AWS Amplify vs Supabase
AWS Amplify vs Supabase compared for European indie developers and small startups. Pricing, EU jurisdiction, GDPR posture, and why Runsite (an EU-registered PaaS in Frankfurt) is worth a look.
AWS Amplify vs Supabase: quick answer
AWS Amplify and Supabase both offer Git-push deploy workflows, but they differ where it counts. AWS Amplify and Supabase are both US-headquartered, so neither escapes US jurisdiction or the CLOUD Act, and neither runs EU-native infrastructure or offers hard spending caps. For European teams that need GDPR-compliant hosting in Frankfurt with predictable EUR billing and a permanent free tier, Runsite is the EU-native alternative to both.
// aws amplify problems → runsite solutions
Common AWS Amplify frustrations. Sound familiar?
Every AWS Amplify frustration, solved.
AWS Amplify problem
"AWS is too complex"
IAM roles, VPCs, CloudFormation, Amplify CLI: deploying a simple app requires DevOps knowledge.
Runsite solution
Git push and done
No AWS Console. No IAM. Connect your repo, pick EU, deploy. Two minutes.
AWS Amplify problem
"I can't understand my AWS bill"
Lambda invocations, API Gateway requests, S3 operations, data transfer, 20+ line items.
Runsite solution
Simple, fixed pricing
One plan. One monthly price. With a hard spending cap so you never overpay.
AWS Amplify problem
"Free tier expires after 12 months"
AWS free tier is a 12-month trial. After that, everything is billed.
Runsite solution
Free forever, no expiry
Runsite's free tier doesn't expire. Build side projects without watching a countdown.
// comparison
Runsite vs AWS Amplify
Side-by-side. No marketing fluff, just facts.
| Feature | Runsite | AWS Amplify |
|---|---|---|
| Complexity | ✓ Simple: git push deploy | AWS Console + IAM + CloudFormation |
| EU Data Centers | ✓ Frankfurt (eu-central) | ✓ eu-west, eu-central |
| GDPR Compliance | ✓ EU entity | Complex: requires AWS DPA |
| Backend Hosting | ✓ Full containers | Lambda functions |
| Pricing Clarity | ✓ Fixed plans | ✗ 20+ line items per invoice |
| Free Tier | ✓ Permanent | ✓ 12 months then paid |
// the other side
What about Supabase?
Supabase gives you a great PostgreSQL BaaS. But free projects pause after 7 days, and it's a US company. Runsite gives you always-on EU hosting.
// supabase problems → runsite solutions
Common Supabase frustrations. Sound familiar?
Every Supabase frustration, solved.
Supabase problem
"My free project got paused"
Supabase pauses free-tier projects after 7 days of inactivity. Your demo, side project, or staging environment goes offline.
Runsite solution
Always-on free tier
Runsite's free tier doesn't pause. Your app runs 24/7, even if nobody visits for a month.
Supabase problem
"$25/project for Pro is expensive"
Running 3 projects on Supabase Pro costs $75/mo. The jump from free (with pausing) to paid is steep.
Runsite solution
Managed PostgreSQL from €5/mo
Standard PostgreSQL with auto-backups for €5/mo. Add a web service for €5/mo. Total: €10/mo.
Supabase problem
"Edge Functions can't be pinned to EU"
Supabase Edge Functions run on Deno Deploy. You can't control which region processes your requests.
Runsite solution
EU-only compute
Your containers run in our Frankfurt (eu-central) region. Every request is processed in Europe under EU law.
// comparison
Runsite vs Supabase
Side-by-side. No marketing fluff, just facts.
| Feature | Runsite | Supabase |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier Availability | ✓ Always on, never pauses | ✗ Pauses after 7 days inactivity |
| Deploy Custom Apps | ✓ Any Docker container | ✗ BaaS only (Edge Functions) |
| GDPR Compliance | ✓ EU entity | ✗ US company (San Francisco) |
| PostgreSQL | ✓ From €5/mo | ✓ From $25/mo (Pro) |
| Edge Functions Region | ✓ EU pinned | ✗ Deno Deploy, no EU pinning |
| Auth + Realtime | Bring your own | ✓ Built-in (GoTrue, Realtime) |
| Auto-Generated APIs | Bring your own | ✓ REST + GraphQL from schema |
| Open Source | Closed source | ✓ Open source (Apache 2.0) |
// in-depth comparison
How AWS Amplify and Supabase each compare to Runsite
AWS Amplify vs Runsite
You picked Amplify because it promised to smooth over the sharp edges of AWS, and to a point it does. It simplifies deploying frontend and full-stack applications on AWS infrastructure, handling CI/CD and hosting, and it can wire up backend resources like Lambda, DynamoDB, and Cognito through its CLI and libraries. If your team already lives in the AWS ecosystem, that friction reduction is real.
The abstractions only go so far. You still need an AWS account, IAM configuration, and familiarity with CloudFormation under the hood. Billing inherits AWS complexity, with invocations, storage, data transfer, and request counts across multiple services making cost prediction difficult. The 12-month free tier is a trial, not a permanent offering. Runsite requires no cloud provider account, offers fixed monthly plans with hard spending limits, and keeps all infrastructure in EU data centers under EU jurisdiction.
If the AWS overhead feels disproportionate to your project size, you get git-push deploys, managed PostgreSQL, and GDPR compliance without learning IAM policies or navigating the AWS Console.
Supabase vs Runsite
The dealbreaker for a lot of European developers is one line in the free-tier terms: Supabase pauses free-tier projects after 7 days of inactivity, so your staging environment or demo app goes offline without warning. That weighs more than any feature list.
For context, the rest is strong. Supabase has built an impressive open-source platform around PostgreSQL, with auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs, built-in auth via GoTrue, real-time subscriptions, and edge functions, plus a community Firebase cannot match. But there is a second catch: it is a San Francisco-based US company, so CLOUD Act jurisdiction applies to your data regardless of region selection. Paid plans start at $25/project/mo, making multi-project setups expensive.
Runsite's free tier never pauses, managed PostgreSQL starts at €5/mo, and the platform operates as an EU entity with all data in European data centers. Developers who want PostgreSQL hosting with EU data sovereignty, always-on availability even on the free tier, and lower per-project costs will find Runsite addresses the limitations European Supabase users hit most.
// why consider runsite
Beyond AWS Amplify and Supabase
EU PaaS for indie developers and small European startups. One region: Frankfurt.
EU-First Infrastructure
While AWS Amplify and Supabase default to US markets, Runsite is built exclusively for European developers. Frankfurt (eu-central) region, EU entity, EU jurisdiction, with no transatlantic transfers.
Real GDPR Compliance
EU-registered entity. Your data is governed by European law. No US jurisdiction, no CLOUD Act.
Predictable Pricing
No per-invocation charges, no surprise bills. Fixed plans with hard spending caps and Telegram alerts.
Common Questions
FAQ
Which is better for EU hosting, AWS Amplify or Supabase?
Neither AWS Amplify nor Supabase is EU-native. Both are US-based (AWS Amplify: a US AWS service; Supabase: US-headquartered (open source)) and route most traffic through US regions, with EU availability that is usually limited or gated behind higher tiers. Even when you can select a European region, the parent company stays subject to the US CLOUD Act, which can compel disclosure of EU customer data. For genuine EU data residency, an EU-registered platform is the safer choice: Runsite runs exclusively in Frankfurt (eu-central) under EU jurisdiction, with no transatlantic transfers and no CLOUD Act exposure — the kind of guarantee neither US provider can make.
Which has the better free tier, AWS Amplify or Supabase?
Free tiers on both AWS Amplify and Supabase change frequently and tend to share the same catch: compute that sleeps after inactivity, bandwidth or build-minute caps, or trial credits that expire after a fixed window. They are fine for quick experiments but rarely sustainable for an always-on hobby project. If a permanent free tier matters, read the current terms carefully. Limits are often buried in the pricing footnotes. Runsite takes the opposite approach: a free tier with no credit card and no expiry, designed to keep small projects online indefinitely rather than nudging you onto a paid plan.
Is AWS Amplify or Supabase GDPR-compliant?
Both AWS Amplify and Supabase can be configured to support GDPR-compliant workloads through a signed Data Processing Agreement (DPA) and EU region selection where available. However, as US-incorporated entities they remain subject to the US CLOUD Act regardless of where the data physically sits, which is a documented sticking point for European compliance and DPO review. For workloads where US jurisdiction is a hard blocker (public-sector, healthcare, or privacy-sensitive consumer apps), an EU-headquartered provider removes the ambiguity entirely. Runsite is EU-registered with data kept inside the EU, so GDPR posture is the default rather than a configuration exercise.
What is the cheapest way to deploy a side project, AWS Amplify or Supabase?
For a single small service, both AWS Amplify and Supabase can look inexpensive on paper. The headline price rarely matches the real bill. Per-service billing, metered bandwidth, build minutes, and add-ons for databases or key-value stores stack up quickly, and neither platform offers a hard spending cap to stop a surprise invoice. The cheapest predictable option is one with fixed monthly pricing and an enforced ceiling. Runsite bills in EUR from €5/month with hard spending caps and Telegram alerts, plus a permanent free tier, so a side project stays cheap by design, not by careful monitoring.
// explore alternatives
Try the European Alternative
Skip the AWS Amplify vs Supabase debate. Deploy on Runsite.
Start Free on Runsite →