Self-hosting Supabase vs one binary

Short version: if you want the Supabase API on your own servers without running a multi-container stack, instancez is one binary you point at Postgres. If you need Realtime or Studio's full feature set on-prem, self-hosted Supabase is still the way.

What self-hosting Supabase involves

The official Docker Compose file runs 11 services:

• studio
• api-gw (Envoy)
• auth
• rest (PostgREST)
• realtime
• storage
• imgproxy
• meta
• functions
• db (Postgres)
• supavisor

Each has its own image, configuration and upgrade cadence. You also set up SMTP, secrets and backups yourself, since the managed conveniences don't come with the self-hosted edition.

What self-hosting instancez involves

One binary and a Postgres database you already know how to run.

curl -fsSL https://get.instancez.ai | sh
inz init
inz dev --embedded-pg          # local: no Postgres to install

# production
export INSTANCEZ_DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
inz serve --migrate

The same binary serves the REST API, auth, storage, SQL functions, JavaScript functions and a dashboard. It runs on a VM, in Docker (ghcr.io/instancez/instancez), on Kubernetes or on AWS Lambda. Health checks at /live, /health and /ready plug into any load balancer. Storage can be local disk or any S3-compatible bucket.

It's the same Apache-2.0 binary we run for hosted customers, not a cut-down community edition.

Side by side

• Moving parts: one process plus Postgres, vs 11 containers.
• Schema: one instancez.yaml diffed against the live database on deploy, vs SQL migrations you apply yourself.
• Client: @supabase/supabase-js in both cases.
• Upgrades: replace one binary or image tag, vs coordinating service versions.

What you give up

• Realtime subscriptions aren't supported yet.
• Auth covers password, magic link, OTP, anonymous and TOTP MFA, with Google and GitHub OAuth. No phone/SMS login.
• Image transforms handle JPEG and PNG, not WebP or AVIF.
• Functions run on Node.js, so Deno Edge Functions need porting.

If none of those block you, try it locally in a couple of minutes. Coming from a hosted Supabase project? The migration guide covers moving your data, and the full comparison covers hosted pricing.