Firebase → Supabase

Many vibe-coded apps start with Firebase because it’s easy to set up. Supabase gives you the same ease-of-use but on a PostgreSQL backend you can query with SQL, with Row Level Security that’s more transparent, and without vendor lock-in. This guide covers migrating Firestore (NoSQL) to Supabase (PostgreSQL) and Firebase Auth to Supabase Auth.

This is a data migration — it requires changes to your app’s code alongside the data move. Budget time for both the migration and testing.

What this guide covers

Exporting data from Firestore
Designing a PostgreSQL schema for your Firestore collections
Migrating data with the Supabase import tool
Swapping Firebase Auth for Supabase Auth
Updating your frontend code

Step 1 — Export Firestore data

In Firebase Console:

# Using Firebase CLI
firebase firestore:export gs://your-bucket/firestore-export

# Download to local
gsutil -m cp -r gs://your-bucket/firestore-export ./firestore-export

Or use the firestore-export-import npm package for JSON output:

npx firestore-export-import export firestore-backup.json

Step 2 — Design your Supabase schema

Firestore is document-based; Supabase is relational. You’ll need to map collections to tables. Example Firestore structure:

/users/{userId}
  name: string
  email: string
  createdAt: timestamp

/posts/{postId}
  title: string
  content: string
  authorId: string (ref to /users)
  createdAt: timestamp

Equivalent Supabase schema:

create table users (
  id uuid primary key default gen_random_uuid(),
  name text not null,
  email text unique not null,
  created_at timestamptz default now()
);

create table posts (
  id uuid primary key default gen_random_uuid(),
  title text not null,
  content text,
  author_id uuid references users(id) on delete cascade,
  created_at timestamptz default now()
);

-- Enable Row Level Security
alter table users enable row level security;
alter table posts enable row level security;

-- Example RLS policies
create policy "Users can read own data" on users
  for select using (auth.uid() = id);

create policy "Anyone can read posts" on posts
  for select using (true);

Run this schema in the Supabase SQL Editor.

Step 3 — Import your data

Convert your Firestore JSON export to CSV or SQL insert statements, then import to Supabase:

import json
import csv

# Convert Firestore export to CSV
with open('firestore-backup.json') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

with open('users.csv', 'w') as f:
    writer = csv.DictWriter(f, fieldnames=['id', 'name', 'email', 'created_at'])
    writer.writeheader()
    for doc_id, doc in data['users'].items():
        writer.writerow({
            'id': doc_id,
            'name': doc['name'],
            'email': doc['email'],
            'created_at': doc['createdAt']
        })

Then import in Supabase Dashboard → Table Editor → Import CSV.

Step 4 — Migrate Firebase Auth users

Firebase Auth users can’t be transferred directly, but Supabase has a Firebase Auth migration guide:

Export Firebase Auth users:

firebase auth:export users.json --format=json

Use the Supabase Firebase migration script to import users with their UIDs preserved (so existing user references in your data stay valid).

Step 5 — Update your frontend code

Replace Firebase SDK calls with Supabase equivalents:

import { initializeApp } from 'firebase/app';
import { getFirestore, collection, getDocs } from 'firebase/firestore';
import { getAuth, signInWithEmailAndPassword } from 'firebase/auth';

const db = getFirestore(app);
const auth = getAuth(app);

// Read data
const querySnapshot = await getDocs(collection(db, 'posts'));
const posts = querySnapshot.docs.map(doc => ({ id: doc.id, ...doc.data() }));

// Sign in
await signInWithEmailAndPassword(auth, email, password);

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.VITE_SUPABASE_URL,
  process.env.VITE_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY
);

// Read data
const { data: posts, error } = await supabase.from('posts').select('*');

// Sign in
const { data, error } = await supabase.auth.signInWithPassword({
  email,
  password
});

Step 6 — Deploy with Nometria

Once your code is updated and tested locally against Supabase:

Connect your repo to Nometria via GitHub
Add your Supabase credentials as environment variables
Deploy

Deploy to AWS

How Nometria provisions your production infrastructure.

Post-migration checklist

All Firestore collections mapped to Supabase tables
Data imported and verified (row counts match)
Firebase Auth users migrated with UIDs preserved
Frontend code updated to use Supabase SDK
RLS policies set correctly
App tested end-to-end on Supabase
Firebase project billing paused or deleted

​What this guide covers

​Step 1 — Export Firestore data

​Step 2 — Design your Supabase schema

​Step 3 — Import your data

​Step 4 — Migrate Firebase Auth users

​Step 5 — Update your frontend code

​Step 6 — Deploy with Nometria

Deploy to AWS

​Post-migration checklist

What this guide covers

Step 1 — Export Firestore data

Step 2 — Design your Supabase schema

Step 3 — Import your data

Step 4 — Migrate Firebase Auth users

Step 5 — Update your frontend code

Step 6 — Deploy with Nometria

Post-migration checklist