Datasette vs Supabase
| Tagline | Explore and publish data from SQLite databases via a web UI | Open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL with realtime and auth |
| Category | Databases & Spreadsheets | Databases & Spreadsheets |
| Replaces | Airtable, Google Sheets | Airtable, Google Sheets, Retool |
| GitHub stars | 11k | 107k |
| Language | Python | TypeScript |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 8 days ago | 6 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Datasette
- SQLite-only; no native support for PostgreSQL or MySQL without third-party plugins
- Read-oriented by default; data editing requires plugins and extra configuration
- No spreadsheet-style formula engine or pivot tables like Google Sheets
- Multi-user collaboration and permissions are minimal without plugins
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 Datasette 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.
Supabase
Open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL with realtime and auth