Ably vs Supabase(2026)
Ably is better for teams that need message ordering guaranteed. Supabase is the stronger choice if full postgres with sql. Ably is freemium (from $0 (free 6M messages/month)) and Supabase is freemium (from $25/month).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
By Bikram NathLast updated
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Ably
Ably is a realtime messaging platform with guaranteed delivery, ordering, and a global edge network.
Starting at $0 (free 6M messages/month)
Visit AblySupabase
Supabase is an open source Firebase alternative providing a Postgres database, Auth, realtime, storage, and edge functions.
Starting at $25/month
Visit SupabaseHow Do Ably and Supabase Compare on Features?
| Feature | Ably | Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | $0 (free 6M messages/month) | $25/month |
| Pub/Sub | ✓ | — |
| Presence | ✓ | — |
| Message history | ✓ | — |
| Push notifications | ✓ | — |
| Server-sent events | ✓ | — |
| MQTT support | ✓ | — |
| PostgreSQL | — | ✓ |
| Authentication | — | ✓ |
| Realtime | — | ✓ |
| Storage | — | ✓ |
| Edge Functions | — | ✓ |
| Auto-generated APIs | — | ✓ |
Ably Pros and Cons vs Supabase
Ably
Supabase
Deep dive: Supabase
When to choose Supabase
Choose Supabase if you're building modern applications that need real-time features (live collaboration, chat, notifications), PostgreSQL SQL queries, and built-in auth without Firebase's vendor lock-in. It's ideal for startups and solo devs—the free tier is genuinely useful: 500MB database, 1GB file storage, and 50K monthly auth events. The open-source architecture means you can self-host if Supabase ever becomes too expensive or unreliable. Supabase is the WRONG choice for static sites, simple blogs, or projects that don't need a database—you're overpaying for a data engine. The free tier has gotchas: projects pause after 1 week of inactivity, so it's not suitable for production apps unless you pay. Edge functions are limited (Node.js-only, limited dependencies), so if you need Python or heavy compute, look at Vercel or Lambda. Real-time subscriptions are great for user-facing features but add complexity and can get expensive at scale ($4/month per 1M realtime events).
Real-world use case
A founder built a real-time collaborative whiteboard app using Supabase's free tier: PostgreSQL for drawing data, auth for user management, and realtime subscriptions for live syncing. Development took 3 weeks because Supabase's JavaScript client made auth + database + realtime easy. Launch day: 200 beta users, freemium model (5 boards per user, pay $5/month for unlimited). Month 1 costs: $0 (free tier). Month 2: traffic exceeded free tier limits (database grew to 600MB); upgraded to Pro ($25/month). At 500 paid users ($5/month each), revenue was $2,500/month; Supabase cost was $25/month. The pricing math worked beautifully. If she'd used Firebase, vendor lock-in would've been higher, and Postgres SQL flexibility would've been lost. The real-time feature (10K concurrent users syncing) cost her an extra $200/month in realtime events by month 6, but that was still <1% of revenue.
Hidden gotchas
Supabase's free tier pauses projects after 7 days of inactivity—projects are frozen, databases reset, and cold starts hurt. Many developers are shocked to find their free project gone after a vacation. Pro tier pricing ($25/month) includes 500K realtime events; overages are $0.04 per 100K events—a popular app hits $500+ in surprise overages. Database backups on free tier are limited to the last 7 days; Pro tier gets 30 days. Restore operations aren't self-service; they require support tickets. Self-hosting Supabase is documented but complex: you need Docker, Kubernetes, and 2+ hours of setup. The authentication defaults are opinionated—if you need SAML, LDAP, or non-standard OAuth flows, you'll hit limitations. Edge functions (Deno-based) have strict limits: 10 second timeout, no native PostgreSQL connection pooling, and dependency issues (some npm packages won't work). Row-level security (RLS) is powerful but has a learning curve; misconfigured policies silently fail, returning empty rows instead of errors. Realtime subscriptions aren't designed for high-frequency updates (>100Hz); you'll hit performance cliffs. Rate limiting for APIs isn't clearly documented; high-concurrency apps might get throttled unexpectedly. Cold starts on edge functions are 1-2 seconds, much slower than Vercel.
Pricing breakdown
Supabase's free plan includes 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 50 MB bandwidth, and 500K Edge Function invocations. The Pro plan at $25/mo adds 8 GB database, 100 GB file storage, and 250 GB bandwidth. Beyond included limits: database is $0.125/GB, bandwidth is $0.09/GB, storage is $0.021/GB. At moderate scale (50K MAU, 20 GB database), expect $40-80/mo. The advantage: Postgres + Auth + Storage + Edge Functions bundled at roughly 60% the cost of running separate services. The cost trap: database compute is tied to your plan tier — CPU-heavy queries on the free/Pro plans hit performance ceilings.
Should You Use Ably or Supabase?
For most teams, Ably is the better default: it offers message ordering guaranteed and is freemium (from $0 (free 6M messages/month)). Choose Supabase instead if full postgres with sql matters more than more complex than pusher. There is no universal winner — the right pick depends on your budget, team size, and whether you value message ordering guaranteed or full postgres with sql more.
Choose Ably if…
- •Message ordering guaranteed
- •Generous free tier
- •Global edge network
Choose Supabase if…
- •Full Postgres with SQL
- •Built-in auth and storage
- •Open source