Full Comparison Table
Green = better option for that feature. Both are great — this shows where each wins.
| Feature | 🔥 Firebase | ⚡ Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| Database type | NoSQL (Firestore) | PostgreSQL (SQL) |
| Free tier | Very generous | 500MB + 2 projects |
| Free tier (₹ value) | ₹0 for small apps | ₹0 for small apps |
| Paid plan | Pay as you go | $25/mo (~₹2,075) |
| Real-time updates | Built-in, instant | Yes (websockets) |
| Authentication | Excellent | Good |
| Angular support | @angular/fire library | JS client only |
| Open source | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Self-hostable | ❌ No | ✅ Docker support |
| Vendor lock-in | High (Google) | Low |
| Complex queries | Limited (NoSQL) | Full SQL + JOINs |
| File storage | Firebase Storage | Supabase Storage |
| India latency | Fast (Google CDN) | Good |
Firebase — My Real Experience
Used on 5 Angular projects. Here's the honest truth.
Firebase is Google's Backend-as-a-Service platform. It's been around since 2011 and is incredibly mature. For Angular developers specifically, it has an official library @angular/fire that integrates beautifully with RxJS Observables.
The biggest reason I keep using Firebase for Angular projects is the developer experience. You write almost no backend code. Authentication, file uploads, real-time database — it all just works out of the box.
// In your Angular service
import { collection, collectionData } from '@angular/fire/firestore';
const tools$ = collectionData(
collection(this.firestore, 'tools')
);
// UI updates INSTANTLY when Firestore data changes.
// No polling. No manual refresh. Just reactive magic.What Firebase genuinely does well
Data changes appear in your UI in under 100ms. No polling. Perfect for chat, dashboards, live feeds.
@angular/fire gives you typed Observables, SSR support, and Angular-native patterns.
Google, GitHub, email/password, phone OTP — all in 10 lines of code. No backend server needed.
50,000 reads/day + 20,000 writes/day free. Most small apps never leave the free tier.
Where Firebase frustrated me
Need "all orders where product = X AND status = Y AND price > 500"? You can't do that in one Firestore query. You'll need multiple calls and merge them in JavaScript.
After 6 months on Firebase, your entire data structure, queries, and auth are Google-specific. Migrating later is painful.
The pay-as-you-go Blaze plan has no hard cap. A traffic spike or a bug that runs too many reads can mean an unexpected bill.
Firebase pricing in ₹ (2026)
- ✅ 1GB Firestore storage
- ✅ 50,000 reads/day
- ✅ 20,000 writes/day
- ✅ Authentication free
- ✅ 10GB hosting/month
- ❌ No Cloud Functions
- ✅ Everything in Spark
- ✅ Cloud Functions
- ✅ 1M reads ≈ ₹70
- ✅ 1M writes ≈ ₹355
- ⚠️ Set budget alerts!
- ⚠️ No hard spending cap
Supabase — My Real Experience
Used on 3 projects. The SQL power is genuinely impressive.
Supabase launched in 2020 and has grown incredibly fast. The promise: "Firebase, but with PostgreSQL." What that means in practice is that you get a full Postgres database, a REST API auto-generated from your schema, real-time subscriptions, auth, and file storage — all from one dashboard.
The biggest thing Supabase changed for me: I stopped thinking about how to structure data for the database and started thinking about the actual data relationships. With full SQL, you model your data the right way and the queries follow naturally.
// This single query would need 4+ Firestore calls + JS merging
const { data } = await supabase
.from('orders')
.select(`
id,
total,
products ( name, price, category ),
users ( email, phone )
`)
.eq('status', 'completed')
.gte('total', 1000)
.order('created_at', { ascending: false })
.limit(20);
// One query. Joins included. Try doing THAT in Firestore.What Supabase genuinely does well
JOINs, indexes, views, triggers, full-text search — every SQL feature you already know works perfectly.
Your data lives in a standard Postgres database. You can self-host with Docker or migrate to any other Postgres host.
$25/mo flat for Pro (₹2,075). No surprise bills. No "you read 2M documents this month" shock.
Create a table in the dashboard → instantly get a typed REST API. No backend code needed.
Where Supabase frustrated me
If your project gets no traffic for 1 week, Supabase pauses the database. First request after pause takes 30+ seconds to "wake up". Annoying for side projects.
You use the plain JS client. It works, but you lose the reactive Observable patterns that @angular/fire gives you natively.
Supabase is improving fast but it's still newer than Firebase. Rare but I've hit unexpected issues in production.
Supabase pricing in ₹ (2026)
- ✅ 500MB database
- ✅ 5GB bandwidth
- ✅ 50MB file storage
- ✅ Auth included
- ⚠️ Pauses after 1 week inactive
- ⚠️ 2 projects max
- ✅ 8GB database
- ✅ 250GB bandwidth
- ✅ 100GB file storage
- ✅ No project pausing
- ✅ Daily backups
- ✅ Predictable billing
Which one for your project?
Here are real project types and which database I'd pick for each.
🏆 Final Verdict
For Indian Angular developers starting a new project in 2026 — I recommend Supabase for most new projects. PostgreSQL is more powerful, pricing is predictable, and you avoid Google lock-in completely.
However — if your app needs real-time features from day one, or you're already comfortable with the Angular + Firebase stack — Firebase is still excellent and the @angular/fire integration is the smoothest BaaS experience in the Angular ecosystem.
🔥 Choose Firebase if...
- ✅ Building with Angular (best integration)
- ✅ Need real-time data sync
- ✅ Need Google/Apple/Phone auth
- ✅ Small app, simple data structure
- ✅ Want the fastest possible setup
⚡ Choose Supabase if...
- ✅ You know SQL
- ✅ Need complex queries / JOINs
- ✅ Want open-source, no lock-in
- ✅ Need predictable flat-rate pricing
- ✅ Building relational data models