Use Supabase

Add a Postgres Database and user authentication to your React Native app with Supabase.

Supabase is a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) app development platform that provides hosted backend services such as a Postgres database, user authentication, file storage, edge functions, realtime syncing, and a vector and AI toolkit. It's an open-source alternative to Google's Firebase.

Supabase automatically generates a REST API from your database and employs a concept called row level security (RLS) to secure your data, making it possible to directly interact with your database from your React Native application without needing to go through a server!

Supabase provides a TypeScript client library called supabase-js to interact with the REST API. Alternatively, Supabase also exposes a GraphQL API allowing you to use your favorite GraphQL client (for example, Apollo Client) should you wish to.

Prerequisites

Head over to database.new to create a new Supabase project.

Get the API Keys

Get the Project URL and anon key from the API settings.

1. Go to the API Settings page in the Dashboard.
2. Find your Project URL, anon, and service_role keys on this page.

Using the Supabase TypeScript SDK

Using supabase-js is the most convenient way of leveraging the full power of the Supabase stack as it conveniently combines all the different services (database, auth, realtime, storage, edge functions) together.

Install and initialize the Supabase TypeScript SDK

import 'react-native-url-polyfill/auto';
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabaseUrl = YOUR_REACT_NATIVE_SUPABASE_URL;
const supabaseAnonKey = YOUR_REACT_NATIVE_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY;

export const supabase = createClient(supabaseUrl, supabaseAnonKey, {
  auth: {
    storage: AsyncStorage,
    autoRefreshToken: true,
    persistSession: true,
    detectSessionInUrl: false,
  },
});

Next steps