Supabase, a popular developer database platform, is facing disruption in India — one of its key markets — has been blocked in India, TechCrunch has learned. New Delhi ordered ISPs to block their website, resulting in irregular access across networks.
The blocking order was issued on February 24 under Section 69A of India’s Information Technology Act, according to a source familiar with the matter. The provision empowers the government to restrict public access to online content.
The Indian government did not publicly cite a reason for the move, and it was not immediately clear whether the move was related to a cybersecurity issue, copyright complaint or another issue. It was also unclear how long the restrictions would remain in place.
Access to Supabase has been inconsistent in India over the past few days, with the San Francisco-based company acknowledging the problem in social media posts from Wednesday. While the limitations were first reported by Supabase on Reliance Industries’ JioFiber network, users have since flagged similar issues across multiple ISPs and telecom networks. In a post on Friday, Supabase tagged India’s IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and asked him to intervene and restore access, though the company later removed the message and said in a subsequent update that the site remained blocked for many users in the country.
An Indian founder, who asked not to be named to avoid potential repercussions, told TechCrunch that they had stopped seeing new user signups from India over the past two to three days. A technology consultant who works with local startups, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were unable to reliably access Supabase for both development and production purposes.
While Supabase suggested solutions such as changing DNS settings or using a VPN (which redirects Internet traffic to bypass local restrictions), the founder said such steps were not practical for most end users.
At the time of publication, TechCrunch was able to verify that supabase.co remained unavailable on ACT Fibernet, JioFiber and Airtel connections in New Delhi. However, two users on ACT Fibernet in Bengaluru said they were still able to access the service, suggesting the restrictions may be unevenly implemented.
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Notably, Supabase’s main website remained available in India – but its underlying developer infrastructure did not.
India is Supabase’s fourth-largest source of traffic, accounting for about 9% of global visits, according to data from Similarweb, highlighting the potential fallout for the country’s developer ecosystem. The platform’s global traffic increased by more than 111% year over year to around 4.2 million visits in January. In India, visits rose about 179% to about 365,000, compared to a 168.5% increase in the US to about 627,000.
The incident highlights broader concerns about India’s website blocking regime, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, policy director for Asia Pacific at Access Now.
“This is a simple fact that has serious implications for developers and others,” he told TechCrunch. “You don’t know where you can safely run projects without the risk of something happening where it gets blocked, and suddenly you’re finding a way.”
India has faced criticism in the past over broad measures to block websites. In 2014, authorities briefly restricted access to the developer platform GitHub, along with services such as Vimeo, Pastebin and Weebly, during a security investigation. Users on some Indian networks in 2023 also reported that an important GitHub content domain had been blocked by certain ISPs, according to earlier reports.
Founded in 2020 by CEO Paul Copplestone and CTO Ant Wilson, Supabase positions itself as an open source alternative to Firebase built on PostgreSQL. Gaining traction amid growing interest in so-called “vibe coding” tools and AI-powered app development, the startup has raised about $380 million across three funding rounds since September 2024, raising its valuation to $5 billion.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT and telecom providers including ACT Fibernet, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio did not respond to requests for comment. Copplestone and Wilson also did not respond.