Neon vs PlanetScale
Neon and PlanetScale side by side: what each one is, verified plan pricing and install commands where we have them, and the full review of each.
Neon
Serverless Postgres with branching. Free tier, instant database branches per PR, autoscaling compute, and scale-to-zero. Acquired by Databricks in 2025.
PlanetScale
Database platform for MySQL on Vitess, PlanetScale Postgres, and Neki (sharded Postgres), with branching, non-blocking schema changes, and horizontal sharding. There is no free or hobby tier; PlanetScale Postgres single node starts at $5/month.
At a glance
| Field | | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Infrastructure | Infrastructure |
| Website | neon.tech | planetscale.com |
| Pricing | Free - $0: 100 projects, 100 CU-hours per project per month, 1 GB storage per project, sizes up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM); Launch - usage-based, $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month, up to 16 CU; typical spend $15/mo; Scale - usage-based, $0.222 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month, up to 56 CU, SLAs, HIPAA, private networking; typical spend $701/mo; Extra branches - $0.002 per branch-hour beyond the plan allowance; no monthly minimum on paid plans; Startup Program - up to $100k in credits; Agent Plan and Open Source Program on request | Base plan, PlanetScale Postgres single node - from $5/mo for development and low-traffic workloads; Base plan, PlanetScale Postgres Metal - from $50/mo with local NVMe storage; Base plan, Vitess and Neki - resource-based, priced by cluster size, shards, replicas, routers or VTGates, and storage (Neki PS-10 cluster $30/mo); Enterprise - custom pricing with Business support, single-tenant or PlanetScale Managed in your own AWS or GCP account |
| Install | npm i -g neon@latest or brew install neonctl or bun install -g neon | brew install pscale or scoop bucket add pscale https://github.com/planetscale/scoop-bucket.git or scoop install pscale mysql postgresql |
| Models | Serverless Postgres that autoscales from 0.25 CU up to 56 CU and scales to zero when idle, with branching, read replicas, and pgBouncer pooling. On Launch and Scale, the AI Gateway gives access to model providers at their list prices, with no markup, paid from prepaid credits. | You choose an engine when creating a database: Vitess (MySQL-compatible with horizontal sharding), PlanetScale Postgres, or Neki (sharded Postgres). Each runs on network-attached EBS or Metal NVMe clusters on AWS and GCP; since October 2026, PlanetScale Postgres and Neki databases can also be created in Azure regions (Vitess is not currently available on Azure). A PlanetScale MCP server lets AI clients query databases and read branch metrics. |
| Last verified | October 17, 2026 | October 17, 2026 |
In Depth
Neon
Neon is serverless Postgres built for the modern dev workflow. Branching is the killer feature: you can spin up a copy-on-write branch of your production database for any PR or local dev session in seconds. Compute scales to zero when idle, which makes the free tier genuinely usable. Storage and compute are decoupled, so you can scale them independently. Now part of Databricks, Neon has become the default Postgres choice for new TypeScript projects on platforms like Vercel.
PlanetScale
PlanetScale is a managed database platform with three engines: Vitess (MySQL-compatible with horizontal sharding), PlanetScale Postgres, and Neki, its sharded Postgres. The headline features are non-blocking schema changes (deploy requests), database branching, and horizontal scale via shards. Databases run on AWS and GCP, and since October 2026 Postgres and Neki databases can also run in Azure regions. There is no free or hobby tier: PlanetScale Postgres single node starts at $5/month and Metal at $50/month. Best fit for teams that need true horizontal scale and zero-downtime schema changes.
FAQ
Answers taken from each tool's verified fact sheet, with the date it was last checked.
How much does Neon cost?
As of October 17, 2026: Free - $0: 100 projects, 100 CU-hours per project per month, 1 GB storage per project, sizes up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM); Launch - usage-based, $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month, up to 16 CU; typical spend $15/mo; Scale - usage-based, $0.222 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month, up to 56 CU, SLAs, HIPAA, private networking; typical spend $701/mo; Extra branches - $0.002 per branch-hour beyond the plan allowance; no monthly minimum on paid plans; Startup Program - up to $100k in credits; Agent Plan and Open Source Program on request. Source: Neon pricing, Neon CLI install, Neon changelog.
How do I install Neon?
Official install commands as of October 17, 2026: npm i -g neon@latest or brew install neonctl or bun install -g neon.
Which models does Neon use?
As of October 17, 2026: Serverless Postgres that autoscales from 0.25 CU up to 56 CU and scales to zero when idle, with branching, read replicas, and pgBouncer pooling. On Launch and Scale, the AI Gateway gives access to model providers at their list prices, with no markup, paid from prepaid credits.
How much does PlanetScale cost?
As of October 17, 2026: Base plan, PlanetScale Postgres single node - from $5/mo for development and low-traffic workloads; Base plan, PlanetScale Postgres Metal - from $50/mo with local NVMe storage; Base plan, Vitess and Neki - resource-based, priced by cluster size, shards, replicas, routers or VTGates, and storage (Neki PS-10 cluster $30/mo); Enterprise - custom pricing with Business support, single-tenant or PlanetScale Managed in your own AWS or GCP account. Source: PlanetScale pricing, Pricing catalog, CLI environment setup, PlanetScale changelog.
How do I install PlanetScale?
Official install commands as of October 17, 2026: brew install pscale or scoop bucket add pscale https://github.com/planetscale/scoop-bucket.git or scoop install pscale mysql postgresql.
Which models does PlanetScale use?
As of October 17, 2026: You choose an engine when creating a database: Vitess (MySQL-compatible with horizontal sharding), PlanetScale Postgres, or Neki (sharded Postgres). Each runs on network-attached EBS or Metal NVMe clusters on AWS and GCP; since October 2026, PlanetScale Postgres and Neki databases can also be created in Azure regions (Vitess is not currently available on Azure). A PlanetScale MCP server lets AI clients query databases and read branch metrics.
