Authentication appears in nearly every application but is rarely the core value proposition. Yet development teams often spend weeks or months building, testing, and maintaining auth systems. Let's explore the real costs of building authentication from scratch versus using a solution like Supabase Auth.
Before diving into the cost analysis, it's important to understand what Supabase Auth is:
Postgres-native authentication: Supabase Auth stores users directly in your Postgres database in the auth.users table, not in a separate service
JWT-based: Authorization give you total control over security
Row Level Security integration: Seamlessly connects authentication with Postgres's RLS policies
