Nhost vs Supabase: A practical guide for growing teams

When you're choosing a backend platform for your application, you're not just picking a set of APIs. You're making foundational decisions about how you'll build, scale, and maintain your product over time.

Two of the most popular modern backend platforms today are Supabase and Nhost. They share some surface similarities: both are open source, both are built on top of Postgres, and both aim to give developers a fast, integrated experience for building applications without managing backend infrastructure manually.

But when you look more closely, especially through the lens of growing teams with real production needs, key differences start to matter.

Quick comparison

Feature	Supabase	Nhost
Query Language	SQL + JS client (REST/RPC)	GraphQL-native
Postgres Access	Root access	Root access
Extensibility	Edge Functions (Deno runtime)	Serverless Functions (Lambda) + Nhost Run (bring your own containers), GraphQL federation with remote schemas
Infra Control	Managed Postgres, multi-tenant auth & storage	Single tenant on all services, supports private clusters with same DX
Auth	Feature-rich, RLS-based, Complex	Feature-rich, easy permissions with roles and field-level access
Federation Support	No	Yes, built-in support with remote schemas and Nhost Run
Native AI features	No	Nhost AI service (Agents, Auto-Embeddings, etc)
Docs and SDKs	More polished	Improving, still needs some work
Open Source	Fully open source and portable	Core components are fully open source and portable (Graphite is not open source)

When Supabase makes sense

Supabase has done a great job of creating an integrated developer experience. It is well-documented, easy to start with, and offers a clean abstraction over Postgres.

It's a solid choice for:

Developers building simpler apps where SQL-first workflows are sufficient
Teams who prioritize rapid prototyping over long-term flexibility
Use cases that don't require custom backend services or deep infrastructure control
Projects where REST APIs and SQL queries meet all your needs

However, as your application and team grow, the limitations of the platform can become friction points.

Why teams choose Nhost as they scale

Nhost was built with extensibility and control in mind. It's aligned with GraphQL-first architectures and provides out-of-the-box tools for handling custom logic, API composition, infrastructure deployment, and more.

Here are several areas where Nhost stands out:

Native GraphQL from day one

Nhost is built around GraphQL, making it ideal for frontend teams working with React, Next.js, React Query, or other modern stacks. Because GraphQL is language/framework agnostic, teams can reuse and build seamlessly across different stacks by leveraging their favorite codegens - write GraphQL once and generate TypeScript, Dart, Go, Python, etc.

With Nhost, you can:

Query your Postgres database with GraphQL without writing any code
Use GraphQL permissions tied to auth roles and row-level security
Integrate seamlessly with GraphQL clients and tooling like Apollo, Relay, or urql
Generate type-safe client code for any language or framework

Real backend extensibility with Nhost Run

Supabase offers edge functions that run in a Deno-based environment. It's effective for small scripts but limited in runtime flexibility.

Nhost Run allows you to:

Deploy long-running or complex logic as containerized apps
Bring your own runtime such as Python, Go, or Node
Run background jobs, scheduled tasks, and side effects
Deploy MCP servers
Scale containers independently based on your workload needs

You also get:

Remote schemas to stitch in other GraphQL services
Event triggers to automate backend workflows like sending welcome emails or firing Stripe updates
Native GraphQL federation for composing multiple APIs

By running your custom services and APIs with Run instead of a third party, you get improved security, reduced latency, and no egress fees. Everything runs in the same network.

Native AI support

Nhost includes a built-in AI service that enables AI features without setting up additional infrastructure.

Supported features are:

AI agents with access to all services from the Nhost stack (support for MCP Client is coming)
Generate and keep embeddings for your data in Postgres up-to-date
Generate and keep embeddings for your Storage files up-to-date
Semantic search

The GraphQL advantage

One of the biggest differentiators is Nhost's GraphQL-first approach versus Supabase's SQL-first model.

Why this matters:

Type Safety: GraphQL generates strongly-typed client code automatically
Efficient Queries: Fetch exactly the data you need in a single request
Real-time Subscriptions: Native GraphQL subscriptions without proprietary abstractions
Developer Experience: Modern tooling, introspection, and excellent IDE support
API Evolution: Add fields and types without breaking existing clients

Making the right choice

Both Supabase and Nhost offer strong developer experiences, but they serve different needs and architectural philosophies.

Choose Supabase if:

You're building a straightforward app with simple data requirements
You prefer SQL-first development workflows
You want the most polished documentation and getting-started experience
You're prototyping and need to ship quickly

Choose Nhost if:

You're building on GraphQL or want GraphQL-native development
You need extensibility through containers and remote schemas
You want control over your infrastructure and deployment options
You're building AI-enhanced workflows or complex backend logic
You need GraphQL federation for large-scale team coordination

Ready to try Nhost?

Nhost gives you the power of Postgres, the simplicity of GraphQL, and the flexibility of modern infrastructure patterns.

Whether you're starting a new project or considering migrating from another platform, Nhost is built to grow with your team and requirements.

Start building with Nhost →