Supabase schema risks versus Firebase
CTO at insurtech startup on how AI code generation undermined Supabase's core value proposition
This is really a claim about who owns backend complexity, and whether the mess shows up in app code or in the data layer. Supabase makes it very easy to ship by exposing a full Postgres database, instant APIs, auth, and row level security in one place, but that also means teams can create tables and policies quickly without always building the review process around them. Firebase shifts teams into a document model with separate security rules, which some advisors see as easier to reason about for lightweight apps, even though it is a very different database shape with its own tradeoffs.
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Supabase puts authorization close to the database. Its docs say any table in the public schema is accessible through the Data API and should have row level security enabled. That is powerful, but it also makes schema design and access rules part of the same operational surface, so weak engineering hygiene compounds fast.
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The internal evidence is mixed, which is the real point. One healthtech founding engineer saw Supabase as great for getting started but not a forever home for serious teams, while a public sector startup using Supabase for auth, storage, and Postgres reported no schema issues and said row level security remained manageable with periodic investment.
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Firebase is not a cleaner Postgres. It is a schemaless document database where data lives in collections and documents, so moving from Supabase to Firebase is often less about fixing one bad schema and more about moving to a simpler app pattern with fewer joins, fewer relational edge cases, and a narrower set of workflows to support.
Going forward, the split becomes sharper. Supabase is increasingly the fast default for AI generated apps and non developers, while more mature teams either impose stronger migration and policy discipline on top of it or move toward infrastructure they control more directly. The winner is not the tool with the best launch flow, but the one that keeps the data model legible once the app stops being simple.