On this page 10 sections
Neon and Supabase both give you managed Postgres, and they solve different problems. Neon is serverless Postgres: storage and compute are separate, compute scales to zero when idle and autoscales when busy, and branching gives every preview environment its own copy of the data. Supabase is a backend in a box: a dedicated Postgres per project with auth, file storage, realtime and an auto-generated API around it.
Pick Neon when the database is idle much of the time or branching is central to how you ship. Pick Supabase when your frontend talks to the database directly and you want auth and storage in the same place. This post compares them on features and on list prices from each pricing page as of 2026-10-27.
TL;DR
- Neon bills compute per CU-hour ($0.106 on Launch, $0.222 on Scale, where a CU is about 4 GB of memory) plus $0.35 per GB-month of storage, with no plan fee.
- Supabase bills a plan fee (Pro from $25 a month, with $10 of compute credit) plus each project’s compute size by the hour, with 8 GB of disk included per project.
- For a database that is idle most of the day, Neon is far cheaper. For an always-on database with 1 GB of memory, Neon is about $22 a month and Supabase Pro $25.
- At 4 GB of memory always on, Supabase Pro on Medium is about $78 and Neon about $88.
- If you mostly need Postgres next to your own backend, a flat-priced managed Postgres can cost less than both: about $10 a month for 1 GB on Ownkube.
Neon vs Supabase at a glance
| Neon | Supabase | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Serverless Postgres | Postgres plus auth, storage, realtime and an API |
| Compute | Autoscales, scales to zero | Fixed size per project, chosen by you |
| Idle database | Suspends after 5 minutes on Free and Launch, configurable on Scale | Keeps running on paid plans; free projects pause after a week inactive |
| Branching | Core feature, copy-on-write, seconds to create | Available, each branch bills its own compute |
| Auth and file storage | Offered, smaller in scope | Core features |
| Pricing model | Usage only, no plan fee | Plan fee plus compute by the hour |
| Free plan | 100 projects, 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project | 2 active projects, 500 MB each |
| Restore window | 6 hours on Free, up to 7 days on Launch, 30 on Scale | Daily backups (7 days on Pro); point-in-time recovery is $100 a month per 7 days |
How are Neon and Supabase built differently?
Neon separates storage from compute
Neon stores data in its own storage layer and runs Postgres compute on top of it. That is what lets compute stop when nobody is connected and start again on the next query, usually within a second or so.
The same design makes branching cheap. A branch is a copy-on-write pointer into the same storage, so a branch of a 50 GB database costs only the data that changes on it.
The trade-off is the cold start. The first query after a suspend waits for compute to start, and connection-heavy apps should use Neon’s pooled connection string.
Supabase runs a Postgres per project
Each Supabase project gets its own Postgres instance on a compute size you pick, from Micro (1 GB) to 16XL (256 GB). It runs all the time on paid plans, so there is no cold start, and the price does not change with load.
Around that database, Supabase adds the parts a frontend needs: auth with row-level security, file storage, realtime subscriptions, edge functions and a REST and GraphQL API generated from your schema. If your app uses those, Supabase replaces several services.
How do Neon and Supabase pricing compare?
Neon pricing
| Plan | Compute | Storage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 CU-hours per project | 1 GB per project | Up to 2 CU, always scales to zero |
| Launch | $0.106 per CU-hour | $0.35 per GB-month | Up to 16 CU, 7-day restore window |
| Scale | $0.222 per CU-hour | $0.35 per GB-month | Up to 16 CU autoscaling or 56 CU fixed, 30-day window |
The restore window bills $0.20 per GB-month of history. Egress includes 500 GB per project, then $0.10 per GB. See Neon pricing explained for the full breakdown.
Supabase pricing
| Plan | Fee | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 projects, 500 MB database, 5 GB egress |
| Pro | from $25 a month | $10 compute credit, 8 GB disk per project, 250 GB egress, 100,000 monthly active users |
| Team | from $599 a month | Pro quotas plus organization features |
Compute sizes run from Micro ($10 a month, 1 GB) through Small ($15, 2 GB) and Medium ($60, 4 GB) to Large ($110, 8 GB). See Supabase pricing explained for worked bills.
The same database on both
| Database | Neon Launch | Supabase Pro | Ownkube |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle most of the day: 1 GB memory awake 4 hours a day, 2 GB data | about $4 | $25 | about $2 |
| Always on, 1 GB memory, 8 GB data | about $22 | $25 | $10 |
| Always on, 2 GB memory, 20 GB data | about $46 | $31.50 | $17 |
| Always on, 4 GB memory, 30 GB data | about $88 | $77.75 | $35.50 |
Neon figures use $0.106 per CU-hour, with 0.25 CU for the first two rows, then 0.5 and 1 CU. Supabase figures include the $25 plan fee and the $10 compute credit, on Micro, Small and Medium. The Ownkube idle row is a DB 1 box ($8 a month while it runs) with idle to zero turned on: it bills about 120 hours of the box plus storage, because only storage bills while it sleeps.
Against Supabase, Neon wins clearly when the database sleeps most of the time, such as a side project, a preview environment or an internal tool. Supabase gets cheaper relative to Neon as an always-on database grows, because its fixed compute sizes cost less per GB of memory than Neon’s always-on CU-hours.
Which has the better free plan?
Neon’s is better for databases. It allows up to 100 projects with 100 CU-hours and 1 GB of storage each, and an idle database scales to zero rather than pausing for good. You do not need a card.
Supabase’s free plan suits trying the whole platform. It has two active projects with 500 MB each, 50,000 monthly active users for auth and 1 GB of file storage. A project with no activity for a week is paused until you unpause it.
Branching: Neon vs Supabase
On Neon, a branch is a full copy of the database at a point in time, created in seconds whatever the size, and it bills only for the data that changes on it and the compute it uses. Launch includes 10 branches per project and Scale 25, then $1.50 per branch-month. Teams often create one branch per pull request and delete it on merge, which is the workflow Neon is built around.
Supabase branching creates a separate preview environment per Git branch, running migrations and seed data. Each branch bills its own compute by the hour, outside the $10 compute credit. It suits teams that want the auth and storage setup copied along with the schema.
When to pick Neon
- The database is idle for long stretches, and you want to pay only while it works.
- You want a database branch per pull request or per preview deployment.
- Your app already has its own auth and file storage, and you want Postgres only.
- You run many small databases, such as one per customer, and most are quiet.
When to pick Supabase
- Your frontend reads and writes the database directly, with row-level security.
- You want auth, file storage and realtime from the same provider as the database.
- You want a fixed price that does not change with load, and no cold starts.
- You are building quickly and want a dashboard to edit tables and policies.
If the other option on your list is Firebase rather than Neon, Supabase vs Firebase compares Postgres with Firestore on data model, free plans and lock-in.
When neither fits
Both are built around the database as the center of the app. If your app is a backend server with its own API, workers and cron jobs, you also need somewhere to run that code, and it ends up on a second platform and a second bill.
Ownkube runs managed PostgreSQL 17 and 18 on flat boxes, from $4 a month for DB 0.5 (0.25 vCPU, 0.5 GiB), next to the app, workers and cron jobs that use it. Storage is $0.25 per GB and includes 7-day backups with point-in-time restore on Personal and Team.
A database can sleep when idle and wake on the next connection, and extensions such as pgvector, PostGIS, pg_cron and pg_trgm turn on from its Settings tab.
Ownkube has no database branching and no built-in auth or file storage, and runs in the Germany and Mumbai regions.
FAQ
Is Neon cheaper than Supabase?
For a database that is idle much of the day, yes, often by a lot, because Neon bills compute only while it runs. For an always-on database, Neon is a little cheaper at 1 GB of memory and Supabase is cheaper from about 2 GB up.
Can I use Neon with Supabase auth?
Not directly. Supabase auth is tied to the Supabase project’s database. With Neon, use Neon’s own auth, a library in your backend, or a hosted auth provider.
Does Neon have a cold start?
Yes, when compute has scaled to zero. The first query waits for compute to start, usually a fraction of a second to a few seconds. On Launch you can turn scale to zero off, and on Scale you can set the idle timeout from 1 minute to always on.
Can I migrate from Supabase to Neon?
Yes. Both run standard Postgres, so pg_dump from Supabase and pg_restore into Neon moves the data. Supabase’s auth and storage schemas come along unless you limit the dump to your own schemas, and you replace auth and file storage separately.
Do Neon and Supabase support pgvector?
Yes, both do, along with most common Postgres extensions. See our pgvector guide for setup and index choices.
Where Ownkube fits
If you are choosing between Neon and Supabase because your app needs a Postgres, and the app itself still needs a home, Ownkube runs both on one bill: the database on a flat box from $4 a month with backups in the storage price, and the app on compute billed per minute from a prepaid wallet. Our Supabase alternatives guide covers more options. Deploy my first app.