Convex vs Supabase in 2026: pricing, EU hosting and lock-in

Our judgment on Convex vs Supabase: pick Convex when the app is realtime, your team writes only TypeScript, and you want the database to sit behind functions you write. Pick Supabase when you want SQL, a Postgres exit and a choice of four EU-member regions. Neither is the safe default, because they bill and lock you in differently.

Prices and limits below are as of 22 October 2026, read from each vendor's own pages. Both change them, so check before you commit. If the backend is one of several stack calls on your plate, Hire developers by tech stack: rates, vetting and interview guides covers the rest.

Which one for your situation?

These picks are judgment, not measurements.

How do the data models differ: reactive documents or Postgres tables?

Convex is a document database whose API is functions. You write queries, mutations and actions in TypeScript, and the client subscribes to query results. There's no SQL. Per Convex's own comparison page, which is a vendor's claim about a rival and should be read that way, Convex has no SQL and no Postgres extensions, and Supabase's realtime isn't the default way to read data. We haven't verified either claim beyond that page.

Supabase is Postgres with an API, auth and storage around it. You get SQL, joins, extensions and row-level security (RLS) policies, and everything a Postgres tool already understands.

So each one has something it can't do. Convex can't run an ad hoc SQL query for your analyst. Supabase makes you opt into realtime rather than giving it to you on every read. If you're weighing the engine itself, our notes on how documents and tables differ in depth come first.

How does each one bill?

Convex's pricing page lists three shapes. Free and Starter is "$0/month and pay as you go". Professional is $25 per developer per month. Business and Enterprise carry a $2,500 monthly minimum. The developer ranges on the page are 1-6 for Free and Starter, 1-20 for Professional and 50+ for Business.

Supabase's pricing page says Free is $0 a month, Pro starts at $25 a month and Team at $599. Spend caps are on by default on Pro.

The unit is the trap. Convex counts developers, Supabase counts projects and their compute. A worked example, labelled as arithmetic from list prices: 5 developers on one product cost 5 x $25 = $125 a month in Convex Professional base fees, against the $25 Pro starting price on Supabase. That says nothing about the usage bill on either side, and we won't model one, because nobody can without your traffic and data size.

Per Supabase's pricing page, each project runs on its own compute instance. The $10 monthly compute credit covers one Micro instance, and each additional project pays its compute in full. Count your projects before you compare the two bills.

What does the free tier really give you?

Convex Free and Starter includes 1M function calls, 0.5 GB of database storage and 1 GB of file storage, with overage at $2.20 per additional 1M calls and $0.22 per additional GB of database. The free plan has what Convex's page calls hard resource caps, so a spike hits a wall instead of a bill. We found no pause rule for Convex in the pages we read.

Supabase Free gives you a 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users, 5 GB of egress and 1 GB of files. Its pricing page also says "Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity." For a client demo that has to be up on Monday after a quiet week, that sentence matters more than any quota.

Can you keep EU user data in the EU?

On Convex, yes, with limits. Convex's regions documentation lists one EU region, aws-eu-west-1 in Ireland, next to US East, Sydney and Canada. The page says "Usage in regions outside the US is billed at 1.3x the standard rate (a 30% regional surcharge)." It also says "An existing deployment's region cannot be changed", so you pick on day one and migrate by export and import if you were wrong. The docs say usage, so we can't say whether the surcharge touches developer seats.

Supabase's regions documentation lists four regions in EU member states: Ireland (eu-west-1), Paris (eu-west-3), Frankfurt (eu-central-1) and Stockholm (eu-north-1). London and Zurich aren't in the EU, and the general Europe option may place you in either, so pick a named region. The page states: "Region selection is a data-location control, not proof of regulatory compliance." We compared the Supabase region list with Neon's in Neon against Supabase on EU regions and branching.

Contracts are the other half. Convex's Data Processing Addendum, clause 6.1, has the customer authorize transfers "from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and/or the United Kingdom to the United States". Clause 6.2 incorporates the EEA, Swiss and UK Standard Contractual Clauses, Module Two. Ask Supabase for its DPA and compare the transfer clause with Convex's line by line.

Our judgment, and not legal advice: both are US-run vendors, and a region pins where the deployment sits, not who operates the vendor. Whether your customers accept SCCs for a vendor like that is a question for your data protection officer.

Can you self-host, and is Convex open source?

Some comparisons say Convex can't be self-hosted. Convex's repository says otherwise: "The self-hosted product includes most features of the cloud product, including the dashboard and CLI."

Open source needs a caveat. The repo's licence is the "Functional Source License, Version 1.1, Apache 2.0 Future License". That's source-available: the licence says a permitted purpose is "any purpose other than a Competing Use", and it converts to Apache 2.0 after two years. It isn't an OSI-approved open source licence, though Convex calls the product open source. For most companies building their own product, that distinction won't bite. For anyone selling a backend platform, it will.

The Supabase side is covered in our piece on Supabase's self-hosting limits: you can run it yourself, but several managed features aren't available. Convex's docs suggest Postgres or MySQL for production instead of SQLite.

How hard is it to leave?

Supabase is a Postgres dump and a rewrite of whatever you built on its auth and RLS. Convex is harder. Convex's docs describe data import and export as a beta feature. Your data comes out, but your functions don't run anywhere else, and the reactivity you relied on has to be rebuilt. The lowest-effort exit from Convex Cloud is probably self-hosted Convex, since the code is the same. That's our judgment, not a vendor statement.

Ask the vendor in writing before you build:

• What does an export contain, in what format, and is it still beta?
• Can a deployment be moved between regions without downtime?
• Which DPA version applies, and how are changes notified?
• What happens to a deployment if your account lapses?

Then run an export in week one, while it's cheap to find out it doesn't work.

Convex vs Supabase at a glance

Who do you need to hire for each?

This section is judgment. We have no hiring-market figures for either platform.

A Convex product needs a strong TypeScript full-stack engineer who thinks in queries and mutations and is happy with no SQL. Data modelling is done in the schema and in functions, so a person who has only written ORM code will adjust quickly, and a person who thinks in joins will fight it.

A Supabase product needs SQL and Postgres skills, plus the discipline to write row-level security policies that don't leak. Those are the skills a reporting-heavy SaaS needs anyway.

The mismatch to avoid is putting a database specialist on Convex and expecting them to be productive in a week, or a TypeScript generalist on Supabase who has never written a policy.

What this means for choosing your backend

Decide three things before you commit.

First, where your data must sit and which contract your customers accept. Convex has one EU region at a 1.3x usage price, fixed per deployment, with a DPA that authorises transfers to the US under SCCs. Supabase offers four EU-member regions and a DPA you should read first. Ask your largest prospect what they require.

Second, whether a document model with a function-defined API is acceptable as your long-term interface. If you'd rather keep SQL and a Postgres exit, that points to Supabase.

Third, whose bill grows. Convex's base grows with headcount, Supabase's with projects and usage.

Whichever you choose, test the export in week one. If you need someone to own that layer, look for backend engineers who will own the data layer.

Hiring Node.js engineers through HighCircl

Convex is TypeScript, and Node.js is on our stack list. We send a shortlist of 3-5 vetted candidates within 72 hours, from four vetting stages that about 10% of applicants pass. There's no recruitment fee, our margin is 20% and capped, and a replacement guarantee applies if the engagement isn't working. We work with talent in seven European countries (6 EU plus Serbia). See hiring Node.js engineers through HighCircl.

FAQ

Is Convex better than Supabase?

Neither wins in general. As a judgment: Convex suits a TypeScript-only team building something realtime that is happy to live without SQL. Supabase suits a team that wants Postgres, SQL and an easier exit. The situation table above shows which case points where.

Is Convex open source and can I self-host it?

You can self-host it. Convex's repository says the self-hosted product includes most features of the cloud product, including the dashboard and CLI. The licence is the Functional Source License with an Apache 2.0 future licence, which is source-available rather than OSI open source. Self-hosted Convex supports the free-tier features of the cloud product, and the cloud is the one optimised for scale.

Does Convex have an EU region, and what about GDPR?

Yes, one: Europe (Ireland), aws-eu-west-1, at 1.3x the standard usage rate, and the region can't be changed on an existing deployment. Convex's DPA authorises transfers from the EEA, Switzerland and the UK to the United States and incorporates Standard Contractual Clauses. Whether that satisfies a given customer is a question for your DPO. This isn't legal advice.

Is Convex free?

There's a free plan at $0 with 1M function calls, 0.5 GB of database storage and 1 GB of files, and hard resource caps, per Convex's pricing page. Professional is $25 per developer per month. Supabase Free offers a 500 MB database and 50,000 monthly active users, and pauses projects after 1 week of inactivity.

Can I move from Convex to Supabase?

Yes, but plan it as a rewrite, not a migration. Your data exports (Convex describes export as beta), while your Convex functions and live queries have to be rebuilt as SQL, an API layer and Supabase's realtime. We have no sourced time or cost figure, so be wary of anyone quoting one.

Which is easier to hire for?

No source we used measures it. Convex needs strong TypeScript engineers, and Supabase needs SQL and RLS skills. Ask a recruiter for real candidate numbers in your location and seniority range.

Sources

• Convex: Pricing
• Convex Docs: Regions
• Convex: Data Processing Addendum
• Convex on GitHub: convex-backend README, LICENSE.md and self-hosted README
• Supabase: Pricing
• Supabase Docs: Regions