Supabase vs Firebase comparison - Hands-On Comparison

Supabase vs Firebase Comparison

📖 Scenario: You are a developer exploring backend services for your new app. You want to understand the differences between Supabase and Firebase to choose the best one.

🎯 Goal: Create a simple Supabase project that sets up a database table and inserts data, then configure a Firebase-like structure for comparison.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Supabase table called users with columns id, name, and email

Add a configuration variable max_users set to 100

Write a query to select all users where id is less than max_users

Add a final configuration to enable realtime updates on the users table

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Developers often need to choose backend services like Supabase or Firebase for their apps. Understanding how to set up tables, configure variables, query data, and enable realtime updates is essential.

💼 Career

Backend developers and cloud engineers use these skills to build scalable, realtime applications with modern cloud databases.

1

Create Supabase users table

Create a Supabase table called users with columns id (integer, primary key), name (text), and email (text). Use the exact table and column names.

Supabase

# Create a table called users with id, name, and email columns
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use SQL syntax to create the table with the exact column names and types.

2

Add configuration variable max_users

Add a configuration variable called max_users and set it to 100 in your Supabase project settings or as a constant in your code.

Supabase

create table users (
  id integer primary key,
  name text,
  email text
);

# Add a variable max_users set to 100
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Define max_users as a constant with value 100.

3

Query users with id less than max_users

Write a Supabase query to select all users where id is less than the variable max_users. Use the exact variable name max_users and table users.

Supabase

create table users (
  id integer primary key,
  name text,
  email text
);

const max_users = 100;

// Write a query to select users with id < max_users
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Supabase client to query the users table with .lt('id', max_users).

4

Enable realtime updates on users table

Add the final configuration to enable realtime updates on the users table using Supabase's subscription method. Use the exact table name users.

Supabase

create table users (
  id integer primary key,
  name text,
  email text
);

const max_users = 100;

const { data, error } = await supabase
  .from('users')
  .select('*')
  .lt('id', max_users);

// Enable realtime updates on users table
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use supabase.channel with .on('postgres_changes') for realtime updates.