Supabase Alternative with Zero Backend Setup

Supabase brought the promise of open-source, serverless backend development to the masses. It's a powerful platform, but it still requires project setup, infrastructure management, and you pay for every user's usage.

Puter.js takes a different approach. One JavaScript library, zero configuration, and a user-pays model where your app can scale to millions of users without costing you a dime.

What is Supabase?

Supabase is an open-source backend platform built on PostgreSQL. You get a full-featured database, authentication, storage, and edge functions all in one place. The developer experience is polished, and the community is active.

That said, you still need to create a project, configure your database schema, manage API keys, and set up auth providers. As your user base grows, so does your bill. It's a solid platform for teams who need that level of control, but for many developers, the operational overhead can slow things down.

What is Puter.js?

Puter.js is a JavaScript library that brings auth, cloud storage, databases, and AI directly to your app. There's no project to create, no API keys to manage, and no config files to maintain. You just include the library and start building.

<script src="https://js.puter.com/v2/"></script>

The key innovation is the User-Pays Model. Instead of you footing the bill for every user, each user covers their own usage. Your app can scale from one user to a million without your costs going up.

Feature Comparison

Database

Supabase gives you the full power of PostgreSQL: joins, transactions, complex queries, the works. If you need relational data modeling, it's a solid choice.

However, that power comes with overhead. You need to import a client, initialize it with your project URL and API key, design your schema, and configure Row Level Security policies to keep user data isolated. For many apps, this is overkill, and most apps don't need complex SQL.

Puter.js Key-Value Store API covers most use cases: user preferences, app state, cached data, simple records. With Puter.js, you just call puter.kv.set() and puter.kv.get(). Data is automatically isolated per user, so there's no security configuration needed.

Authentication

Supabase Auth is feature-rich. It supports 20+ OAuth providers, magic links, phone auth, and MFA. If you need fine-grained control over the authentication experience, it delivers.

The tradeoff is that you're responsible for the entire auth flow: configuring providers, designing email templates, handling password resets, managing sessions, and integrating it all with Row Level Security. That's a lot to maintain.

Authentication with Puter.js is baked into every API call. When users access cloud features, sign-in happens automatically if needed. Users bring their existing Puter account and they get SSO across all Puter.js apps. If you need explicit control, call puter.auth.signIn(). Otherwise, auth happens automatically as needed.

Storage

Supabase Storage follows the S3 model: buckets, objects, and policies. It's battle-tested and familiar to anyone who's worked with cloud storage before. For teams with existing S3 workflows, the learning curve is minimal.

That said, you still need to create buckets, configure access policies, and generate signed URLs for file access. User isolation requires careful policy configuration to get right.

Puter.js File System API gives you something more intuitive: a cloud filesystem. The API mirrors what you'd expect from local file operations like write, read, mkdir, readdir, copy, and move. Each user automatically gets their own isolated filesystem, so there's no policy configuration needed. Need a public URL for a file? Just call getReadURL() and you're done.

Serverless Functions

Supabase Edge Functions are solid. They run on Deno, deploy globally, and integrate well with the rest of the Supabase ecosystem. If you're already using Supabase, adding edge functions is straightforward.

The workflow, however, lives outside your app. You deploy via CLI or the dashboard, which means context-switching between your code and external tooling. Functions are tied to your project and billed to you.

Puter Workers are simpler. Write a worker.js file in Puter, right-click, and deploy. No CLI, no dashboard, no config files. Your worker goes live in seconds.

You can also deploy programmatically via the management API. The dual-context model lets you access your own developer resources via me.puter, or the current user's resources via user.puter (billed to them).

Realtime

This is where Supabase has a clear advantage. Database change subscriptions let you react to data updates instantly, broadcast enables pub/sub messaging, and presence tracks who's online. If realtime collaboration or live updates are core to your app, Supabase is the better choice here.

Puter.js doesn't currently offer built-in realtime features. For apps that need them, you'd need to integrate a separate solution.

That said, many apps don't actually need realtime. If yours doesn't, the simplicity and cost benefits of Puter.js everywhere else make it the stronger overall choice.

Puter.js Exclusive Features

These features aren't available in Supabase or most other backend platforms.

AI Integration

Puter.js gives you access to 500+ AI models in a single AI API: OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and more. All without managing API keys.

But it's not just chat. You get image generation via Nano Banana and GPT Image, text-to-speech with both neural and generative engines, speech-to-text transcription, and OCR for extracting text from images. Streaming responses are fully supported for real-time AI interactions.

With Puter.js, you call puter.ai.chat() and it works. Users cover their own AI costs.

Hosting

Puter includes free static site hosting. Drag your files into Puter, right-click the folder, and select "Publish as Website." You get a free yoursite.puter.site subdomain, or you can connect a custom domain.

For programmatic deployment, the hosting API lets you create, update, list, and delete sites from JavaScript. This enables use cases like website builders, online IDEs, and AI coding tools. Users deploy to their own Puter account, so you're not paying for their hosting.

Workers

With Puter Serverless Workers, you get full programmatic control over serverless functions through puter.workers.create(), list(), get(), delete(), and exec().

This enables use cases like platforms where users create their own backend logic, automation tools with user-defined workflows, and serverless functions that run on users' own resources. All manageable from JavaScript, no external CLI needed.

Networking

Puter.js Networking API gives you raw TCP sockets in the browser through puter.net.Socket, TLS sockets via puter.net.TLSSocket, and CORS-free HTTP requests with puter.net.fetch().

Most BaaS platforms don't offer this. You can build SSH clients, email clients, and custom protocol handlers, all running in the browser.

The User-Pays Model

This changes the economics of building apps.

Think about what happens with traditional platforms when your app takes off. Every new user adds to your bill. Storage costs climb. API calls multiply. If you've added AI features, those costs explode. Success becomes a financial burden. You need to implement quotas, rate limiting, and billing infrastructure just to stay afloat.

The User-Pays Model inverts this.

With Puter.js, users bring their own resources. Their storage is theirs. Their API calls are theirs. Their AI usage is theirs. You're not paying for any of it. One user or one million users, your infrastructure cost remains exactly zero.

This isn't just about saving money (though you will). It's about removing the anxiety of scaling. No more surprise bills after a viral moment. No more calculating whether you can afford that new feature. No more choosing between growth and profitability. You can just build, ship, and let users pay for the value they get.

Puter handles all the complexity: billing, quotas, rate limiting. Users get a transparent experience where they control their own usage. You get to focus entirely on making your product better.

Conclusion

Supabase is a solid choice if you need relational data, realtime features, or enterprise compliance. But if you want zero backend setup, built-in AI, unique capabilities like programmatic hosting and TCP sockets, and the ability to scale without infrastructure costs, Puter.js offers a different path. One library, no API keys, and users pay for their own resources. Start building today!.