Supabase vs Windmill
| Tagline | Open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL with realtime and auth | Developer platform to turn scripts into workflows and internal apps |
| Category | Databases & Spreadsheets | Automation & iPaaS |
| Replaces | Airtable, Google Sheets, Retool | Zapier, Make, Retool |
| GitHub stars | 107k | 17k |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 2 days ago | 2 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.
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
Windmill
- Code-first approach is more developer-oriented than Zapier's pure no-code experience.
- AGPL plus a separate enterprise edition; some features (distributed workers at scale, SSO, audit) are gated.
- Fewer turnkey SaaS connectors; you often write the integration glue yourself.
- Self-hosting requires Postgres and worker configuration for real workloads.
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Supabase for the larger community and ecosystem. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Supabase
Open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL with realtime and auth