# What Supabase Is — Supabase

Source: https://www.skillbyai.com/en/supabase/f-what

> An open-source backend platform on Postgres.

## Postgres plus batteries

Supabase is a backend platform whose centre is a real **Postgres** database. Around it sit services for **auth** (users, sessions, OAuth), **storage** (files in buckets), **realtime** (listening to changes and sending messages), **edge functions** (server-side TypeScript) and an auto-generated **REST API**. Because the data lives in ordinary Postgres, you keep SQL, constraints, views, functions and extensions. Supabase is open source and can be self-hosted, or used as a managed cloud service with a dashboard.

## A backend built around Postgres

Supabase wraps a full Postgres database with auth, storage, realtime and functions behind one API gateway.

![Three ideas: what Supabase is, how its services fit together and how a client connects.](assets/figures/supabase/section-1-map.svg) — Figure 1.1 — Client, API gateway, Supabase services and Postgres.

## The building blocks at a glance

Which product answers which need.

```bash
# need                                 -> Supabase product
# store relational data, query with SQL -> Database (Postgres)
# sign users in, issue JWTs             -> Auth
# upload images, PDFs, videos           -> Storage
# live updates, chat, who is online     -> Realtime
# server-side logic, webhooks, secrets  -> Edge Functions
# embeddings and similarity search      -> pgvector extension
```

## A furnished flat around a solid foundation

Postgres is the concrete foundation; auth, storage and realtime are furniture already moved in. You can rearrange or replace pieces, but the foundation stays standard.

**Quiz:** What sits at the centre of every Supabase project?

- [ ] A key-value cache only
- [ ] A proprietary document store
- [x] A full Postgres database
- [ ] A GraphQL-only data layer

*Answer:* A full Postgres database. Everything else is built around Postgres.