Row-Level Security (RLS) causes severe query performance degradation

7/10 High

When Row-Level Security is enabled in production, query execution plans degrade dramatically. Fast SELECT queries become slow with unexpected multi-table joins, and indexes become ineffective, turning a simple database operation into a performance nightmare.

PostgreSQLRow-Level Security
Category
performance
Workaround
none
Stage
debug
Freshness
persistent
Scope
single_lib
Recurring
Yes
Buyer Type
team

Sources

Collection History

Query: “What are the most common pain points with Supabase for developers in 2025?”4/6/2026

Using RLS for *all* complex business logic can lead to performance issues and make your application harder to debug.

Query: “What are the most common pain points with PostgreSQL for developers in 2025?”3/29/2026

Then you turn it on in production… and suddenly, every query plan looks like it just rolled a critical fail. What used to be a fast `SELECT` now feels like it's doing a 14-table join for fun. Indexes? Still there, but apparently on vacation.

Created: 3/29/2026Updated: 4/6/2026