Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Supabase
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Only Supabase has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Cortex pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first.; Supabase free tier projects auto-pause after 1 week of inactivity
- They diverge on capability: Cortex covers Service catalogue, Supabase covers PostgreSQL database.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Supabase actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Cortex
- Service catalogue
- Scorecards
- Initiatives
- Self-service templates
- Query language
- Eng intelligence
- Integrations layer
- On-call and ownership mapping
Only in Supabase
- PostgreSQL database
- Auto-generated APIs
- Authentication & authorization
- Real-time subscriptions
- Storage
- Edge functions
- Vector embeddings
- Database migrations
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cortex
- A platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a Kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of servicesnot Supabase
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Supabase
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Supabase
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Supabase
Supabase
- Web application backends using Postgres plus auto-generated REST/GraphQL APIsnot Cortex
- Mobile app backends via Flutter/Swift/Kotlin client librariesnot Cortex
- AI applications using vector/embeddings storagenot Cortex
- Authentication with 20+ social providers plus email/passwordnot Cortex
- File and media storage (S3-compatible with CDN) and realtime sync over WebSocketsnot Cortex
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cortex
- Pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first.
- The catalogue is only as accurate as the metadata you supply, so an organisation with inconsistent repository conventions spends its first quarter cleaning data before any scorecard means anything.
- Scorecards create political friction: publishing a per-team grade turns an engineering standard into a performance metric, and teams will game the rules rather than fix the underlying issue.
- It is closed source and hosted, so organisations with strict data residency or air-gap requirements have limited options compared with running Backstage themselves.
- Value scales with organisation size, so a company with fifty engineers and thirty services will find the catalogue tells them nothing they did not already know while still paying an enterprise contract.
Supabase
- Free tier projects auto-pause after 1 week of inactivity
- Free tier hard caps: 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 5 GB egress/month, 50,000 monthly active users, max 2 active free projects per organization
- Pro plan charges usage overages beyond included quotas, e.g. $0.00325 per MAU above 100,000 and $0.125/GB disk above 8 GB
- SOC2/ISO 27001 certification and HIPAA (add-on) compliance require the $599/month Team plan; not available on the $25/month Pro plan
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Supabase
Free- FreeFree
- 50,000 MAU
- 500MB database
- 5GB egress
- Pro$25/month
- 100,000 MAU
- 8GB disk
- 250GB egress
- Team$599/month
- SOC2 and ISO 27001
- HIPAA add-on
- 28-day log / 14-day backup retention
- Enterprise$undefined/month
- Custom limits
- Dedicated support manager
- 24/7/365 support
Which should you pick?
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Choose Supabase if
- You need postgresql database.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want auto-generated apis.
Questions people ask
- Is Cortex or Supabase better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Supabase at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Supabase?
- Supabase has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cortex and Free for Supabase.
- Does Cortex or Supabase run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Supabase runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Supabase for free?
- Yes. Supabase has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cortex starts at On request.
- What is Cortex best used for?
- Cortex is most often used for a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services, an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions, enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident review, replacing a self-hosted backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgraded. Of those, a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services and an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions are not what Supabase is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Supabase cannot?
- Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Supabase covers PostgreSQL database, Auto-generated APIs, Authentication & authorization, Real-time subscriptions.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cortex: How is Cortex different from Backstage?
Backstage is an open source framework you build and staff. Cortex is a hosted product with scorecards and initiatives out of the box and no platform team required to keep it running.
Supabase: How much does Supabase cost?
Supabase offers a free tier and three paid plans. Pro starts at $25 per month, Team at $599 per month, and Enterprise requires a custom quote. All pricing is in USD charged monthly.
SourceCortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Supabase: What are Supabase's usage overage fees?
Pro plan users pay $0.00325 per monthly active user over the 100,000 included, and $0.125 per GB for database storage exceeding 8 GB per project. Compute instances cost $10 to $3,730+ per month.
SourceCortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Cortex: What is the main adoption risk?
Bad or missing service metadata. The catalogue and every scorecard on top of it inherit whatever quality your repositories already have.
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- Supabase vs Bazel
- Supabase vs Dagger
- Supabase vs Deep Code
- Supabase vs Deno
- Supabase vs Fig
- Supabase vs Frappe
- Supabase vs Git
- Supabase vs Asana
- Supabase vs ClickUp
- Supabase vs Figma
- Supabase vs Linear
- Supabase vs Postgres
- Supabase vs Redis
- Supabase vs Excalidraw
- Supabase vs MongoDB
- Supabase vs Notion
- Supabase vs PostHog
- Supabase vs GitHub
- Supabase vs Apache Hadoop
- Supabase vs Height
- Supabase vs Honeycomb
- Supabase vs Istio
- Supabase vs Lucidchart
- Supabase vs GitHub Desktop