Open-Source and Missing Features – Request for Clarification and Feedback

[nyxb]

Hi Supabase Team,

First off, I want to say a huge thank you for the incredible work you’ve done! Supabase is a fantastic platform, and I really appreciate the time and effort you put into it. It has been incredibly helpful to me and many others, and I see so much potential moving forward.

However, there’s something that has been on my mind, and I’d like to bring it to your attention: the discrepancy between the open-source and the commercial version of Supabase. For me – and I believe many others in the open-source community – open-source means having the ability to host and run the exact same project on our own that is also being offered as a cloud service. This should be the fundamental principle of open-source.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Supabase right now. Key features like multi-project management, replication, user management, and more are missing in the open-source version, as illustrated in this screenshot:

This leads to disappointment, as when a project is promoted as open-source, I expect that it’s possible to self-host the entire project, including all of its features, without limitations. Commercial services such as support or a managed cloud offering should be additional options, but the core features shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall. The current approach feels more like an “open-paywall,” which is unfortunately a trend we’re seeing more often in the open-source space.

A great example of how it can be done differently is Coolify. Even though it’s a relatively new project, it offers a wide range of features and is truly fully open-source, without any restrictions. It shows that you can offer a powerful product that is both commercially viable and fully open-source, and the community really appreciates this approach. Coolify has truly embraced the open-source spirit, and I wish Supabase would move more in that direction.

Despite this criticism, I want to emphasize that I think Supabase is an amazing platform, and I hope my concerns are taken as constructive feedback. I believe these points are worth discussing internally to further strengthen the open-source version and maintain a good balance between open-source and commercial offerings.

Thank you for your time and for the great work you’re doing!

Best regards,
nyxb