Franchise vs Supabase
| Tagline | Notebook-style SQL client that runs entirely in the browser with DuckDB | Open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL with realtime and auth |
| Category | Databases & Spreadsheets | Databases & Spreadsheets |
| Replaces | Retool, Google Sheets | Airtable, Google Sheets, Retool |
| GitHub stars | 4.2k | 78k |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 1/5 Effortless | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 4 years ago | 17 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.
Franchise
- Project has had minimal maintenance since 2022; compatibility with modern browsers may degrade
- Remote database connections require a separately hosted relay proxy to avoid CORS issues
- No user authentication, access control, or saved query sharing for teams
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 Franchise 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