# Xano vs Supabase

An honest comparison. Supabase is an excellent developer backend. Xano is the professional backend development platform: harness, review, and run, across the SDLC. Which one you need depends on the job.

## Side-by-side comparison

### What it is

**Supabase**  
An open-source developer backend: Postgres, auth, storage, edge functions.

**Xano**  
A professional backend development platform: build, test, deploy, observe, and govern applications across the lifecycle.

### Database

**Supabase**  
Postgres, developer-managed.

**Xano**  
Postgres, with visible schema, versioned changes, and managed operations. Exportable with MSA commitments.

### Who builds

**Supabase**  
Developers writing code.

**Xano**  
Developers and agents, visually, in code, or via MCP— always against the team's harness.

### Governance

**Supabase**  
Row-level security and project settings; review lives in your own pipeline.

**Xano**  
The harness: policy, tests, dependencies, auth, and residency enforced during the build; immutable releases promoted through review gates.

### Operations

**Supabase**  
You run and observe your stack.

**Xano**  
Managed, BYOC, or self-hosted, with tracing, request history, audit trails, and accountable operations.

### Best fit

**Supabase**  
A developer team that wants a great Postgres-centric backend and owns its own pipeline.

**Xano**  
A team that needs AI-built applications to be understood, governed, and run—including people who aren't backend engineers.

## AI builds software. Xano makes it trustworthy.