Lovable apps, and Bolt apps that use Supabase, already expect it (Postgres, auth and storage in one); keep it, but remember Free projects pause after a week without activity. Neon is plain Postgres that scales to zero after 5 minutes idle and never bills on Free, which suits side projects from Cursor, Claude Code or v0. Firebase is NoSQL with Google sign-in built in, and on Blaze its budgets only alert for Firestore. Turso is SQLite-compatible and cheap for many small databases; Supabase announced it is acquiring Turso on October 2, 2026.
Free tiers and entry prices
From each vendor's pricing page, in USD before tax, on the date shown in each row.
| Database | Type | Free tier | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase (opens in a new tab) | Postgres + auth + storage + realtime | Free tier Free: 500 MB database, 50,000 MAU, 5 GB egress, 1 GB file storage, 2 active projects | $25/mo Pro: from $25/month incl. $10 compute credit (one Micro instance), 8 GB disk, 100,000 MAU, 250 GB egress, daily backups. Spend cap on by default Checked 17 Oct 2026 |
| Neon (opens in a new tab) | Serverless Postgres (scale to zero) | Free tier Free: 100 projects, 100 CU-hours per project/month, 1 GB storage per project (20 GB total) | Usage-based, no minimum Launch: $0.106 per CU-hour, $0.35/GB-month storage, no monthly minimum (invoices under $0.50 aren't collected) Checked 17 Oct 2026 |
| Firebase (Firestore) (opens in a new tab) | NoSQL document database + Google backend services | Free tier Spark (no-cost): Firestore 1 GiB stored, 50K reads/day, 20K writes/day, 10 GiB egress/month | Pay as you go Blaze: pay-as-you-go at Google Cloud rates; the Spark no-cost usage is still included Checked 17 Oct 2026 |
| Turso (opens in a new tab) | SQLite-compatible (libSQL) database | Free tier Free: 100 databases, 5 GB storage, 500M rows read and 10M rows written per month | $5.99/mo Developer: $5.99/month ($4.99/month billed yearly): unlimited databases, 9 GB storage, 2.5B rows read, 25M rows written, 10-day point-in-time restore Checked 17 Oct 2026 |
How they differ beyond price
| Database | Query language | Built-in auth | When idle | Spend control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | SQL (Postgres), plus auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs | Supabase Auth is part of every project Free: 50,000 MAU, social OAuth, anonymous sign-ins, basic MFA | Free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity (you resume them from the dashboard); paid projects are never paused for inactivity | Free never bills. Pro has a Spend Cap, on by default: once a quota is used up, further usage of that item is blocked until the next billing cycle instead of billed |
| Neon | SQL (Postgres) | Managed Better Auth, up to 60,000 MAU on Free | Scale to zero after 5 minutes of inactivity, always on for Free; suspended computes use no CU-hours and start again on the next query | Free never bills: running out of CU-hours or egress suspends compute until the next billing period, and going over storage makes writes fail (no data is deleted). Paid plans have no monthly minimum and offer spending notifications |
| Firebase (Firestore) | NoSQL documents (Firestore queries, no SQL) | Firebase Authentication, in the same project Spark: email/social sign-in at no cost; 50K MAU with Identity Platform | Serverless, nothing to pause. Spark's free quota is daily and resets around midnight Pacific time | Spark needs no payment method and never bills. On Blaze, budgets only send alerts; spend-cap budgets that pause a service cover Firebase AI Logic, App Hosting, Cloud Functions and Extensions, not Firestore |
| Turso | SQL (SQLite dialect, libSQL) | No auth service on Turso's pricing page; pair it with a separate auth provider | Idle databases cost only storage, so many mostly-idle databases stay cheap | Free has fixed monthly allowances. On paid plans, usage beyond the plan is billed only once you enable Overages |
Auth figures come from our auth comparison; the full tables are on the pricing page.
Which database fits your builder?
Lovable sets up Supabase for you (via Lovable Cloud), and Bolt uses its built-in database or Supabase, so their generated code usually already uses Supabase's client, auth and Row Level Security. Tools that write any stack (Cursor, Claude Code, Devin Desktop, v0, Replit) leave the choice to you; plain Postgres on Neon is our default pick there.
| Builder | Our database pick | What the builder usually sets up |
|---|---|---|
| Lovable | Supabase | Projects created from May 13, 2026: TanStack Start (React, server-rendered). Older projects: React + Vite single-page app. Both usually use Supabase via Lovable Cloud. |
| Bolt.new | Supabase | Usually a Vite-based JavaScript app (React is common). Data via Bolt's built-in database or Supabase. |
| Cursor | Neon | Anything — whatever you asked it to build (Next.js, Vite, Astro, Express, Python…). |
| Claude Code | Neon | Anything you asked for. |
| Replit | Neon | Any language; Agent often builds Node/React or Python apps with a Replit database. |
| v0 | Neon | Next.js (React) with Tailwind and shadcn/ui. |
| Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | Neon | Anything; App Deploys supports common JS frameworks. |
Pick by situation
- Your app came from Lovable, or from Bolt with Supabase: stay on Supabase. Moving means replacing its auth, storage and RLS policies too.
- A live product with paying users: a plan that never pauses. Supabase Pro keeps its Spend Cap on by default; Neon's Launch plan is usage-based with no monthly minimum.
- Several side projects or demos: Neon and Turso both allow many projects or databases on Free (see the table). Neon's Free plan suspends compute rather than billing when you run out.
- A mobile-style app built around Google sign-in and live updates, with data that fits documents: Firebase.
- An app written for SQLite that loses its data on every deploy: Turso keeps the SQLite dialect but stores the database off the server.
Watch-outs before you commit
- Supabase Free: projects pause after a week of low activity. Resuming is a click, but your app is offline until then.
- Neon Free: running out of compute hours or egress suspends the database until the next billing period; going over storage makes inserts, updates and deletes fail. None of this deletes data.
- Firebase Blaze: alerts-only budgets don't pause anything, and spend-cap budgets don't cover Firestore. Firestore also allows exactly one free database per project.
- Turso: the SQLite dialect isn't a drop-in for Postgres. Supabase announced on October 2, 2026 that it is acquiring Turso; Turso says the platform keeps running and promises a path from SQLite to Postgres through Supabase.
Switching later
Supabase and Neon are both Postgres, so moving between them is a standard Postgres dump and restore plus new connection strings (and, leaving Supabase, a replacement for its auth and storage). Firestore and Turso use different data models or SQL dialects, so moving to or from them means changing queries as well as copying data.
Common questions
Is Supabase or Neon better for a Lovable app?
Supabase. Lovable sets up Supabase (via Lovable Cloud), and the generated code uses its auth, storage and Row Level Security. Neon would replace only the database part.
Does Neon pause like Supabase?
Differently. Neon scales compute to zero after 5 minutes of inactivity on every Free project and starts it again on the next query; suspended time uses no compute hours. Supabase pauses a Free project after a week of low activity and it stays paused until you resume it.
Can I cap Firebase spending?
Spark needs no payment method, so it can't bill you. On Blaze, alerts-only budgets just send email. Spend-cap budgets pause a service at 100% of its budget, but Firebase lists only AI Logic, App Hosting, Cloud Functions and Extensions, not Firestore.
What does Supabase buying Turso mean for Turso users?
Turso's announcement (October 2, 2026) says databases, APIs and workflows keep running, Turso Database stays open source, and there will be a path from SQLite to Postgres through Supabase.
Which is cheapest for a hobby app?
All four have a free tier that covers a small app. The bigger difference is what happens at the limit: Supabase Free pauses after inactivity, Neon Free suspends compute until next month, Firebase Spark's daily quotas reset each day, and Turso Free has fixed monthly allowances.