Supabase hands you a database, auth, storage, and edge functions — the raw pieces you build a backend on top of. 23blocks hands you 20+ finished backend blocks — auth, CRM, forms, files, products, search — each a complete API for a whole business domain. Different shapes, same principle: you should own your code and never pay for software, only for running it.
Compare the approach, not a price list — prices and quotas change, the shape of the product doesn't.
| Approach | Supabase | 23blocks |
|---|---|---|
| Unit you adopt | A database, an auth service, a storage bucket, an edge function — infrastructure primitives | A finished backend block for a domain — auth, CRM, forms, products — a complete API |
| What you still build | The business logic on top: your own tables, RLS policies, functions, and endpoints | Your app's UI and unique logic — the block already handles the domain's backend |
| Open source scope | Core infra (Postgres, GoTrue, Storage, Realtime) is open source today | All 20+ business-logic blocks go open source July 31, 2026 |
| Adoption pattern | Typically all-in: your whole backend lives on one Supabase project | Per-block: adopt one block for one feature, add others as you need them |
| Own-infra path | Self-host the open-source stack yourself, operate it yourself | Start on shared, graduate to your own cloud — we deploy and maintain it, or you run our recipes |
| What you pay for | Running the managed project, or your own infra if self-hosted | Running the platform — shared usage, or your own infra we operate. Never the code |
If Supabase gives you the shelf and the wood, 23blocks gives you the finished furniture — for the parts of your backend that are the same problem every team solves from scratch.
Auth, CRM, forms, files, products, content, visual search, and more — each a complete, production API you adopt in place of writing that domain's backend yourself.
Every block's code becomes open source. Read it, fork it, extend it, and take updates on your schedule — the same principle Supabase built its reputation on, applied to a bigger surface.
Start on the shared platform, then move the identical platform onto your own cloud with a reversible migration — no code rewrite, no re-architecture, your data verified table by table.
A casting and talent platform ran 11 blocks as a single tenant on the shared platform, then graduated to their own cloud with all four consumer surfaces cut over and zero traffic left on shared — no code rewrite.
We'd rather tell you this upfront than have you find out after you've built on the wrong foundation.
If your app's logic is best expressed as SQL, views, and Postgres functions you write and tune yourself, Supabase's Postgres-first model is the more direct path. 23blocks blocks hide the schema behind an API by design.
If none of your domains map to a common business pattern — no auth, no CRM, no forms, nothing resembling a standard block — you're building bespoke logic from day one, and primitives give you a cleaner slate.
Supabase's realtime layer over Postgres changes is mature and widely used. If live data sync is your core feature, it's a strong, proven building block to start from.
Teams fluent in SQL and Postgres administration get more leverage from a primitives-first tool. 23blocks is built for teams who'd rather consume a domain API than operate a database schema.
The honest version: pick primitives when you want to design the schema yourself. Pick blocks when the domain is common enough that someone else solving it well saves you months.
Yes. On July 31, 2026, every 23blocks block goes open source, the same way Supabase's core has always been open. The difference is scope: Supabase open-sources database, auth, storage, and realtime primitives. 23blocks open-sources 20+ full backend blocks — auth, CRM, forms, files, products, search, and more — each a complete, production-ready API, not a primitive you assemble yourself.
Supabase gives you database, auth, storage, and edge functions — infrastructure primitives you build your backend logic on top of. 23blocks gives you finished backend blocks for whole business domains — CRM, forms, content, products, visual search — so you adopt a block per feature instead of writing that backend logic yourself.
Yes. Start on our shared platform, then graduate to "23blocks in a Box" — the same code, deployed to infrastructure you own, either self-hosted with our deployment recipes or managed by us. The migration is reversible and requires no code rewrite.
No. You adopt blocks one at a time — add the auth block for login, the forms block for a survey, the files block for uploads — and each one works independently. You are never required to migrate your whole backend to start using one block.
Free tier, pay-as-you-grow, and a reversible path to your own infrastructure whenever you need it.
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