3 Best Alternatives to PlanetScale in 2026
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
From our data: All three alternatives compared to PlanetScale (Neon, Supabase, CockroachDB) offer a genuinely free tier with no minimum monthly charge, while PlanetScale itself has required at least $5/month for every database since eliminating its Hobby tier in April 2024; among the three, Supabase's 861 Product Hunt reviews is the largest review base, more than 10 times Neon's 82 and roughly 287 times CockroachDB's 3.
Neon
Supabase
CockroachDBHow we picked
- Free-tier availability is the sharpest differentiator this list surfaces: Neon, Supabase, and CockroachDB all offer a $0/month tier with no credit card or with generous free quotas, while PlanetScale itself has had no free tier since it eliminated the Hobby plan in April 2024, so every PlanetScale database costs at least $5/month.
- Rating coverage differs by platform: Neon holds a 5/5 rating from 82 Product Hunt reviews and Supabase holds a 5/5 rating from 861 Product Hunt reviews, both larger review bases than PlanetScale's own 4/5 rating from a single Capterra review, while CockroachDB carries a smaller 4.7/5 from 3 Product Hunt reviews.
- Licensing model is a real structural difference: Neon's core database engine is open source (Apache 2.0) and Supabase's core stack is Apache-2.0 licensed and self-hostable, both matching PlanetScale's Vitess open-source heritage in spirit, while CockroachDB is no longer open source as of version 24.3, running self-hosted deployments under a proprietary source-available license instead.
- Pricing verification dates cluster closely: Neon, Supabase, and CockroachDB were all verified within the same broad session window as PlanetScale's own pricing (2026-08-21), so the dollar and usage-rate figures compared here reflect a consistent point-in-time snapshot rather than mixed verification dates.
Paid placement never alters editorial rank — read the full methodology.
PlanetScale alternatives at a glance
| Alternative | Best for | Standout | Biggest weakness | Learning curve | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlanetScalereference | teams needing a managed, horizontally-scalable MySQL (Vitess) or Postgres database with Git-style branching workflows, who don't need a permanent free tier | Database branching — copy-on-write schema and data branches for testing migrations — paired with non-blocking, zero-downtime schema changes on both its Postgres and Vitess (MySQL-compatible) offerings. | PlanetScale eliminated its free Hobby tier in April 2024, a widely-criticized move that pushed small and side projects onto paid plans starting at a $5/month minimum, with production-grade high-availability tiers starting significantly higher and metal tiers running into the thousands per month. | Moderate | From $5/mo |
| Neon | developers who want instant, low-cost database branching for every pull request or preview deployment without provisioning full new Postgres instances | Instant copy-on-write database branching that forks a full production dataset in seconds, paired with scale-to-zero compute billing so idle branches cost nothing. | Paid tiers are pure usage-based billing with no flat monthly price, so cost is harder to predict up front than a fixed-price competitor, and extra branches beyond the included count cost $1.50/branch-month, which adds up for teams branching aggressively per pull request. | Low | Free |
| Supabase | developers who want a Postgres-based backend (auth, storage, realtime, auto-generated APIs) they can self-host later, rather than committing to a proprietary NoSQL platform like Firebase | Auto-generated REST, GraphQL, and Realtime APIs derived straight from a project's Postgres schema, with Row Level Security enforcing per-row authorization at the database layer instead of in application code. | Pricing beyond the $25/month Pro base is usage-based and billed per project rather than per account, so teams running multiple projects or exceeding the 100,000 MAU / 250GB egress limits can see invoices climb well past the advertised starting price. | Moderate | Free tier · paid from $25/mo |
| CockroachDB | teams running multi-region transactional workloads on PostgreSQL-compatible SQL that need automatic failover without manual sharding | Automatic 3x data replication with multi-region survivability and PostgreSQL wire compatibility, so most existing Postgres tooling connects without changes | Self-hosted CockroachDB is no longer open source as of version 24.3 — it runs under a proprietary source-available license, and clusters without a valid license (or past their trial/grace period) are throttled to five concurrent SQL transactions, a change that alienated some users who adopted it for its earlier open-source licensing. | Moderate | Free tier · paid from $0.18/mo |
PlanetScale1.Neon — best PlanetScale alternative for developers who want instant, low-cost database branching for every pull request or preview deployment without provisioning full new Postgres instances
Neon is the best PlanetScale alternative for developers who want a genuinely free tier for Postgres branching workflows, since PlanetScale eliminated its free Hobby tier entirely in April 2024 and now starts every database at $5/month minimum. Neon's Free plan includes 100 compute-hours and 0.5 GB storage per project with no credit card required, plus 10 branches per project at no cost, while PlanetScale's cheapest tier, a single-node non-HA Postgres database, still costs $5/month with no free equivalent. Neon holds a 5/5 rating from 82 Product Hunt reviews, more review volume than PlanetScale's single 4/5 Capterra review. Both platforms share database branching as their signature feature: Neon's instant, copy-on-write branching forks a full production dataset in seconds, similar in spirit to PlanetScale's own branching workflow, but Neon's scale-to-zero compute billing means idle branches and dev databases cost nothing when not in use, unlike PlanetScale's flat per-node pricing that runs whether or not the database sees traffic. PlanetScale remains the better choice for teams that specifically want a MySQL-compatible, horizontally-shardable database: Neon's Launch and Scale tiers are pure usage-based billing with no flat monthly price, making cost harder to predict up front, and extra branches beyond the included count cost $1.50/branch-month, which can add up for teams branching aggressively per pull request.
Compared to PlanetScale: genuinely free tier with 100 compute-hours and 10 branches vs PlanetScale's $5/month minimum with no free tier since April 2024, 5/5 rating from 82 Product Hunt reviews vs PlanetScale's single 4/5 Capterra review, scale-to-zero compute billing vs PlanetScale's flat per-node pricing
Wins:Free tier requires no credit card and includes 100 compute-hours plus 10 branches per project, unlike PlanetScale's $5/month minimum since dropping its Hobby tier in April 2024 · 5/5 rating from 82 Product Hunt reviews, more review volume than PlanetScale's single 4/5 Capterra review · Scale-to-zero compute means idle branches and dev databases cost nothing when not in use, unlike PlanetScale's flat per-node pricing
Loses:Postgres only, not MySQL-compatible, unlike PlanetScale's Vitess (MySQL-compatible) product line · Paid Launch and Scale tiers are pure usage-based billing with no flat monthly price, harder to predict than PlanetScale's flat per-node tiers · Extra branches beyond the included count cost $1.50/branch-month, which can add up for teams branching per pull request
Pros
- Instant database branching copies a full dataset in seconds instead of requiring a new server provision.
- Scale-to-zero compute means idle branches and dev databases cost nothing when not in use.
- Fully Postgres-compatible, so existing drivers, ORMs, and extensions work without changes.
- Free tier requires no credit card and includes 100 compute-hours plus 10 branches per project.
Cons
- Usage-based pricing with no flat monthly rate makes budgeting harder to predict than fixed-price competitors.
- Extra branches beyond the included count cost $1.50/branch-month, which can add up for teams that branch per pull request.
- Free tier storage is capped at 0.5 GB per project, small for anything beyond prototyping.
- Scale-to-zero introduces a cold-start delay when a suspended compute branch wakes up, which can affect latency-sensitive workloads.
Pricing: Free — $0/month (Free, 100 compute-hours, no credit card) vs PlanetScale's $5/month minimum (single-node Postgres, non-HA) since PlanetScale's free tier ended in April 2024 (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
2.Supabase — best PlanetScale alternative for developers who want a Postgres-based backend (auth, storage, realtime, auto-generated APIs) they can self-host later, rather than committing to a proprietary NoSQL platform like Firebase
Supabase is the best PlanetScale alternative for developers who want a full backend, authentication, storage, realtime sync, and edge functions, bundled with their Postgres database rather than PlanetScale's database-only product. Supabase's Free plan covers up to 2 active projects with a 500MB database and 50,000 monthly active users at $0/month, a genuinely free entry point that contrasts with PlanetScale's $5/month minimum since it eliminated its free Hobby tier in April 2024. Supabase holds a 5.0/5 rating from 861 Product Hunt reviews, by far the largest review base of any product in this comparison, well above PlanetScale's single 4/5 Capterra review. Supabase's core stack, Postgres, PostgREST, GoTrue auth, Realtime, and Storage, is Apache-2.0 licensed and self-hostable from a GitHub repository with more than 108,000 stars, giving teams the same self-hosting freedom PlanetScale's Vitess line offers but with authentication and storage included rather than sold separately. PlanetScale remains the better choice for teams that specifically need a MySQL-compatible, horizontally-shardable database with PlanetScale's signature branching workflow across both Vitess and Postgres product lines: Supabase's Pro tier at $25/month bills compute per project rather than per account, so teams running multiple projects or exceeding the 100,000 MAU limit can see invoices climb well past the advertised starting price.
Compared to PlanetScale: full backend (auth, storage, realtime, edge functions) bundled with Postgres vs PlanetScale's database-only product, genuinely free tier at $0/month vs PlanetScale's $5/month minimum since April 2024, 5.0/5 rating from 861 Product Hunt reviews vs PlanetScale's single 4/5 Capterra review
Wins:Free tier covers 2 active projects with a 500MB database and 50,000 MAU at $0/month, unlike PlanetScale's $5/month minimum since April 2024 · 5.0/5 rating from 861 Product Hunt reviews, by far the largest review base of any product in this comparison · Bundles authentication, S3-compatible storage, realtime sync, and edge functions with the database, features PlanetScale's listing doesn't offer
Loses:Postgres only, not MySQL-compatible, unlike PlanetScale's Vitess (MySQL-compatible) product line and its signature branching workflow · Compute is billed per project on the $25/month Pro tier, so accounts running several projects stack recurring charges beyond the flat fee · Free-tier projects pause automatically after 1 week of inactivity
Pros
- Full Postgres database rather than a proprietary NoSQL store, so existing SQL skills and extensions like pgvector and PostGIS carry over directly.
- Auto-generates REST, GraphQL, and Realtime APIs from the schema, with Row Level Security for per-row authorization.
- Apache-2.0-licensed core stack is self-hostable, avoiding hard vendor lock-in.
- Free tier includes unlimited API requests, 50,000 monthly active users, and a 500MB database with no time limit on the account.
Cons
- Compute is billed per project, so accounts running several projects stack recurring charges beyond the flat $25/month Pro fee.
- MAU overage ($0.00325/user past 100,000) and egress overage ($0.09/GB past 250GB) can produce unpredictable invoices at scale.
- Free-tier projects pause automatically after 1 week of inactivity.
- Row Level Security has a steeper learning curve than Firebase's simpler client-side security rules for teams new to SQL.
Pricing: Free tier · paid from $25/mo — $0/month (Free, 2 projects, 500MB database) vs PlanetScale's $5/month minimum (single-node Postgres, non-HA) since PlanetScale's free tier ended in April 2024 (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
3.CockroachDB — best PlanetScale alternative for teams running multi-region transactional workloads on PostgreSQL-compatible SQL that need automatic failover without manual sharding
CockroachDB is the best PlanetScale alternative for teams running multi-region transactional workloads that need automatic failover without manually sharding a traditional relational database, an approach distinct from PlanetScale's Vitess-based horizontal sharding automation. CockroachDB Cloud's Basic tier is free for workloads under 50 million request units and 10 GiB of storage per month, a genuinely free entry point PlanetScale doesn't offer since it eliminated its Hobby tier in April 2024 and now starts every database at $5/month. CockroachDB automatically replicates every piece of data three times across nodes to survive machine, rack, or region failures, and it speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol, so most Postgres drivers and ORMs connect without modification, a compatibility layer distinct from PlanetScale's MySQL-compatible Vitess line. CockroachDB holds a 4.7/5 rating from 3 Product Hunt reviews, a small sample similar in size to PlanetScale's own single 4/5 Capterra review. PlanetScale remains the better choice for teams that specifically want a MySQL-compatible database with PlanetScale's signature Git-style branching workflow for testing schema migrations: CockroachDB is no longer open source as of version 24.3, running self-hosted deployments under a proprietary source-available license, and unlicensed self-hosted clusters are throttled to five concurrent SQL transactions after a grace period, a licensing change that alienated some long-time users.
Compared to PlanetScale: genuinely free Basic tier (50M request units, 10 GiB storage) vs PlanetScale's $5/month minimum since April 2024, automatic 3x multi-region replication with PostgreSQL wire compatibility vs PlanetScale's MySQL-compatible Vitess sharding model, no database branching workflow unlike PlanetScale's signature copy-on-write branches
Wins:Cloud Basic tier is genuinely free up to 50 million request units and 10 GiB storage per month, unlike PlanetScale's $5/month minimum since April 2024 · Automatic 3x replication survives node, datacenter, and region failures without manual sharding, a different scaling model than PlanetScale's Vitess approach · PostgreSQL wire-compatible, so most Postgres drivers and ORMs work without modification, unlike PlanetScale's MySQL-compatible Vitess line
Loses:No database branching workflow documented, unlike PlanetScale's signature copy-on-write branches for testing schema migrations · No longer open source as of version 24.3; self-hosted clusters run under a proprietary source-available license and are throttled without a valid license · 4.7/5 rating rests on only 3 Product Hunt reviews, a similarly small sample to PlanetScale's own single Capterra review
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.
- Cloud Basic tier is genuinely free up to 50 million request units and 10 GiB storage per month.
- Deploys across AWS, GCP, and Azure, plus self-hosted or bring-your-own-cloud options.
Cons
- No longer open source as of version 24.3 — self-hosted runs under a proprietary source-available license.
- Unlicensed or expired self-hosted clusters are throttled to five concurrent SQL transactions after a grace period.
- Enterprise Free self-hosted license requires sending telemetry and cannot be used to host CockroachDB as a service for third parties.
- Cloud compute pricing is billed hourly per vCPU, which takes more effort to estimate than a flat per-seat or per-GB rate.
Pricing: Free tier · paid from $0.18/mo — $0/month (Basic, free up to 50M request units and 10 GiB storage) vs PlanetScale's $5/month minimum (single-node Postgres, non-HA) since PlanetScale's free tier ended in April 2024 (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
Which one is right for you?
- You want a genuinely free Postgres tier with instant branching for every pull request or preview deployment.Neon
- You need a full backend, auth, storage, and realtime sync, bundled with your Postgres database.Supabase
- You're running a multi-region transactional workload and need automatic failover without manual sharding.CockroachDB
- You don't want to pay a minimum monthly fee just to start a small side-project database.Neon
- You want the most-reviewed, highest-rated alternative among these three by Product Hunt score.Supabase
- You need PostgreSQL wire compatibility so existing drivers and ORMs work without changes, at scale across regions.CockroachDB
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to PlanetScale?
- Neon is the best alternative to PlanetScale for developers who want a genuinely free Postgres tier with instant database branching, since PlanetScale itself has had no free tier since April 2024. Supabase is the better choice for teams wanting a full backend bundled with the database, and CockroachDB suits teams needing automatic multi-region replication.
Is there a free alternative to PlanetScale?
- Yes, all three alternatives compared here (Neon, Supabase, CockroachDB) offer a genuinely free tier with no minimum monthly charge, unlike PlanetScale, which starts every database at $5/month since eliminating its free Hobby tier in April 2024. Neon's free tier includes 100 compute-hours and 10 branches per project with no credit card required.
Can Neon replace PlanetScale?
- Neon can replace PlanetScale for teams using Postgres, since both offer database branching for testing schema migrations, and Neon's free tier avoids PlanetScale's $5/month minimum entirely. Neon doesn't offer a MySQL-compatible option the way PlanetScale's Vitess product line does, so teams specifically needing MySQL compatibility would need to check that requirement first.
What is the closest alternative to PlanetScale for MySQL compatibility?
- None of the three alternatives compared here (Neon, Supabase, CockroachDB) are MySQL-compatible; all three are Postgres-based or Postgres wire-compatible, unlike PlanetScale's Vitess product line, which is specifically MySQL-compatible. Teams needing MySQL compatibility with branching would need to stay on PlanetScale's Vitess tier or evaluate other MySQL-specific managed database options.
Why did PlanetScale remove its free tier?
- PlanetScale eliminated its free Hobby tier in April 2024, a widely-criticized move that pushed small and side projects onto paid plans starting at a $5/month minimum. All three alternatives compared here (Neon, Supabase, CockroachDB) still offer a genuinely free entry point.