Supabase: the open-source Firebase alternative

Supabase provides a complete backend platform built on PostgreSQL:

PostgreSQL database with real-time subscriptions
Authentication - User sign-ups, logins, OAuth providers
Storage - File storage with Postgres-managed permissions
Edge Functions - Serverless functions using Deno runtime
Real-time - Listen to database changes
Studio - Web dashboard for project management

Self-hosting Supabase maintains full data control and avoids vendor lock-in.

System requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	4 GB	8 GB+
CPU	2 cores	4 cores+
Disk	50 GB SSD	80 GB+ SSD

Supabase runs about 12 Docker containers. Adequate resources matter. For production, start with at least 8 GB RAM.

Step-by-step installation

Step 1: Update system

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Docker

sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Step 3: Clone Supabase

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/supabase/supabase
mkdir supabase-project
cp -rf supabase/docker/* supabase-project
cp supabase/docker/.env.example supabase-project/.env
cd supabase-project

Step 4: Generate secure secrets

sh ./utils/generate-keys.sh

This generates and updates .env with secure values for JWT_SECRET, ANON_KEY, SERVICE_ROLE_KEY, POSTGRES_PASSWORD, and other keys.

Step 5: Configure URLs

Edit .env:

SUPABASE_PUBLIC_URL=http://your-domain.com:8000
API_EXTERNAL_URL=http://your-domain.com:8000
DASHBOARD_USERNAME=admin
DASHBOARD_PASSWORD=your-secure-password-here

Step 6: Pull and start

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Step 7: Access Studio

Open browser to:

http://your-server-ip:8000

Securing network access

Configure through ColossusCloud control panel:

Port 22 (SSH) - Restrict to your IP
Port 8000 (Supabase) - Open for web access
Port 5432, 6543 (PostgreSQL) - Only if external database access needed

High availability options

Basic redundancy

Two VPS instances with Cloudflare handling failover:

Primary VPS with full Supabase
Standby VPS with PostgreSQL streaming replication

PostgreSQL cluster

For automatic failover:

3 PostgreSQL nodes minimum for quorum
Patroni managing automatic failover
Supabase services running separately

Multi-region deployment

For geographic redundancy:

Primary region with PostgreSQL primary
Secondary regions with read replicas
Cloudflare geo-steering routing users to nearest region

Self-hosting Supabase on VPS