Scribase vs Supabase vs Neon, directly
Supabase gives you a backend (Postgres plus Auth, Storage, Realtime and REST). Neon gives you Postgres with fast copy-on-write branching and nothing else. Scribase speaks the Supabase API and adds Neon-style branching to the same project, at a flat per-project price with no project cap — the two things people ask for when they already run one of the other two and hit a limit.
Last checked October 28, 2026.
What each one actually is
| Scribase | Supabase | Neon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Backend platform + branching | Backend platform | Managed Postgres |
| Postgres version | 17 | 17 (project-dependent) | Latest stable, serverless/autoscaling |
| API compatibility | Speaks the supabase-js API (REST, Auth, Storage, Realtime, Functions) | Native (PostgREST, GoTrue, Storage, Realtime) | None of these — Postgres only |
| Branching | Copy-on-write, own URL and keys, built into every project | Not a first-class feature | Copy-on-write, seconds to create, its core feature |
| Auth | Built in, supabase-js compatible | Built in (GoTrue) | Not included |
| Storage (files) | Built in, RLS-secured, S3-protocol access | Built in, RLS-secured | Not included |
| Realtime | Built in (Postgres changes, broadcast, presence) | Built in | Not included |
| Edge functions | Built in (Deno) | Built in (Deno) | Not included |
| Database import with password-preserving auth migration | Built in (`scribase import`) | n/a (source side) | n/a (source side) |
Free tier and entry pricing
| Scribase | Supabase | Neon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Try a full project with no card via the no-signup demo and a temporary project; a persistent project needs the $1 refundable card check | 500 MB database, 1 GB storage, 5 GB egress; paused after 1 week of inactivity | 1 GB storage/project (20 GB/account), compute scales to zero after 5 minutes idle, always on |
| Projects per organization (free/entry) | No cap at any paid tier | Limit of 2 active projects (a paused project does not count, but is unusable until resumed) | 100 projects, 10 branches each |
| Entry paid plan | $25/month flat, per project, every feature included | Pro, from $25/month per organization, plus $10/month in compute credits per project (covers one Micro instance; each extra project adds its own compute cost) | Launch: pay-as-you-go, $0.106/CU-hour compute + $0.35/GB-month storage, no fixed monthly fee |
| What changes the bill | How many projects you keep, at one flat rate each | Organization fee plus a separate compute line per project | Metered compute-hours and storage, no per-project flat fee |
Sources: Scribase pricing, Supabase: Pricing, Neon: Pricing
When each one is the right call
- Pick Neon when the app already has its own Auth, Storage and API layer built and wired up, and the only thing being shopped for is Postgres with fast, cheap branches for CI and preview environments.
- Pick Supabase when the project wants Auth, Storage and a generated REST/Realtime layer without building it, and a 2-active-project free cap plus a per-project compute add-on on Pro are acceptable at the current scale.
- Pick Scribase when the ask is both at once: the supabase-js surface an app already calls, and Neon-style branching for preview databases, in one project with no 2-project cap and no compute line item that multiplies per project — or when an existing Supabase project needs to move without resetting every user’s password (see the migration guide below).
Where Scribase is not yet ahead
Direct TCP Postgres access (plain psql/pg_restore against a public host) is still rolling out, so a from-scratch Neon migration today goes through SQL-file migrations rather than pg_restore — covered on the Neon migration guide below.
Scribase is a newer, smaller operation than either vendor: Supabase and Neon both have larger teams, longer public track records and enterprise compliance programs further along. For a team whose main requirement is "biggest, most established vendor," that is a real, fair reason to pick one of them instead.
Questions people ask
Is Scribase actually compatible with supabase-js, or just similar?
It implements the same API surface — REST (PostgREST-shaped), Auth, Storage, Realtime and Edge Functions — so an existing supabase-js client points at Scribase with a URL and key change, not a rewrite. The live, no-signup demo at /demo runs a real query and a real branch create against it.
Does Scribase have Neon’s branching, or something weaker?
Copy-on-write, same idea as Neon: a branch gets its own URL and keys and can start from a point in time. It runs on the project’s own Postgres engine rather than Neon’s infrastructure, so branch-creation latency is not identical to Neon’s — see /postgres-branching for the measured numbers.
Can I move an existing Supabase or Neon project to Scribase?
Yes. From Supabase, the importer preserves user ids and password hashes so nobody resets a password — see /migrate/supabase. From Neon, there is no Auth/Storage/Realtime to bring since Neon does not have them; dump the schema and data and apply them as migrations — see /migrate/neon.
Why would I pick Scribase over two bigger, more established vendors?
Because it closes the specific gap of needing both the Supabase API surface and Neon-style branching in one project, at one flat per-project price with no project cap. If that combination is not the actual need, Supabase or Neon alone is a reasonable and more established choice — this page is not trying to claim otherwise.