VML Agency — Infrastructure

Database Hosting Strategy Report

Evaluating options to consolidate 4 Supabase projects into a company account with room for 10+ projects and 5 team members.

Feb 2026 5 Users ~10 Projects PostgreSQL

1 Executive Summary

Current State

4 Projects

Across 2 personal free Supabase accounts (2 each). Approaching free-tier limits.

Target State

10 Projects

One company account, 5 team members, room to grow with new builds.

Key Finding

Deep BaaS Lock-in

Bloodstream uses Supabase Storage, Realtime, and PostgREST across 60+ files. Full migration = weeks of work.

2 Bloodstream — Supabase Usage Audit

Before comparing platforms, we audited the agency portal codebase to understand exactly which Supabase features are in use. This determines how feasible a migration would be.

PostgREST API HEAVY

52+

files use .from().select() / .insert() / .update()

File Storage ACTIVE

2

buckets: client-briefs & supporting-documents

Realtime ACTIVE

7

hooks with postgres_changes subscriptions

Auth NOT USED

0

Uses Chronos SSO instead

Edge Functions NOT USED

0

Uses Vercel serverless + N8N

Supabase Clients 2 PROJECTS

2

Main app (61 files) + Quoting tool (11 files)

Implication: Migrating Bloodstream away from Supabase means replacing PostgREST queries in 52+ files, swapping Storage with an alternative (e.g., Cloudflare R2), and rebuilding Realtime subscriptions. This is weeks of refactoring — not a quick swap.

3 Monthly Cost Comparison

Estimated monthly cost for 10 projects with 5 team members at light-to-moderate usage.

Neon Launch

DB only

$15–45

Railway

DB only

$20–35

CockroachDB

Wire-compat only

$0–40

PlanetScale

DB only (PG new)

$50–150

Hybrid

Supa + Neon

$65–85

Supabase Pro

Full BaaS

~$115

Render

DB only

$155–285

DigitalOcean

DB only

$15–150

4 Platform Feature Matrix

Platform Native PG PostgREST Storage Realtime Scale-to-0 No Seat Fee 10 Projects Est. /mo
Supabase Pro ~$115
Neon Launch $15–45
Railway $20–35
Render $155–285
CockroachDB ~ $0–40
DigitalOcean $15–150
PlanetScale ? $50–150
Turso $0–25

~ = partial compatibility   |   PlanetScale PG support is new (mid-2025)   |   Turso is SQLite-based, not PostgreSQL

5 Recommended Options

Option 1 Simplest path

Supabase Pro — All-In

Consolidate all projects under one Supabase Pro organisation. Zero code changes.

Pro subscription$25/mo
10x Micro compute$100/mo
Compute credit-$10/mo
Total~$115/mo
Migration effort: None

+ All BaaS features included (Storage, Realtime, PostgREST)

+ 5 dashboard users at no extra cost

+ Daily backups, no auto-pause

- $10/mo per project adds up quickly

- Compute runs 24/7 (no scale-to-zero on paid plans)

Option 3 Best of both worlds

Hybrid — Supabase Pro + Neon

Upgrade BaaS-dependent apps (Bloodstream, Quoting) to Supabase Pro. Use Neon for new database-only projects.

Supabase Pro (4 projects)$55/mo
Neon Launch (6 new projects)$10–30/mo
Total$65–85/mo
Migration effort: Minimal (move projects to new org)

+ No auto-pause on Supabase paid projects

+ Daily backups, higher limits for existing apps

+ New projects get Neon's scale-to-zero economics

+ Upgrade path if free tier becomes limiting

- Two platforms and two bills to manage

- Higher cost than Option 2

Option 4 Cheapest (high effort)

Full Neon Migration

Migrate everything to Neon, including Bloodstream. Requires replacing Supabase SDK, Storage, and Realtime across 60+ files.

Neon Launch (10 projects)$15–45/mo
Cloudflare R2 (file storage)~$1–5/mo
Realtime replacement (Ably/Pusher)$0–25/mo
Total$16–75/mo
Migration effort: Significant (weeks)

+ Cheapest long-term (single platform)

+ Scale-to-zero across all projects

+ One bill, one platform

- Rewrite PostgREST queries in 52+ files

- Replace Storage uploads/downloads

- Rebuild Realtime subscriptions in 7 hooks

- Weeks of development work

6 Platforms Not Recommended

Platform Reason
Render $155–285/mo — most expensive option. Per-user ($19/user) + per-database fees stack up quickly.
PlanetScale PostgreSQL support is brand new (mid-2025). No free tier. Branching only works with MySQL/Vitess. Risky for production.
CockroachDB Wire-compatible but not native PostgreSQL. Extensions (PostGIS, pg_trgm), stored procedures, and DDL differ. Migration requires careful testing.
Turso SQLite-based — completely different SQL dialect. Migrating from PostgreSQL would require a full schema and query rewrite.
Pinecone Vector database only (for AI embeddings). Not a general-purpose relational database. Could complement PostgreSQL but not replace it.

7 Why Neon for New Builds?

Scale-to-Zero

Databases automatically pause after 5 minutes of inactivity. You pay $0 in compute when no one is hitting the database. For dev/staging environments and low-traffic apps, this is transformative.

Supabase charges $10/mo per project 24/7. Neon charges only for active seconds.

Instant Branching

Create full database clones instantly using copy-on-write. Perfect for Vercel preview deployments — each PR gets its own database branch. Zero-cost until data diverges.

Native Vercel integration: per-preview-branch databases out of the box.

Usage-Based Pricing

Pay for actual compute seconds and storage bytes consumed. No provisioned capacity sitting idle. $5/mo minimum covers most light projects entirely.

Compute$0.106/CU-hour
Storage$0.35/GB-month
Team seatsFree (unlimited)

100 Projects Included

No per-project fees. The Launch plan includes 100 projects. You could spin up 10, 20, or 50 databases with no additional platform charges — just pay for what they consume.

Compared to Supabase: 10 projects = $100/mo in compute alone. On Neon: $0 extra.

8 Supabase Pricing Explained

For context — Supabase recently moved to org-based billing. Here's how it works now:

Free

$0
  • 2 projects max
  • 500 MB database
  • 1 GB file storage
  • 50K Auth MAUs
  • Auto-pause after 7 days

Pro

$25/org
  • Unlimited projects
  • $10/mo compute per project (min)
  • 8 GB database
  • 100 GB file storage
  • 250 GB bandwidth (pooled)
  • 100K Auth MAUs
  • $10 compute credit included

Team

$599/org
  • Everything in Pro, plus:
  • SOC 2 compliance
  • SSO / SAML
  • 2 TB bandwidth
  • 500K Auth MAUs
  • Priority support
  • Overkill for your needs

Key insight: The $25 is per-org, not per-project. Only compute is per-project ($10/mo minimum). Usage quotas (storage, bandwidth, MAUs) are pooled across all projects in the org. Dashboard user seats are free and unlimited.

9 Final Recommendation

Recommended Approach

Option 2: Keep Bloodstream on Supabase Free + Neon for New Builds

Don't fix what isn't broken. Bloodstream and the Quoting Tool work fine on their current Supabase free accounts. For all new projects, use Neon's Launch plan — you'll get native PostgreSQL with scale-to-zero, 100 projects included, unlimited team seats, and costs as low as $10–30/month for 6 databases.

$10–30

per month

0

migration effort

5 min

to get started

Upgrade Path

If the Supabase free tier becomes limiting (auto-pause, 500MB storage cap), upgrade to Option 3 — move Bloodstream into a Supabase Pro org ($55/mo) while keeping new projects on Neon. This is a natural, low-risk progression.

Next Steps

  1. 1 Create a Neon account and organisation at neon.tech. Choose the Launch plan ($5/mo minimum).
  2. 2 Invite your colleague and future team members to the org (free, unlimited seats).
  3. 3 Create your first Neon project for the next new build. Connect via standard PostgreSQL connection string.
  4. 4 Keep Bloodstream and Quoting Tool on their existing Supabase free accounts — no changes needed.
  5. 5 Revisit in 3–6 months: if Supabase free limits are hit, upgrade to a Pro org (Option 3).