Fauna
Supabase
| Feature | Fauna | Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $0.01/mo | Free / from $25/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.1 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 |
| Best For | serverless-developers, jamstack-apps, globally-distributed-apps, startups | developers, startups, indie-hackers, full-stack-teams |
| Founded | 2012 | 2020 |
| Acid Transactions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Document Relational | ✓ | ✗ |
| Graphql Native | ✓ | ✗ |
| Global Distribution | ✓ | ✗ |
| Event Streaming | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Tenancy | ✓ | ✗ |
| Temporality | ✓ | ✗ |
| Postgres Database | ✗ | ✓ |
| Authentication | ✗ | ✓ |
| Edge Functions | ✗ | ✓ |
| Real Time | ✗ | ✓ |
| Storage | ✗ | ✓ |
| Vector Embeddings | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hosting | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Fauna Pros
- Globally distributed with strong consistency
- Combines document and relational models
- Native GraphQL and FQL query support
- Serverless with no infrastructure to manage
✗ Fauna Cons
- Proprietary query language (FQL) has learning curve
- Can be expensive at high read/write volumes
- Smaller community compared to MongoDB or PostgreSQL
✓ Supabase Pros
- Full Postgres with SQL access
- Generous free tier (500MB, 50K monthly active users)
- Auth, storage, and edge functions included
- Open-source and self-hostable
✗ Supabase Cons
- Can be complex for non-developers
- Pauses inactive free projects after 7 days
- Real-time can be expensive at scale
The Verdict
Fauna is built for serverless developers and jamstack apps, with a focus on acid-transactions and document-relational. Supabase targets developers and startups and leads with postgres-database and authentication.
On pricing, Fauna is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $0.01/mo compared to $25/mo for Supabase. That $24.99/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Supabase edges out on user ratings (4.7 vs 4.1). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Both tools are a solid fit for startups — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
Bottom line: Supabase has a slight overall edge — but if globally distributed with strong consistency matters most to you, Fauna may still be the right call.