From Supabase to Elestio: How DataFuel Cut Infrastructure Costs by 80%

Wassim SAMAD -
In this article, Sacha Dumay, founder of DataFuel.dev, recounts how migrating his Supabase infrastructure to Elestio's helped him reduce costs by 80%, creating a more sustainable foundation for his business.

As a solo founder launching datafuel.dev, I learned a valuable lesson about choosing the right infrastructure early on. Here's my story of how switching to Elestio helped me build a more sustainable business.

The Initial Launch and Unexpected Costs

When I launched DataFuel on December 1st, I was thrilled to see immediate traction. Within the first week, we attracted 5,000 unique visitors – a promising start for any new product. I had built the backend using Supabase, attracted by its robust features and developer-friendly approach.

However, success came with an unexpected challenge. My application's scraping jobs and database operations were consuming significant CPU resources. By the end of the first week, I had already spent over $70 on infrastructure costs, while only generating $400 in revenue. For a bootstrapped product, watching 17.5% of revenue go straight to infrastructure costs was concerning.

Finding a Sustainable Solution

As a solo founder, I needed to optimize my costs without compromising on reliability. After researching alternatives, I discovered Elestio. What caught my attention wasn't just the pricing – it was their promise of simplicity combined with robust performance.

The Migration Experience

The transition to Elestio was surprisingly smooth:

  • Setup took less than 30 minutes
  • Their support team was incredibly responsive
  • No downtime during migration
  • Infrastructure costs dropped to just $15 per month

The Impact

This switch had an immediate impact on my business's sustainability:

  • Monthly infrastructure costs reduced by 80%
  • More predictable pricing model
  • Maintained same performance levels
  • Freed up resources to focus on product development

Key Takeaways

This experience taught me several valuable lessons about infrastructure choices for early-stage products:

  1. Start with infrastructure that scales with your budget, not just your traffic
  2. Don't underestimate the impact of compute-intensive operations on cloud costs
  3. Consider support quality as a crucial factor – it can make or break your migration experience

Looking Forward

With the cost optimization achieved through Elestio, I can now focus on what matters most – building features that deliver value to my users. The reduced infrastructure costs have given me more runway to experiment and grow the product sustainably.

For other solo founders and small teams running compute-intensive operations, I'd highly recommend evaluating your infrastructure costs early. Sometimes, the popular choice isn't necessarily the most cost-effective for your specific use case.