APITable vs Supabase
| Tagline | API-oriented low-code database and Airtable alternative with real-time collaboration | Open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL with realtime and auth |
| Category | Databases & Spreadsheets | Databases & Spreadsheets |
| Replaces | Airtable, Smartsheet | Airtable, Google Sheets, Retool |
| GitHub stars | 16k | 109k |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 4/5 Involved | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 9 days ago | yesterday |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
APITable
- Development has slowed significantly; commits and releases are infrequent.
- Self-hosting is heavy (Java backend, multiple services) and resource-hungry.
- Documentation for self-hosting is uneven and can be hard to follow.
- Smaller integration ecosystem than Airtable, and some features are cloud-only.
Supabase
- Self-hosted Docker Compose stack is complex: 8+ services including Kong, GoTrue, PostgREST, Realtime
- Studio table editor is less polished than Airtable UX for non-technical users
- Edge Functions are limited to Deno; no Node.js runtime in the self-hosted edition
Bottom line
Choose Supabase if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Supabase for the larger community and ecosystem. Supabase has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.