Gemmein vs Supabase
Supabase is a superb developer platform: real Postgres, row-level security you author, functions, realtime, storage — a big honest surface for people who want control. Gemmein is deliberately the opposite shape: seven plain-English safety rules instead of policies you write, security on by default instead of configured, and an operator console instead of a developer dashboard. If you're a developer who wants SQL, pick Supabase and don't look back. If you're a founder whose AI builds the app, the comparison gets interesting.
Supabase hands a developer the keys to everything. Gemmein hands a founder a business that can't be unlocked wrong.
Paste it to the AI you already build with — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Bolt — it reads the guide and answers for your app.
Side by side
| Supabase | Gemmein | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Developers who want a full Postgres platform | Founders whose AI builds the app — and the AI itself |
| Data safety | Row-level security policies you (or your AI) write — powerful, and yours to get right | Seven fixed plain-English rules, server-enforced; an app cannot misconfigure its way into a leak |
| Surface | Huge: SQL, functions, realtime, storage, vectors… | Deliberately narrow: identity, records, files, payments, back office — if it's not in the guide, it isn't built |
| Sign-in | Many auth methods, configured per project | One: passwordless email codes — no password database exists |
| Payments | Bring your own integration | Built in on your own Stripe: subscriptions, one-off products, refunds honoured, entitlements |
| Running the business | A developer console | An operator console: customers, subscriptions, refunds, audit record — MFA step-up on dangerous actions |
| Price shape | Generous free tier, paid plans plus usage | Free while you build; live is one banded plan, $50–$150/mo by real monthly people |
Their side is described from public pages as of August 2026 — check their site for current details; ours is the product's own contract.
When Supabase is the better choice
- You're a developer, or you have one — and you want SQL, migrations, realtime, edge functions, and the freedom to model anything. That's exactly what it's for, and Gemmein refuses that surface on purpose.
- Your app needs shapes Gemmein deliberately doesn't do: team workspaces, per-user permissions, background jobs.
- You enjoy owning the security model. Row-level security done well is excellent — it's just yours to do well.
When Gemmein is
- Nobody on the project wants to own a database, policies, or an auth configuration — the AI builds, the founder answers business questions, and the rules can't be wrong.
- Payments and the customer relationship matter from day one: your Stripe, your customer, refunds and entitlements already wired.
- You want the back office to exist without building it — the console is the product, not an admin panel you write later.
Questions
No. Gemmein runs its own engine — the same contract-enforcement engine you run locally with npx -y gemmein dev is what runs in its cloud. That one-to-one parity is a product law: what your app proves locally is what production enforces.
That's the design. The guide at docs.gemmein.com/llms.txt is written to the AI: it assesses fit first, asks the human only the business questions, builds against the local runtime, and hands back a tested app. A human signs up only at go-live — because the pain worth charging for is taking an app to customers, not starting one.
You do — deliberately. With Gemmein, every payment lands in your Stripe account and the customer is legally your customer. Merchant-of-Record platforms (Paddle, Lemon Squeezy) flip that trade: they become the seller of record, their name is on the card statement, and your customer is contractually theirs — in exchange they carry the tax filing. Both are legitimate. Selling digital products to EU consumers can create VAT duties from the first sale, and at heavy international volume a Merchant of Record genuinely earns its cut. For most independent founders under the UK's £90,000 VAT threshold, with Stripe Tax able to calculate what's owed, you're deciding whether to hand over the customer relationship to avoid paperwork you may not have yet. Gemmein never holds, moves, or processes money either way — that's Stripe's job, in your account.
Web apps only — no native mobile SDKs today. No team or workspace visibility scopes, no per-user record permissions, no carts or physical goods, no multi-seller payouts, no hosted functions or cron (your server-side code runs on your own host with a secret key). If something isn't in the builder guide, it isn't built — the guide says so out loud rather than letting an AI invent a workaround.
Build anywhere. Launch with Gemmein.
No account. No card. No time limit.