---
name: Phoenix Energy
title: >-
  Phoenix Energy completes critical infrastructure migration in six months with
  Supabase
description: >-
  Phoenix Energy rebuilt its infrastructure on Supabase, completing a full-stack
  migration from MongoDB ahead of deadline with zero downtime.
company_url: 'https://www.phoenixenergy.com'
industry:
  - enterprise
region: North America
company_size: enterprise
supabase_products:
  - database
  - auth
  - storage
  - functions
date: '2025-11-13'
---
> We needed a system that could handle serious performance and security requirements — without
> slowing down our developers. Supabase has given us both.
>
> *— Kris Woods, CTO, Phoenix Energy*

[Phoenix Energy](https://www.phoenixenergy.com/) (formerly Phoenix Capital Group) operates across oil
and gas drilling, mineral rights acquisition, and direct investment through corporate bonds. The team
rebranded in early 2024 to reflect its evolution into a full-fledged energy company.

Facing MongoDB's SDK and Data API deprecation with only 12 months to migrate, Phoenix Energy's
seven-person engineering team rebuilt their entire data infrastructure on **Supabase**, completing the
migration a month ahead of schedule while maintaining zero downtime for their investor-facing
applications.

## The challenge

Phoenix Energy ran three business-critical applications on MongoDB's Data API, SDKs, and
authentication system: an investor portal at [invest.phoenixenergy.com](https://invest.phoenixenergy.com),
an internal investment admin system, and Ark, a custom-built CRM that replaced Salesforce.

When MongoDB announced the immediate deprecation of the SDKs and Data API in September 2024, the
team faced several critical challenges:

- **Complete infrastructure replacement** across authentication, database, storage, and API endpoints
- **Three production applications** dependent on the deprecated stack
- **Compressed migration window** with only 12 months to evaluate, migrate, and validate
- **Performance concerns** after early testing showed 20-30× slower response times on suggested alternatives
- **User experience risk** where any friction in the investor portal could cost conversions

> We had initially chosen MongoDB because it was all-in-one: auth, storage, database, endpoints.
> With that going away, we had to rethink our entire backend infrastructure. But it also gave us an
> opportunity to build something stronger. And that’s when we found Supabase.
>
> *— Kris Woods, CTO, Phoenix Energy*

Throughout the evaluation period—October through December 2024—the team explored MongoDB via Azure,
Firebase, and Fauna. Each alternative came with significant drawbacks, from performance issues to
unclear answers about long-term stability.

## Choosing Supabase

Supabase emerged as the clear choice, offering the same all-in-one appeal that initially drew Phoenix
to MongoDB, but backed by a proven Postgres foundation.

> Supabase is exactly what once made MongoDB attractive. We had auth again, all in one place. We had
> database, we had storage. And it's built on open source Postgres, which has been tried and tested
> for many years. That gave us confidence.
>
> *— Kris Woods, CTO, Phoenix Energy*

**Why Supabase**

- **Proven foundation:** Postgres delivered the stability and maturity the team needed for critical workloads.
- **All-in-one platform:** Auth, database, APIs, and storage under one roof reduced dependencies and operational overhead.
- **Approachable learning curve:** Documentation and tooling enabled engineers of varying experience levels to onboard quickly.
- **Impressive performance:** Proof-of-concept tests exceeded MongoDB benchmarks before optimization.
- **Active roadmap:** Rapid iteration and an engaged community signaled long-term platform health.
- **Direct support:** Slack channels with Supabase engineers delivered real-time guidance during migration.

The team also appreciated that rising engineers could quickly become productive with Supabase's
approachable API design and clear documentation, limiting onboarding friction during a high-pressure
timeline.

## The approach

With an August 2025 deadline, Phoenix Energy executed a parallel migration across all three
applications using a tightly coordinated plan:

- **Custom migration tooling**
  - Automated data cycling, syncing, testing, and validation between MongoDB and Supabase
  - Continuous integration checks ensured parity across codebases during the rewrite
- **Complete query rewrite**
  - Translated every NoSQL query into SQL patterns while preserving feature parity
  - Introduced relational models that improved long-term data clarity and maintainability
- **Weekend cutover**
  - Final data migration ran over a weekend, with the switch flipped Sunday night
  - Only one day of minor issues surfaced during transition, resolved before Monday investor traffic
- **Direct team support**
  - Supabase engineers provided hands-on guidance via connected Slack channels
  - Best practices around security, indexing, and performance tuning were incorporated in real time

> We transitioned three applications in six months. We built migration tooling, rewrote every
> database query, and flipped the switch over a weekend. When everyone got back to work Monday,
> nobody really knew any different. The systems just worked.
>
> *— Kris Woods, CTO, Phoenix Energy*

## The results

Phoenix Energy completed the migration in August 2024—one month ahead of schedule—with measurable wins
for both the business and engineering team.

- **Zero user-facing disruption** during and after migration across all investor applications
- **Improved performance** with noticeably faster responses ahead of further optimization work
- **Stronger foundation** ready for analytics and AI workloads powered by relational data models
- **Team confidence** to decommission MongoDB instances immediately after cutover
- **Six-month execution** from project kickoff to production transition with a seven-person team
- **Better developer experience** through clearer SQL workflows and faster debugging cycles

> We've been very happy with how that's gone. Our experience with the Supabase team has been great.
> Being able to get responses directly through the connected Slack channel made a huge difference.
>
> *— Kris Woods, CTO, Phoenix Energy*

## What's next

With a reliable Supabase foundation in place, Phoenix Energy is focused on expanding its data
capabilities and responsibly exploring AI:

- **Analytics infrastructure:** The team plans to use upcoming Supabase ETL features to build an end-to-end analytics stack without introducing new syncing layers.
- **AI workloads:** Engineers are testing vector databases and MCP servers in isolated Supabase environments, ensuring compliance with SEC regulations before production rollout.

> Supabase ETL is going to be really interesting for us. I'd love for everything to live in the same
> place so the team can focus on building impactful tools. It really does feel like Supabase is just
> getting started and I am excited about how we can grow with them from here.
>
> *— Kris Woods, CTO, Phoenix Energy*