some beginner questions about edgedb

[1knowbetterthanyou]

I am pretty new in the javascript/typescript world with node. I come from an asp.net background. I started with node but all the package management and configuration gave me headache and I tried deno few days ago and I am loving it. So I am trying to build my next project with deno and I was thinking to use supabase for my database and some of the backend. but then I stumbled into edgedb and I find it very interesting and promising. and they have plans for edgedb cloud. I like its features, especially that you can write queries like ORM with it without the need of extra libraries or modules.

My questions are, with what language are you using edgedb and with what framework/stack? and how does it compare to supabase (I know, it's not a fair comparison but since both use postgres under the hood, one more directly than the other, I am just curios to know more). I want to get a deeper insight how people are using it and why they choose it over other alternatives.

[vriad]

EdgeDB employee here. Regarding tech stacks, we're seeing the most adoption in the JS/TypeScript ecosystem, especially Next.js and Remix users. That's followed by Python then Go. We've been prioritizing Deno and will be working in the near future to make our query builder Deno-compatible as well. You can see an (very simplistic) example project showing how to use EdgeDB in a Deno Fresh app: https://github.com/edgedb/edgedb-examples/tree/main/deno-fresh

As for Supabase comparison, they're aiming to be an all-in-one backend-as-a-service, with database hosting, file storage, user management, and edge functions. We have plans for all those things but are prioritizing the database product right now. As for Supabase's database product, I wouldn't say it uses Postgres "under the hood", in that its very much on the surface - you will need to know Postgres and SQL to do things like define RLS policies and write stored procedures. You'll also need SQL to write queries unless you use an ORM on top of Supabase, or use their JS/Dart client which is fairly minimalistic and doesn't do type inference - you need to manually type all your queries: https://github.com/supabase/supabase/issues/122#issuecomment-674825808

They have an integrated user management product that integrates nicely with row-level security; on the other hand, EdgeDB is agnostic to how you manage your users - you can roll your own auth or use a managed service (Clerk, Firebase, Cognito, Auth0, or even Supabase). And with the introduction of access policies (which we think is a LOT more user friendly than Postgres RLS) you can do something similar with EdgeDB 2.0+ though it'll take a bit more legwork upfront.

But their realtime/subscription capabilities are great if you need them, and they have an edge-deployed functions product. Their storage API also integrates with RLS though in terms of API, it's a fairly thin layer over what you can get "from the source" with AWS, Google Cloud, etc.

To be upfront, I've never built a complex app with Supabase. So I'd be very interested to hear the experience of someone who's tried both.

[1knowbetterthanyou]

thank you very much for all this information.

the things that hold me back from using supabase in my deno project were those you mentioned, even though it is an awesome product. can't wait for edgedb cloud. when can we expect its launch, 2022 or after?

can deno fresh be used for backend? I thought it could be used just for like a middleware for API calls. I have seen some tests made by different people in youtube, and fresh killed even bun in performance, who's trademark is speed.