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Powersync vs Supabase

Supabase scores higher on the AgentReady, 74/100 against 50/100. They differ on 14 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.

What each one is

Powersync. PowerSync is a sync engine that consists of two components: a service that enables high-scalability partial data syncing and a set of client SDKs that manage client-side persistence, consistency, reactivity and syncing write operations back.

Supabase. Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative that provides a complete backend platform built on top of Postgres, offering database, authentication, storage, realtime, edge functions, and vector capabilities.

Where Powersync is ahead

Powersync passes search discoverable, clear canonical domain and public docs discoverable, and Supabase does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds understand: pricing understandable. Supabase misses it.

And on adopt, self-service signup, no mandatory sales call, free trial or free allowance and official typescript sdk. Supabase misses those.

Finally, on operate, canonical workflow succeeds and observable execution. Supabase misses those.

Where Supabase is ahead

Supabase passes mcp discoverable, and Powersync does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds understand: structured api reference and authentication documented. Powersync misses those.

And on adopt, mcp integration available. Powersync misses it.

What neither does

Both fail openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented, programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official python sdk, structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.

Score, pillar by pillar

The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.

Discover. Supabase leads 100 to 87. Powersync misses mcp discoverable; Supabase misses search discoverable, clear canonical domain, public docs discoverable.

Understand is whether an agent can read the docs and work out how the API behaves before calling it. Supabase leads 67 to 23. Powersync misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Supabase misses openapi / spec quality, pricing understandable, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented.

Adopt. Supabase leads 63 to 55. Powersync misses programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official python sdk, mcp integration available; Supabase misses self-service signup, no mandatory sales call, programmatic credential creation, free trial or free allowance, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official typescript sdk, official python sdk.

Operate. Supabase leads 67 to 35. Powersync misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified; Supabase misses canonical workflow succeeds, structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

Powersync starts at $0/month and has a free tier. Supabase does not publish one.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

Powersync clears more of the signals an agent needs, so it is the safer default for unattended use. Full profiles: Powersync and Supabase. Alternatives to each: Powersync, Supabase.

An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["powersync", "supabase"]}