Supabase

For Observed

Developers and builders from beginners, vibe coders and AI builders to startups, agencies and enterprises in B2B SaaS, finserv and healthcare (paraphrase of the Solutions navigation).

Problem Our reading

Building and scaling a backend means stitching together a database, auth, APIs, storage and servers, and risking lock-in (paraphrase).

Promise Observed

Build in a weekend, scale to millions, on open Postgres you can take with you.

Proof behind each pillar

• Just Postgres. 100% portable; built-in Auth with RLS; easy to extend (Postgres card)
• Just Postgres. 100,000+ GitHub stars (nav counter showed 114.3K on 2026-10-30)
• Use one or all. Chatbase scaled from zero to $10M ARR on a single Postgres-backed platform
• Use one or all. Rally went from first line of code to licensed fintech in three months
• Weekend to millions. Lovable powers millions of AI-generated apps on a Supabase backend
• Weekend to millions. eXp Realty: 2,000+ employees building production software with AI
• Weekend to millions. 10,000,000+ registered developers
• Open source from day one. 100,000+ GitHub stars (nav counter showed 114.3K on 2026-10-30)
• Open source from day one. More than $250,000 paid in open source sponsorships (PostgREST, pgroonga, pgsodium, OrioleDB, Elixir)
• Enterprise-ready trust. SOC2 Type 2 certified, HIPAA compliant, ISO 27001 certified
• Enterprise-ready trust. Phoenix Energy migrated critical infrastructure from MongoDB with zero downtime

Story Observed

Supabase is an open source company, built in the open on Postgres and existing open source tools, which it sponsors. It is fully remote, with a strong affinity for open source maintainers and ex-founders, and describes itself as one of the world's fastest growing open source developer communities.

Values

Category. Postgres development platform (backend as a service on Postgres); press has called it the open source Firebase alternative Observed

Why them

1. Every project is a full Postgres database, 100% portable. Observed
2. Open source from day one; self-hostable, no lock-in. Observed
3. One platform of best-of-breed products you can adopt one at a time. Observed
4. Row Level Security built into Auth. Observed
5. SOC2 Type 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001. Observed

Instead of

Firebase (the footer offers 'Switch from Firebase').Neon (the footer offers 'Switch from Neon').MongoDB (a homepage story migrates off it).

Boilerplate Observed

Supabase is the Postgres development platform: every project is a full Postgres database with Authentication, instant Data APIs, Edge Functions, Realtime, Storage and Vector embeddings. It is built in the open, and developers can self-host it.

Taglines

They never claim

• Use the Supabase logos only to refer to Supabase; never imply partnership or endorsement. Published
• The Connect Supabase button only starts the OAuth 2.0 flow of a Supabase integration; it is never a logo. Published
• Under the customer terms, neither party uses the other's name or logo without prior written approval. Published
• Quote stats with their date; the star count on the nav moves daily. Our reading

The homepage runs one promise ('Build in a weekend, scale to millions') and lets the product grid, real code and named customer stories carry the proof. Claims are short and concrete; the community quote wall does the enthusiasm the house copy avoids.

Source: supabase.comsupabase.com/companysupabase.com/open-source

• Sentence case headlines
• Title case only for page names in global navigation and document titles (e.g. Database Settings)
• Say “Supabase”, not “SupaBase” or “Supa Base” or “supabase (outside code)”
• Say “Postgres”, not “PostgreSQL”
• Say “Sign in / Sign out / Sign up”, not “Login” or “Log in” or “Logout” or “Log out”
• Never: easily, simply, powerful. Say state the action: Create tables
• Never: manage, handle, work with. Say name the actions: Create, edit, or delete tables
• Never: sorry, oops, something went wrong, an error occurred. Say State what went wrong, then how to fix it
• Never: enables you to, allows you to. Say say what it does
• No exclamation marks
• No italics for emphasis; bold only when necessary
• Inline code for technical terms: RLS, API key, supabase init
• Buttons use specific verbs that match the action: Create table, Delete project, Revoke access; never Submit or Configure
• Present tense: Stores connection pool settings, not Will store
• Active voice in confirmations: Deleting this project will remove all data
• Sentences of 20 words or fewer
• Errors state the problem and the fix: Invalid API key. Check your project settings.
• Success messages confirm what happened, briefly: Backup restored
• Empty states say what's missing, then how to add it, with the action button
• Loading states match the action verb: Deleting project..., not Processing...
• Page descriptions are declarative fragments without a trailing period
• Headings name the page, not the task: API keys, not Manage your API keys
• Product names capitalized: Database, Auth, Storage, Edge Functions, Realtime, Vector
• Alt text describes the image objectively, not its context
• American spelling
• Write as “we”, to “you”
• On a landing page rebuilt from spec.page, every line given there (headlines, card copy, quotes, posts) is kept verbatim even where it uses a word the UI rules ban (easily, manage, logins). The banned list governs new UI strings only

DirectAction-orientedTechnical without jargonPragmatic

Supabase publishes a concise UI copywriting guide: four tone traits, then bad/good pairs for buttons, labels, errors, success, tooltips, headings, empty and loading states, confirmations, and a short banned list (easily, simply, powerful, vague verbs). It ends with a six-question checklist.

• Specific verbs on buttons: Create table, not Submit
• Errors: what went wrong, then the fix
• Present tense, active voice
• Sentence case everywhere but nav page names
• One sentence max for labels, buttons and tooltips
• Postgres, not PostgreSQL; Supabase, one word, capital S

• Write so a developer can finish the task without reading more; respect developer time (paraphrase of the copywriting intro).
• Say what something does, not what it enables; focus on what happens, not what was built.
• Acknowledge tradeoffs and limitations when relevant.
• The published copywriting guide is for product UI. Homepage marketing copy is looser (it says 'Easily write custom code'), but keeps the same plainness: short claims, product names, a developer quote wall.
• Marketing headlines are two-part: a muted setup and a dark payoff ('Build in a weekend / Scale to millions').
• Customer quotes and community posts are verbatim and exempt from every rule here; never edit them.

Source: supabase.com/design-system/docs/copywritingsupabase.com

Source: supabase.com/design-system/docs/copywritingsupabase.com/design-system/docs/accessibilitysupabase.com/brand-assets

Two marks: the Icon (the green lightning-bolt symbol alone) and the Wordmark (symbol plus lowercase supabase lettering), each in a green version for light and dark grounds, and a one-color wordmark in black or white. Every wordmark file includes the symbol; there is no lettering-only file. All files have transparent backgrounds and already carry the logo colors.

Not published: clear space; minimum size; placement; co-branding lockup.

Source: supabase.com/brand-assetssupabase.com/terms

The brand page publishes three colors with HEX, RGB, HSL and OKLCH: Supabase green #3ECF8E (the logo symbol), Dark gray #1C1C1C and Light gray #F8F8F8 (backgrounds behind the logo). The design system splits green in two: a fixed brand green for identity, and a functional primary that darkens in light mode for readable text and buttons. Everything else is neutral grays plus sparing destructive and warning accents.

Not published: color proportions or ratios; a marketing palette beyond the three logo colors.

Source: supabase.com/brand-assetssupabase.com/design-system/docs/color-usagesupabase.com/design-system/docs/tailwind-classessupabase.com/%20homepage%20stylesheet%20(frontend-assets.supabase.com/www/.../_next/static/css,%20fetched%202026-10-30)

Three open faces, all from the site CSS: Manrope for headings (--font-heading), Inter for body and UI (--font-sans) and Source Code Pro for code and meta labels (--font-mono). Headlines are medium weight (500 hero, 600 section), sentence case, normal tracking; body is Inter at 450 on the variable axis. The design system's typography.css maps h1 to text-2xl tracking-tight, h2 text-xl, h3 text-base, h4/h5 text-sm medium, and a mono uppercase meta style.

Source: supabase.com/design-system/docs/typographygithub.com/supabase/supabase/blob/master/packages/config/typography.csssupabase.com/%20homepage%20stylesheet%20(frontend-assets.supabase.com/www/.../_next/static/css,%20fetched%202026-10-30)supabase.com

Recognizable without the logo: a near-white page of hairline-bordered cards, thin grayscale line drawings with a few green dots, real code in Source Code Pro, two-tone Manrope headlines, and a GitHub star counter drawn as a green dot matrix.

Source: supabase.com

Lucide for every standard UI icon; a small custom set (database, auth, storage, edge functions, realtime, vector, buckets, integrations) for what Lucide lacks. Icons are 24x24 with about 18x18 of content, 1.5 stroke, round caps and joins, currentColor only, built from plain paths.

Source: supabase.com/design-system/docs/iconssupabase.com/design-system/docs/accessibility

No published illustration guideline. On the homepage, illustration is technical line drawing: a Postgres elephant outline, a wireframe globe for Edge Functions, a cube of vector points, table-to-endpoint diagrams for Data APIs, all in gray hairlines with green dots, plus faithful product UI screenshots (Table Editor).

Source: supabase.com

Supabase uses almost no photography: small circular avatars on community posts and customer quotes. The brand page notes the one-color wordmark is for use over a photo. No photo guideline is published.

Source: supabase.comsupabase.com/brand-assets