India is disabling access to popular developer platform Supabase through a blocking order

TechCrunch has learned that Supabase, a popular database platform for developers, is facing turmoil in India — one of its major markets — and has been banned in India. New Delhi ordered Internet service providers to block its website, resulting in inaccessibility across networks.

The ban order was issued on February 24 under Section 69A of the Indian Information Technology Act, according to a source familiar with the matter. This provision enables the government to restrict public access to online content.

The Indian government did not publicly give a reason for the move, and it was not immediately clear whether the action was related to cybersecurity concerns, a 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 issue in its social media posts starting on Wednesday. While the restrictions were first reported by Supabase on Reliance Industries’ JioFiber network, users have since reported similar issues across multiple internet providers and telecom networks. In a post on Friday, Supabase tagged India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnau, asking him to intervene and restore access, though the company later removed the message and said in a later update that the site was still blocked for many users in the country.

An Indian founder, who requested to remain anonymous to avoid possible repercussions, told TechCrunch that they have stopped seeing new user registrations from India in the past two or three days. A technology consultant working with local startups, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they were not able to reliably access Supabase for development and production purposes.

While Supabase suggested workarounds like switching 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 was not accessible via ACT Fibernet, JioFiber and Airtel connections in New Delhi. However, two ACT Fibernet users in Bengaluru said they were still able to access the service, suggesting that the restrictions may be implemented unevenly.

Notably, the main Supabase site remained available in India, but the underlying developer infrastructure did not.

India is the fourth-largest source of traffic to Supabase, accounting for about 9% of global visits, according to data from SimilarWeb, highlighting the potential ramifications for the country’s developer ecosystem. The platform’s global traffic jumped more than 111% year-on-year to about 4.2 million visits in January. In India, visits increased by approximately 179% to about 365,000, compared to an increase of 168.5% in the United States to about 627,000.

Raman Jeet Singh Cheema, Asia Pacific policy director at Access Now, said the incident highlights broader concerns about India’s website blocking regime.

“This is a simple fact that has serious consequences 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 find yourself scrambling to find a way.”

India has previously faced criticism over large-scale website blocking measures. In 2014, authorities briefly restricted access to developer platform GitHub, along with services like Vimeo, Pastebin, and Weebly, during a security investigation. Users on some Indian networks in 2023 also reported GitHub’s main content domain being blocked by some ISPs, according to previous 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. The startup has gained traction amid growing interest in so-called “bio-programming” tools and AI-based app development, and has raised about $380 million across three funding rounds since September 2024, taking its valuation to $5 billion.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, as well as telecom service providers including ACT Fibernet, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, did not respond to requests for comment. Coplestone and Wilson also did not respond.