PocketBase
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Use it if you are a solo dev or small team shipping a self-contained app and you can self-host and self-support.
New check
Comparison
PocketBase vs Supabase
PocketBase and Supabase both land on Depends.
Supabase
Depends
Confidence: Low
Buy if you have developers who want a managed Postgres backend with serious compliance credentials (SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001).
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Solo devs and hackathons | Developer teams wanting Postgres plus auth, APIs, and storage |
| Who it's not for | Products needing multi-server or horizontal scale | Non-technical teams wanting a no-code database |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.² | Strong on paper: SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA (with BAA), AES-256 at rest, TLS in transit, regular pen tests.⁹ |
| Support quality | Volunteer-run, no maintenance promises | No support evidence reviewed |
| Public sentiment | Hobbyists and hackathon teams rave about shipping speed; the main worry is the volunteer-only maintenance model.⁴ | No independent user reviews were found in the sources reviewed. |
| Biggest gotcha | Settings including SMTP and S3 credentials sit in plain JSON; server access control is everything² | Shared responsibility model: misconfigured RLS policies or leaked API keys are your problem, not theirs.⁹ |
Pick PocketBase when
- Solo devs and hackathons
- Small self-contained web and mobile apps
- Prototypes and internal tools
- Single-server deployments
When PocketBase is not a fit
- Products needing multi-server or horizontal scale
- Teams needing SLAs, contracts, or paid support
- SSR-heavy server-rendered apps
- Mission-critical apps wanting a funded vendor
Pick Supabase when
- Developer teams wanting Postgres plus auth, APIs, and storage
- Healthcare apps needing HIPAA-compliant hosting with a BAA
- EU-focused products needing in-region data residency
- GDPR-sensitive deployments needing a formal DPA
When Supabase is not a fit
- Non-technical teams wanting a no-code database
- Small teams unwilling to write and maintain RLS policies
- Buyers expecting the vendor to manage all security end-to-end
- Projects with zero developer resources
Sources
- PocketBase official sitepocketbase.ioofficial
- PocketBase going to production docspocketbase.ioofficial
- PocketBase documentation mirrorpocketbase-pocketbase.mintlify.appofficial
- Reddit r/programming threadreddit.comreview
- B4X forum discussionb4x.comreview
- GIGAZINE coverage including TrailBase comparisongigazine.netnews
- CodingKiwi hands-on reviewblog.coding.kiwireview
- PocketBase security pagepocketbase.iosecurity
- Supabase product security pagesupabase.comsecurity
- Supabase homepagesupabase.comofficial