CockroachDB review
A distributed SQL database built for horizontal scalability and multi-region survivability, available self-hosted or as a managed cloud service.
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
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Best for: teams running multi-region transactional workloads on PostgreSQL-compatible SQL that need automatic failover without manual sharding
Pricing: Cloud: 30-day trial with $400 credit, then Standard from $0.092/vCPU-hour (about $203/month) or Mission Critical from $0.162/vCPU-hour (about $1,528/month); self-hosted is free for businesses under $10M revenue, with a paid Enterprise license above that.
- New CockroachDB Cloud organizations created on or after September 15, 2026 get a 30-day free trial with $400 in credit instead of a free tier.
- CockroachDB Cloud Standard costs $0.092/vCPU-hour on AWS us-east-1, about $203/month for 2 vCPUs and 100GB.
- CockroachDB Cloud Mission Critical costs $0.162/vCPU-hour, about $1,528/month for 12 vCPUs, with a 99.999% multi-region SLA.
- Self-hosted CockroachDB is free under the Enterprise Free license for organizations with less than $10M in annual revenue.
- CockroachDB replicates every piece of data three times automatically and is PostgreSQL wire-compatible.
- CockroachDB is no longer open source as of version 24.3.
Limitations: No free cloud tier for new organizations, only a 30-day, $400 trial.; No longer open source; the free self-hosted license requires telemetry and a revenue under $10M.; Cloud bills provisioned vCPUs by the hour, so idle clusters still cost money.
Top alternatives: MongoDB Atlas, Neon, PlanetScale — full list
What is CockroachDB?
CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database built by Cockroach Labs to survive node, datacenter, and region failures by automatically replicating every piece of data three times across a cluster. CockroachDB speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol, so most PostgreSQL drivers and ORMs connect without modification, while the storage layer distributes and rebalances data across nodes. It is sold three ways: as CockroachDB Cloud, a managed service on AWS, GCP, and Azure; as Bring Your Own Cloud, where Cockroach Labs manages clusters inside a customer's own cloud account; and as a self-hosted deployment. New Cloud organizations pay per provisioned vCPU-hour, metered by the minute, plus storage, backups, and data transfer, and idle clusters still incur charges. Self-hosted clusters run under the proprietary CockroachDB Software License rather than an open-source license: an Enterprise Free license waives the fee for organizations under $10M in combined annual revenue but requires telemetry, and unlicensed or non-reporting clusters are throttled to five concurrent transactions. The database targets transactional, multi-region workloads that would otherwise need manual sharding.
CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database from Cockroach Labs that replicates data three times across nodes so clusters survive machine, zone, or region failures, and it speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol. Cloud organizations created on or after September 15, 2026 are billed under Cockroach Continuum pricing: a 30-day free trial with $400 in credit, then Standard at $0.092/vCPU-hour on shared infrastructure (about $203/month for 2 vCPUs and 100GB on AWS us-east-1) or Mission Critical at $0.162/vCPU-hour on dedicated infrastructure (about $1,528/month for 12 vCPUs) with a 99.999% SLA, Azure support, CMEK, and PCI DSS and HIPAA controls. The old free Basic tier and the $0.18 and $0.60/hour Standard and Advanced rates now apply only to clusters created before that date. Self-hosted CockroachDB runs under the proprietary CockroachDB Software License, free for businesses under $10M in annual revenue and paid above that.
Standout feature: Automatic 3x data replication with multi-region survivability and PostgreSQL wire compatibility, so most existing Postgres tooling connects without changes
Biggest weakness: New Cloud organizations no longer get a free tier, only a 30-day, $400 trial before per-vCPU-hour billing that the vendor estimates at about $203/month for the smallest Standard example and that keeps running while a cluster sits idle; and self-hosted CockroachDB is no longer open source: since version 24.3 it runs under a proprietary license, and clusters without a valid license or telemetry are throttled to five concurrent transactions.
CockroachDB: pros and cons
Pros
- Automatic 3x replication survives node, datacenter, and region failures without manual intervention.
- PostgreSQL wire-compatible, so most Postgres drivers and ORMs work without modification.
- Mission Critical offers a 99.999% multi-region SLA with CMEK, PCI DSS, and HIPAA controls across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
- The self-hosted Enterprise Free license gives organizations under $10M in annual revenue every Enterprise feature at no cost.
- Runs as a managed cloud service, inside your own AWS, GCP, or Azure account (BYOC), or fully self-hosted.
Cons
- No free cloud tier for organizations created on or after September 15, 2026; only a 30-day trial with $400 in credit.
- No longer open source as of version 24.3; self-hosted runs under the proprietary CockroachDB Software License.
- Enterprise Free requires sending telemetry, and unlicensed or non-reporting self-hosted clusters are throttled to five concurrent transactions.
- Cloud billing tracks provisioned vCPUs, storage, backups, and data transfer, so idle clusters keep costing money and monthly costs take effort to estimate.
CockroachDB pricing
Free tier · paid from $203/mo · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Hosted Enterprise Free | Free | Free annual license with every Enterprise feature for organizations under $10M in combined annual revenue; requires telemetry, community support only, not available to government entities or for running CockroachDB in a customer's environment. |
| Cloud Standard | $203/mo | $0.092/vCPU-hour on AWS us-east-1, about $203/month for 2 vCPUs and 100GB; shared infrastructure, 99.99% SLA, AWS and GCP, usage-based storage, CDC add-on at $0.006/vCPU-hour, 1-hour P1 support. Rates vary by cloud and region; new organizations start with a 30-day trial and $400 credit. |
| Cloud Mission Critical | $1528/mo | $0.162/vCPU-hour, about $1,528/month for 12 vCPUs and 100GB; dedicated infrastructure, 99.999% multi-region SLA, AWS, GCP, and Azure, CMEK, egress controls, PCI DSS and HIPAA, all add-ons, 30-minute P1 support. |
| Self-Hosted Enterprise | Custom | Paid annual license through sales for organizations at or above $10M in annual revenue; Enterprise or Essential support and no telemetry requirement. |
| Bring Your Own Cloud | Custom | Clusters managed by Cockroach Labs inside the customer's own AWS, GCP, or Azure account; priced through sales. |
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