NeonvsPlanetScale

Saas68

Developer Tool

Score Comparison

Overall

Pricing

Usability

Performance

Support

Reliability

Onboarding

Security

Integrations

NeonPlanetScale

Signals Comparison

Reliability

Neon

Multiple outages in 2025-2026 raise reliability concerns(9/10)
Regional availability gaps(5/10)

PlanetScale

Connection issues with Next.js and Prisma(7/10)
October 2025 AWS us-east-1 outage affected dashboard(5/10)

Customization

Neon

Databricks acquisition creates uncertainty(8/10)
Limited control over storage internals(6/10)

PlanetScale

No signals

Performance

Neon

Cold starts affect user experience(7/10)
Serverless driver slower than direct Postgres(6/10)

PlanetScale

No signals

Pricing

Neon

Free tier cannot run 24/7 continuously(6/10)
Branch and PITR storage costs add up(5/10)

PlanetScale

Free Hobby tier removed - $39/month minimum now(10/10)
Row-read billing causes surprise costs(8/10)
Much more expensive than alternatives(8/10)

Usability

Neon

Database-only service requires additional tools(5/10)
Free tier limited to one database per project(4/10)

PlanetScale

Branching workflow has steep learning curve(6/10)
No GUI or DBMS - just SQL console(5/10)
Index optimization required to avoid high row reads(6/10)

Integrations

Neon

No signals

PlanetScale

No foreign key support due to Vitess architecture(7/10)
Firebase and social login integration issues(6/10)
MySQL-only limits use cases (Postgres preference growing)(5/10)

Support

Neon

No signals

PlanetScale

Limited documentation and support for edge cases(5/10)

Pricing Comparison

Neon

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: 0.5GB

Limits: Scale-to-zero only (cold starts), 100 CU-hours not enough for always-on

Cannot run 24/7, limited to one database per project, no pooler customization

Launch

Popular

$0/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: 10GB included

Limits: No SLA, email support only, limited to personal/small projects

Compute: $0.16/CU-hour after included. Storage: $0.35/GB-month. PITR history: $0.20/GB-month

Scale

$0/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: 50GB included

Limits: Still usage-based, costs can spike with high traffic

Same usage rates as Launch after included amounts

Enterprise

$0/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Custom

Limits: Requires sales engagement, unclear pricing until negotiation

Pricing negotiated per customer

PlanetScale

Postgres PS-5

$5/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: Included in base

Limits: Not recommended for production, No high availability, Single region only

Non-HA (no failover), Development/testing only recommended, Compute charged separately

Scaler Pro (PS-10)

Popular

$39/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: 10 GB included

Limits: 5 development branches max, Enterprise features locked, No dedicated support

Storage overage $1.50/GB, Read replicas $39/month each, Higher compute tiers significantly more expensive

Scaler Pro (PS-20)

$99/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: 25 GB included

Limits: 5 development branches max, Enterprise features locked

Read replicas additional, Storage overages apply, Still no dedicated support

Enterprise

Free

Users: Unlimited

Storage: Custom

Limits: Must negotiate with sales, Long procurement process

Contact sales required, Minimum annual commitment expected, Pricing not transparent

Feature Comparison

Feature	Neon	PlanetScale
Database
PostgreSQL Database Full compatibility
Foreign Key Constraints Limited support, not in sharded mode
PostgreSQL Support Added late 2024, less mature than MySQL
Development
Database Branching Instant COW clones
Core
Zero-Downtime Migrations Non-blocking schema changes via Online DDL
Deploy Requests Safe schema migration workflow
Scaling
Scale-to-Zero Pay only when active
Horizontal Sharding Via Vitess, automatic data distribution
Autoscaling 0.25-8 CU range
Read Replicas $39/month each additional
Multi-Region Deployment Read-only regions for latency
Reliability
Point-in-Time Recovery Instant restore
Automatic Backups Point-in-time recovery available
Monitoring
Query Insights Query analysis and index recommendations
Connectivity
Serverless Driver WebSocket based
Performance
Connection Pooling Built-in for serverless environments
Backend
Authentication Database only
File Storage Database only
Deployment
On-Premises/BYOC Cloud only
Pricing
Free Tier Removed March 2024
Always-On Free Tier 100 CU-hours limit
Usability
GUI/Visual Editor SQL console only, no rich GUI
Developer
CLI Tool (pscale) Full-featured command line interface
Security
SSO/SAML Enterprise plan only
Audit Logs Enterprise plan only

Signals Comparison

Reliability

Neon

Multiple outages in 2025-2026 raise reliability concerns(9/10)
Regional availability gaps(5/10)

PlanetScale

Connection issues with Next.js and Prisma(7/10)
October 2025 AWS us-east-1 outage affected dashboard(5/10)

Customization

Neon

Databricks acquisition creates uncertainty(8/10)
Limited control over storage internals(6/10)

PlanetScale

No signals

Performance

Neon

Cold starts affect user experience(7/10)
Serverless driver slower than direct Postgres(6/10)

PlanetScale

No signals

Pricing

Neon

Free tier cannot run 24/7 continuously(6/10)
Branch and PITR storage costs add up(5/10)

PlanetScale

Free Hobby tier removed - $39/month minimum now(10/10)
Row-read billing causes surprise costs(8/10)
Much more expensive than alternatives(8/10)

Usability

Neon

Database-only service requires additional tools(5/10)
Free tier limited to one database per project(4/10)

PlanetScale

Branching workflow has steep learning curve(6/10)
No GUI or DBMS - just SQL console(5/10)
Index optimization required to avoid high row reads(6/10)

Integrations

Neon

No signals

PlanetScale

No foreign key support due to Vitess architecture(7/10)
Firebase and social login integration issues(6/10)
MySQL-only limits use cases (Postgres preference growing)(5/10)

Support

Neon

No signals

PlanetScale

Limited documentation and support for edge cases(5/10)

Pricing Comparison

Neon

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: 0.5GB

Limits: Scale-to-zero only (cold starts), 100 CU-hours not enough for always-on

Cannot run 24/7, limited to one database per project, no pooler customization

Launch

Popular

$0/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: 10GB included

Limits: No SLA, email support only, limited to personal/small projects

Compute: $0.16/CU-hour after included. Storage: $0.35/GB-month. PITR history: $0.20/GB-month

Scale

$0/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: 50GB included

Limits: Still usage-based, costs can spike with high traffic

Same usage rates as Launch after included amounts

Enterprise

$0/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Custom

Limits: Requires sales engagement, unclear pricing until negotiation

Pricing negotiated per customer

PlanetScale

Postgres PS-5

$5/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: Included in base

Limits: Not recommended for production, No high availability, Single region only

Non-HA (no failover), Development/testing only recommended, Compute charged separately

Scaler Pro (PS-10)

Popular

$39/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: 10 GB included

Limits: 5 development branches max, Enterprise features locked, No dedicated support

Storage overage $1.50/GB, Read replicas $39/month each, Higher compute tiers significantly more expensive

Scaler Pro (PS-20)

$99/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: 25 GB included

Limits: 5 development branches max, Enterprise features locked

Read replicas additional, Storage overages apply, Still no dedicated support

Enterprise

Free

Users: Unlimited

Storage: Custom

Limits: Must negotiate with sales, Long procurement process

Contact sales required, Minimum annual commitment expected, Pricing not transparent

Feature Comparison

Feature	Neon	PlanetScale
Database
PostgreSQL Database Full compatibility
Foreign Key Constraints Limited support, not in sharded mode
PostgreSQL Support Added late 2024, less mature than MySQL
Development
Database Branching Instant COW clones
Core
Zero-Downtime Migrations Non-blocking schema changes via Online DDL
Deploy Requests Safe schema migration workflow
Scaling
Scale-to-Zero Pay only when active
Horizontal Sharding Via Vitess, automatic data distribution
Autoscaling 0.25-8 CU range
Read Replicas $39/month each additional
Multi-Region Deployment Read-only regions for latency
Reliability
Point-in-Time Recovery Instant restore
Automatic Backups Point-in-time recovery available
Monitoring
Query Insights Query analysis and index recommendations
Connectivity
Serverless Driver WebSocket based
Performance
Connection Pooling Built-in for serverless environments
Backend
Authentication Database only
File Storage Database only
Deployment
On-Premises/BYOC Cloud only
Pricing
Free Tier Removed March 2024
Always-On Free Tier 100 CU-hours limit
Usability
GUI/Visual Editor SQL console only, no rich GUI
Developer
CLI Tool (pscale) Full-featured command line interface
Security
SSO/SAML Enterprise plan only
Audit Logs Enterprise plan only