v1.1.0: 126 plugins (26 free + 100 paid), Go-native binary, CLI/Admin lockstep. What's new

ɳSelf vs Supabase

Supabase is the best hosted Postgres-as-a-Service on the market. That is a real compliment. If you want an elegant dashboard, managed pooling, and someone else's on-call rotation, use Supabase.

ɳSelf is for the case where that is the wrong trade.

The short version

Where Supabase wins

• Zero ops. Click a button, get a Postgres. They keep it up.
• Polished dashboard. Supabase Studio is great. ɳSelf Admin is a local companion, not a hosted UI.
• Row Level Security with Postgres RLS first. Supabase was built around RLS. ɳSelf uses Hasura permissions by default, which is a different mental model.
• Brand recognition. Investors know the name.

Where ɳSelf wins

• You own the server. All data, all logs, all backups. No surprise egress fees.
• Flat pricing that does not scale with MAUs. A $0.99/mo plugin bundle is $0.99/mo whether you have 10 users or 10 million. Supabase's Pro plan starts at $25/mo and climbs with MAU/bandwidth/function duration.
• Real custom services. Want a Go microservice, a Python FastAPI worker, or a Rust plugin? Drop it in CS_1..CS_10. With Supabase you use Deno Edge Functions or nothing.
• The AI suite. ɳClaw, ɳMux, ɳVoice, ɳBrowser, an integrated AI assistant stack with persistent memory. Not available on Supabase at any price.
• Hasura GraphQL out of the box. GraphQL with permissions + remote schemas + subscriptions, not a separate product.

Pricing at realistic scale

1,000 daily active users, one mid-sized Postgres, moderate function usage:

• Supabase Pro: $25/mo base + per-MAU overages + function GB-s + egress ≈ $40–$120/mo in practice.
• ɳSelf: one Hetzner CX33 ($14.90/mo) + plugin bundle ($0.99/mo) = ~$16/mo. Your compute, your bandwidth, nothing metered.

The numbers diverge further at 10k+ users. Supabase tops out in the hundreds to low thousands per month. ɳSelf tops out at whatever your server costs plus bundle prices.

Lock-in tradeoffs

• Postgres dump works in both directions. Moving to or from Supabase is straightforward at the data layer.
• Edge Functions → CS_N is a rewrite. Deno is not Node/Go/Python, and most business logic in Supabase edge functions will not transfer without changes.
• Supabase Auth → nHost Auth (ɳSelf Auth) is a migration. Both use JWT, but user shape + RLS policies differ.

When to pick Supabase

• You genuinely do not want to run a server.
• Your team would rather pay $500/mo than hire 0.1 FTE of DevOps.
• You want to ship a weekend prototype with zero setup.

When to pick ɳSelf

• You will never "exit to your own infra" because you started there.
• Your cost curve cannot bend with user count.
• You want Postgres + Hasura + Auth + Storage + a real AI stack in one Compose file.
• Data residency, compliance, or sovereignty matters.

Migration outline

1. Run nself init on a Hetzner/Oracle/DigitalOcean box.
2. pg_dump from Supabase, psql into ɳSelf.
3. Regenerate Hasura metadata from your schema.
4. Rewrite Edge Functions as Custom Services (CS_N).
5. Point DNS. Delete the Supabase project. Keep the backup.

Links: install ɳSelf · pricing · full comparison matrix