Is Supabase Good for Mobile Apps?
Supabase is arguably the best open-source backend for React Native. See how its Auth and Storage features work natively on iOS and Android.
Yes. In 2025, Supabase is widely considered the "default" choice for React Native developers who want an open-source alternative to Firebase.
It solves the three hardest problems in mobile dev: Auth, Data, and Images.
1. Native Authentication (That Just Works)
Building auth from scratch is a nightmare. With Supabase + React Native, it's standardized.
// Sign in with Apple (using native iOS capabilities)
const { data, error } = await supabase.auth.signInWithIdToken({
provider: "apple",
token: appleAuthRequestResponse.identityToken,
});It handles tokens, refresh cycles, and session persistence automatically using AsyncStorage.
2. Row Level Security (RLS)
This is Supabase's killer feature. Instead of writing API endpoints like GET /users/me and checking cookies, you literally just query the database from your phone:
// Frontend code
const { data } = await supabase.from("profiles").select("*");"Wait, isn't that insecure?" No. You define a policy in your database:
CREATE POLICY "Users see their own profile"
ON profiles FOR SELECT
USING (auth.uid() = user_id);The database itself filters the data. Your phone only gets what it's allowed to see. It’s genius.
3. Media Storage
Supabase Storage is basically an S3 wrapper. Uploading a user's avatar from their camera roll is trivial:
const { data } = await supabase.storage
.from("avatars")
.upload("public/avatar1.webp", file);The "But..."
The only downside? You need to understand SQL concepts. If you try to use Supabase like a NoSQL document store (dumping JSON blobs everywhere), you're going to have a bad time. You need to design your schema properly.
Don't want to design a schema from scratch? VibeFast Pro comes with a production-ready Supabase schema (Users, Profiles, Subscriptions) already set up.
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