Supabase
Hosted Postgres with auth, storage, and realtime. Open-source Firebase alternative. I use it for backend-as-a-service and vector search via pgvector when I need a database without managing servers.
Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative built on top of Postgres. It provides a hosted database with authentication, file storage, realtime subscriptions, and edge functions all in one platform.
I use Supabase when I need a backend without managing servers. The Postgres foundation means you get a proper relational database with full SQL support, and the built-in auth and storage save a lot of setup time. The pgvector extension is particularly useful for AI projects that need vector search and similarity matching.
The developer experience is strong - good client libraries, a clean dashboard, and row-level security policies that let you define access control directly in the database. It works well for side projects and MVPs where you want to move fast without sacrificing the ability to scale later.
Other Data tools
Metabase
Open-source BI and data visualisation. Build dashboards, run ad-hoc queries, and share insights without writing SQL. Works well with Postgres, MySQL, and more.
Upstash
Serverless Redis with per-request pricing. No connection limits, works at the edge. I use it for caching, rate limiting, vector search, and session storage in serverless apps.