Backend as a Service arenaBackend as a Service
Hosted backend platforms bundling database, realtime sync, auth, storage, and serverless functions, judged on data and security models, local development, migrations and type safety, vector search, and how safely an agent can provision and evolve a backend end-to-end.
51 user stories · 204 judged cells · updated 2026-09-16 · Evidence as of 2026-09-16
Leaderboard — every product ranked by evidenceLeaderboard
Rank by
| 1 |  Supabasefree-tier vs Appwrite ↗ | 64/100 | 24/100 | 44/100 | 58/100 | 11/100 | ★ 109.1k▲ 15.8k/yrnpm 20.1M/wk | 25/37 verified · 3 disputed | 56/100 integrity | ||
| 2 |  Appwritefree-tier vs Supabase ↗ | 58/100 | 26/100 | 3/100 | 59/100 | 29/100 | ★ 57.4k▲ 7.7k/yrnpm 29.4k/wk | 12/35 verified | 20/100 integrity | ||
| 3 |  Firebasefree-tier vs Supabase ↗ | 43/100 | 70/100 | 11/100 | 14/100 | 47/100 | ★ 4.5k▲ 351/yrnpm 7.4M/wk | 19/32 verified · 1 disputed | 41/100 integrity | ||
| 4 |  Convexfree-tier vs Supabase ↗ | 51/100 | 8/100 | 11/100 | 55/100 | 6/100 | ★ 12.5k▲ 5k/yrnpm 1.1M/wk | 13/29 verified | 38/100 integrity |
Best by user type — persona-weighted winnersBest by user type
Per persona, the product with the highest persona-weighted coverage over just that persona's stories — not the same ranking as the overall PA Score leaderboard above.
Best for platform-engineer
Firebase
18/100
Runner-up: Appwrite (12/100)
2 platform-engineer stories scored
Story matrix — every product × every judged storyStory matrix
51/51 stories shown · legend
Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness
Agent access
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPoint an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 9/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productRun the product headlessly / in CI for automation | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | partialT 6/10 | partialT 6/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPlug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools | ai-native | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productConnect an agent via an official MCP server | ai-native | fullT⚿ 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productUse an official CLI | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDrive the product through a documented public API | ai-native | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productIssue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent | ai-native | disputedD⚿ 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 3/10 | partialC 3/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productBuild against official SDKs | ai-native | partialT 6/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 7/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSubscribe to events via webhooks | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Agentic features
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productGet AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product | ai-native | partialT⚿ 5/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSet up automations that run autonomously in the background | ai-native | none 0/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDelegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product | ai-native | none 0/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productOperate the product with natural-language commands | ai-native | fullT⚿ 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | partialT 6/10 | fullT 8/10 |
Api quality
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productExplore an interactive API reference with runnable examples | ai-native | partialT 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDownload a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent) | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productTest against a sandbox environment without touching production data | ai-native | fullT 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | partialC 4/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productRely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Ai vector — stories about ai vector in this arenaAi vector
Ai assist
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ai vector — stories about ai vector in this arenaAsk an AI assistant in the dashboard to write queries, debug errors, and explain my backend | ai-native | partialT⚿ 5/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Vector
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ai vector — stories about ai vector in this arenaStore embeddings and run vector similarity search for AI features | developer | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Auth — stories about auth in this arenaAuth
Authentication
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auth — stories about auth in this arenaAdd email/password and social OAuth sign-in with the platform SDK in minutes | developer | fullX 8/10 | fullX 8/10 | partialC 6/10 | fullC 9/10 |
| Auth — stories about auth in this arenaRequire MFA and enterprise SSO (SAML/OIDC) for my application users | platform-engineer | partialC 3/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 |
Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedPerform bulk operations across many items at once | ai-native | none 0/10 | partialX 5/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedDefine rules that trigger actions automatically on events | ai-native | partialC 4/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedSchedule recurring jobs or workflows | ai-native | none 0/10 | partialX 6/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 6/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedVersion, review, and roll back my automations | ai-native | partialC 3/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncDatabase realtime
Database
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncConnect to the underlying database with standard clients and ORMs via a connection string | developer | partialX 5/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 |
| Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncProvision a managed database and read/write it from client and server SDKs | developer | fullT 9/10 | fullX 8/10 | fullX 9/10 | fullC 8/10 |
| Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncExpress relational queries with joins, constraints, and transactions | developer | partialX 6/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 4/10 | partialC 2/10 |
Realtime
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncBuild offline-capable clients whose local writes sync automatically on reconnect | developer | none 0/10 | fullX 7/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncTrack user presence and broadcast ephemeral state between connected clients | developer | fullX 9/10 | partialX 4/10 | partialX 4/10 | fullC 8/10 |
| Database realtime — database and realtime features — queries, subscriptions, live syncSubscribe to live data changes so my UI updates in real time without polling | developer | fullX 9/10 | fullX 7/10 | fullX 9/10 | fullC 6/10 |
Functions — stories about functions in this arenaFunctions
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Functions — stories about functions in this arenaRun functions automatically in response to database or auth events | developer | partialC 3/10 | fullC 9/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 7/10 |
| Functions — stories about functions in this arenaDeploy server-side functions invoked by HTTP or SDK calls without managing servers | developer | fullC 8/10 | fullC 9/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 |
Local dev — stories about local dev in this arenaLocal dev
Ai provisioning
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local dev — stories about local dev in this arenaHave an agent stand up a new backend — schema, auth, and policies — headlessly from the CLI in a script | ai-native | fullT 7/10 | partialT 6/10 | partialT 5/10 | fullT 8/10 |
Local
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local dev — stories about local dev in this arenaRun the whole backend stack locally with an emulator or CLI before deploying | developer | disputedD 5/10 | fullT 8/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialT 6/10 |
Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesDo everything through the API that I can do in the UI | ai-native | partialT 7/10 | partialT 6/10 | partialT 5/10 | partialT 6/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesExport all of my data in open formats and leave | ai-native | partialX 5/10 | disputedD 3/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 6/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesRead the product's source under an open license | ai-native | fullC 7/10 | partialC 3/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullT 7/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesSelf-host the core product | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullX 9/10 |
Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesChoose where my data is stored (region/residency) | ai-native | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrevent my data from being used to train AI models | ai-native | n/a | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesControl data retention and deletion | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 4/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesOpt out of telemetry and usage tracking | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Schema migrations — stories about schema migrations in this arenaSchema migrations
Ai migrations
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schema migrations — stories about schema migrations in this arenaLet an agent create and test schema changes in an isolated branch or preview environment before production | ai-native | partialT⚿ 7/10 | partialT 4/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 |
Migrations
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schema migrations — stories about schema migrations in this arenaManage schema changes as version-controlled migrations applied via the CLI or CI | developer | disputedD 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Security rules — stories about security rules in this arenaSecurity rules
Access control
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security rules — stories about security rules in this arenaRestrict data access per user with row-level security policies or security rules | developer | partialX 7/10 | fullX 8/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 3/10 |
Data protection
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security rules — stories about security rules in this arenaRely on automated backups and point-in-time recovery for my data | platform-engineer | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 3/10 | none 0/10 |
Storage — stories about storage in this arenaStorage
Files
| Story | Persona | Supabase | Firebase | Convex | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage — stories about storage in this arenaUpload and serve user files with access rules and CDN-backed delivery | developer | fullX 7/10 | partialX 3/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 |
| Storage — stories about storage in this arenaServe resized or transformed images from storage without running my own image pipeline | developer | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Verdict✓ fullclear evidence~ partialwith caveats! disputedevidence conflicts— noneno evidence foundn/aquestion doesn't apply to this kind of product
ProofT probedtested by usX communityusers back itC claimedvendor claim onlyD contradictedevidence disagrees⚿ auth-gatedprobe hit a live sign-in wall — verified reachable, untestable keylessly
quality 0–10 · PA Score /100 · A–D = evidence confidence · full guideAdjacent arenas — categories often shopped togetherAdjacent arenas
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