This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Tyler O’Malley
Wasn’t planning to switch. I’d used Supabase for a few small apps and figured it was “good enough.” But every time I tried to go beyond a prototype, it felt like I was wrestling Postgres instead of building features.
I use Replit for all my projects (love the instant startup and AI agent), but wiring it up to anything backend-heavy started to feel like duct tape and good intentions.
Then I found Gadget though a random thread about Shopify devs using it for admin panels.
Here’s what actually won me over:
I describe my data model and it builds the API for me. Like actually working endpoints with docs that match my schema.
Built-in auth, file storage, and job runners. No plugin maze.
Auto-indexing that just works. Haven’t touched a query plan since.
Can keep my frontend entirely in Replit. No need to learn a whole new system just to get an API.
I rebuilt one of my earlier projects (a fantasy league stat visualizer) and shipped more in two evenings than I did in a week with Supabase.
Gadget’s not for everyone. If you love doing deep SQL optimizations or fine-tuning your infra, you might bounce off it. But if you’re like me and want to stay in the frontend lane and not get stuck debugging why your RLS policy broke at midnight, it’s honestly a game changer.
Happy to share how I wired it up with Replit if anyone’s curious. Let me know.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Tyler O’Malley