Side-by-side comparison
Three paths, three very different outcomes.
Most founders start at column one. The goal is to move to column two — and only move to column three when you actually need it.
| Criteria | Current State Lovable/Replit + Supabase | Tier 1–2 Outcome GitHub + CI/CD + Supabase | Tier 3 Outcome AWS ECS + Terraform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure Control | Managed by platform. Limited visibility into what runs where. Hard to customize. | Full control. Your GitHub repo, your pipelines, your Supabase project. You own the stack. | Complete infrastructure ownership. IaC via Terraform. Every resource is versioned and auditable. |
| Deployment Process | Click-to-deploy through platform UI. Opaque. Hard to reproduce locally or debug failures. | GitHub Actions CI/CD. Pull request → automated tests → staging → prod. Reproducible and observable. | ECS task definitions, ECR image registry, blue/green deploys. Enterprise-grade release process. |
| Monthly Cost | $700–800+ at growing usage. Platform pricing scales aggressively with team size and features. | GitHub Actions (often free or ~$4/mo). Supabase Pro ($25/mo). Hosting at cost. ~$50–150/mo typical. | Higher baseline (~$200–500/mo minimum for ECS), but predictable and controllable at scale. |
| Environment Separation | Often none or minimal. Dev and prod share configuration. Dangerous at scale. | Full dev / staging / prod separation with environment-specific secrets and deployment gates. | Multiple AWS accounts or VPCs per environment. Enterprise-standard isolation. |
| Security Posture | Depends on platform defaults. RLS may be misconfigured. Secrets in environment variables without audit trail. | Proper RLS enforcement. GitHub Secrets management. Clear dependency audit trail. Significantly stronger baseline. | IAM roles, VPC network segmentation, AWS Secrets Manager, CloudTrail audit logging. Enterprise-ready. |
| AI Development Workflow | Often tightly coupled to platform-specific editor. Prompt patterns tied to platform UI. | Full Claude Code integration. Clean repository structure. Prompt discipline and testing patterns established. | Same Claude Code workflow plus infrastructure-as-code patterns for AI-assisted Terraform. |
| Scalability Ceiling | Hits friction early. Platform limits, cost spikes, and opaque bottlenecks appear before you expect them. | Handles early and mid-stage growth well. Supabase scales to millions of rows. Real ceiling is at high-concurrency workloads. | No practical ceiling for most SaaS products. Auto-scaling ECS, Aurora Serverless, multi-AZ. Enterprise-proven. |
| Vendor Lock-in | High. Code may use platform-specific APIs. Extraction is painful and requires professional help. | Low. Standard Git workflow. Supabase is Postgres — portable. Can migrate to AWS later with minimal friction. | Moderate AWS dependency, fully mitigated by Terraform IaC. Stack can be reproduced or migrated. |
| When to Choose | Building the initial prototype. Validating the idea. Speed is the only priority. Do not stay here long. | You have early revenue or committed users. You want ownership. Supabase is working. You're pre-series A. | You've outgrown Supabase's model, have enterprise customers, compliance requirements, or significant traffic. |
Decision Framework
Which path is right for you?
Stay on Lovable/Replit if...
- →You're still validating the idea
- →You have fewer than 10 paying customers
- →Speed of shipping is your only constraint
- →You don't yet have early revenue
But plan your exit strategy now.
Move to GitHub + CI/CD + Supabase if...
- →You have early revenue or committed users
- →You're paying $700+/month in platform costs
- →You're preparing for a fundraise
- →You want to use Claude Code professionally
- →Supabase is meeting your data needs
This is the right upgrade for most founders.
Move to AWS ECS + Terraform if...
- →You have enterprise customers with security requirements
- →You need SOC 2 or HIPAA compliance
- →You're at significant traffic and Supabase has limits
- →You need multi-region reliability
- →You're post-series A with an engineering team
Rarely necessary pre-series A.
Our Philosophy
Architecture should match your stage.
We're not here to sell you AWS if Supabase is working. We're here to help you stop paying for abstraction layers you don't need, while making sure you own what you're building.
The right architecture at the wrong stage creates complexity that slows you down. The right architecture at the right stage accelerates everything.
We're pro-Supabase
Supabase is an excellent production database for most SaaS apps at early and mid stage. We help you use it properly.
We're pro-AI
Claude Code and AI-assisted development are the right choice for most teams. We build workflows that support it.
No overengineering
We will not put you on AWS ECS if you don't need it. That would be expensive, slow, and wrong for your stage.
Clear upgrade paths
Every tier is designed to make the next tier easier, not harder. Tier 1 work directly reduces Tier 3 complexity.
Not sure which path is right?
Book a 30-minute strategy call. I'll assess your current architecture and tell you exactly where you are and what your fastest path forward looks like.