge Functions in one project.
- PostgreSQL 17 — Supabase's hosted platform currently defaults to PostgreSQL 17; Raff currently supports 14–16.
- Broader region choice — Supabase lists 17 specific AWS regions plus general-region selection; Raff has 1 public region,
us-east.
- Preview environments — Supabase branching creates isolated environments on paid plans, with Micro branch compute starting at $0.01344/hour.
- Free BaaS experimentation — Supabase Free provides 2 active projects plus Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Function allowances at $0.
- Large ecosystem — Supabase reported 8 million developers and 100,000 GitHub stars in April 2026.
When you should choose Raff over Supabase
- Focused managed PostgreSQL — Raff provides a $0 database tier and paid PostgreSQL from $7.99/month without requiring adoption of a BaaS layer.
- Published capacity — paid Raff tiers state vCPU, RAM, NVMe allocation, and monthly price directly.
- Explicit high availability — PostgreSQL HA adds 70% to the selected Raff plan; the $45.99 tier becomes $78.18/month.
- Private Raff application paths — private VPC traffic is unmetered when application and database services communicate inside Raff.
- Multiple database engines — Raff also provides managed MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse, and Kafka under the same cloud account.
- Portability by separation — authentication, API, function, and storage choices can remain independent of the PostgreSQL service.
Migrating from Supabase to Raff
A Supabase-to-Raff migration is not only a PostgreSQL copy when the application uses Supabase-specific backend services.
- Inventory the Supabase project. Record PostgreSQL major version, schemas, extensions, roles, Row Level Security policies, Auth providers, users, Storage buckets, Realtime subscriptions, Edge Functions, branches, webhooks, secrets, and client SDK dependencies.
- Confirm Raff compatibility and provision the target. Select a Raff PostgreSQL tier, verify every required extension and PostgreSQL version, configure pooling, TLS, access rules, private networking, backups, and optional HA.
- Move PostgreSQL data. Use
pg_dump/pg_restore for suitable databases or logical replication for an active low-downtime migration where source and target configuration permit it.
- Replace application-backend dependencies. Move file objects to the selected storage path, replace Supabase Auth where used, recreate API behavior, relocate Edge Functions, and redesign Realtime integrations that are not plain PostgreSQL features.
- Update application configuration. Replace Supabase project URLs, keys, database endpoints, auth callbacks, storage URLs, secrets, webhooks, generated-client assumptions, and branch-specific environment configuration.
- Validate and cut over. Verify row counts, sequences, extensions, RLS behavior, authentication, uploads, subscriptions, background jobs, connection pooling, backups, restore expectations, and rollback before switching production traffic.
Operational gotchas:
- A Supabase project already on PostgreSQL 17 cannot be treated as a routine downgrade to Raff PostgreSQL 14–16.
- Row Level Security policies may remain PostgreSQL objects, but application identity claims supplied by Supabase Auth must be recreated correctly.
- Supabase Storage signed URLs, Auth sessions, Realtime subscriptions, Edge Functions, and preview branches do not migrate automatically with the database.
- Client libraries can combine database, Auth, Storage, and Realtime calls behind one SDK, so each dependency must be mapped explicitly.
For a stateful production migration, keep Supabase available through a defined rollback window until database consistency and every application-facing replacement have been verified.
About Supabase
Supabase is operated by Supabase Inc., a remote-first company whose work began in January 2020. The platform combines managed PostgreSQL with Auth, Storage, Realtime, generated APIs, Edge Functions, branching, SDKs, and observability. Supabase operates as a distributed global company rather than around a single conventional office headquarters.
Conclusion: Supabase or Raff?
The comparison resolves across four measured decision axes:
- Product scope — Supabase bundles Auth, Storage, Realtime, APIs, Edge Functions, and branching; Raff keeps PostgreSQL focused and separately composable.
- Pricing model — both have $0 tiers; Raff paid PostgreSQL starts at $7.99/month while Supabase Pro starts at $25/month plus applicable usage.
- Operations — Raff publishes resource tiers and +70% PostgreSQL HA; Supabase combines project compute with platform services and add-ons.
- Reach and ecosystem — Supabase offers 17 specific AWS regions and a much larger developer ecosystem; Raff exposes
us-east and a narrower infrastructure model.
Choose Supabase when integrated backend services, PostgreSQL 17, preview environments, or broad regional placement are requirements. Choose Raff when PostgreSQL should remain a focused managed service with explicit resources, recovery choices, private connectivity, and predictable operational modifiers.
Raff supports 15,000+ production VMs and was verified at 4.5/5 on August 16, 2026.
