---
name: Kayhan Space
title: Kayhan Space saw 8x improvement in developer speed when moving to Supabase
description: >-
  The Kayhan Space team migrated to Supabase from Amazon RDS and Auth0 to
  simplify infrastructure and unlock developer velocity.
company_url: 'https://kayhan.space'
industry:
  - spacetech
  - ai
  - saas
region: North America
company_size: startup
supabase_products:
  - database
  - auth
date: '2025-05-21'
---
> It’s literally a night and day difference. With Supabase and Next.js, it’s been very smooth and
> very fast to get new features out.
>
> *— Hyun S., Chief Product Officer, Kayhan Space*

[Kayhan Space](https://kayhan.space) is a software-first aerospace company building tools to help satellite operators make more intelligent and safer actions in orbit. Their flagship product, [Satcat](https://www.satcat.com), alerts users of potential close approaches, displays real-time orbital data, and helps operators plan collision-avoidance maneuvers and coordinate with one another. After consolidating their commercial and government tools into Satcat, they re-architected their stack using Supabase to accelerate development, improve scalability, and streamline authentication.

## The challenge

Kayhan Space originally built their systems using Amazon RDS for data storage and Auth0 for authentication. As they transitioned from enterprise-only sales to a hybrid B2B and B2C model, they needed a platform that could:

- Handle self-serve onboarding for thousands of public users
- Support complex access control for sensitive government and commercial data
- Accelerate development and reduce cross-functional overhead between frontend and backend teams
- Scale seamlessly with public interest, especially during unexpected traffic spikes

They also faced significant friction with their previous stack:

- Auth0’s pricing model and B2B-B2C transition were inflexible
- RDS required additional tooling for simple access patterns
- Non-engineering staff needed access to data
- Developer productivity was limited by the fragmented nature of AWS services

## Choosing Supabase

When Satcat moved from prototype to production, Kayhan Space chose Supabase as the backbone of their new stack. The decision was driven by several key factors:

- **All-in-one platform**: Supabase offered a [managed Postgres database](/database), built-in [Auth](/auth), and a powerful dashboard in one place
- **Ease of use**: Connecting OAuth providers and managing privileged access was simple, even for non-engineers
- **Row-Level Security**: RLS allowed them to enforce complex, multi-tenant data access controls at the database level
- **Familiar stack**: Supabase worked seamlessly with their frontend in Next.js and enabled rapid prototyping without backend bottlenecks

> Supabase felt like a restaurant kitchen where all the tools are organized and ready to go. Even I
> use it daily to check signups and debug issues without touching the command line.
>
> *— Hyun S., Chief Product Officer, Kayhan Space*

## The approach

Kayhan Space began using Supabase for lightweight prototyping—just login and data persistence. As Satcat became the company’s core focus, they doubled down on Supabase:

- Migrated from RDS and Auth0 to Supabase Database and Supabase Auth
- Used RLS extensively to isolate data access across different product tiers and types of users
- Implemented JSON-based storage patterns where flexibility was needed, like trajectory planning
- Shifted from RPCs to direct SQL queries in their Next.js app for performance and simplicity
- Integrated with Grafana for monitoring and analytics

The transition was fast and developer-friendly, enabling frontend engineers to build features independently without constantly relying on backend changes.

## The results

- **8x increase in development speed** after consolidating tools and adopting Supabase
- **Zero downtime with Supabase** during a major traffic spike (tens of thousands of users in three days) sparked by public interest in a re-orbiting Soviet satellite
- **Improved collaboration** between frontend and backend teams due to tight coupling between Supabase and Next.js
- **Real-time observability** via custom dashboards to monitor user behavior and system health
- **Support for large datasets**, including time series and historical orbital trajectories for over 60,000 satellites

Supabase has become part of the daily workflow for both engineers and product leadership. Even non-technical team members use the dashboard to inspect user activity and debug UI issues.

## Future outlook

Kayhan Space plans to continue expanding Satcat for both public and enterprise users. On the technical side, their roadmap includes:

- Scaling read performance with Supabase Read Replicas
- Continuing to explore Postgres-based spatial, geospatial indexing, and time series capabilities
- Building additional features that rely on Supabase’s RLS and database extensibility

As they grow, Supabase will remain a foundational layer in their mission to make space safer and more transparent for operators and the public.

> We didn’t even entertain self-hosting. Supabase just worked, right out of the box. It saved us so
> many engineering hours.
>
> *— Hyun S., Chief Product Officer, Kayhan Space*