Neon vs PlanetScale in 2026
Neon vs PlanetScale is now a Postgres question on both sides. Neon is serverless Postgres that scales to zero and branches, with a free plan and usage pricing from $0.106 per CU-hour. PlanetScale sells fixed cluster sizes: Postgres from $5 a month for a single node or $15 for three-node high availability, and Vitess (MySQL) clusters from $39 a month. Its pricing page lists no free plan.
Facts and prices checked on against the sources listed below.
Quick verdict
Pick Neon for side projects, preview databases per pull request and many small databases that sit idle, where scale to zero and a free plan save money.
PlanetScale
Starts at$5/mo
Pick PlanetScale for a busy production database where you want a fixed monthly price, high availability with replicas, or MySQL through Vitess.
Neon vs PlanetScale at a glance
| Feature |  Neon | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|
| Engines | Postgres | Postgres and Vitess (MySQL) |
| Free plan | Yes: 100 projects, 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project | Not listed on the pricing page |
| Pricing model | Usage based, billed hourly, no monthly minimum | Fixed monthly price per cluster size (AWS us-east-1 prices) |
| Cheapest paid | Launch: $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month | Postgres PS-5 single node, $5 a month |
| High availability | Not covered on the pricing page | 1 primary and 2 replicas, from $15 a month |
| Idle behaviour | Scales to zero after 5 minutes; configurable on paid plans | Same monthly price whether busy or idle |
| Branching | 10 branches per project on Free and Launch, then $1.50 per branch-month | Not priced on the pricing page |
| Largest size | 16 CU autoscaling, or fixed up to 56 CU on Scale | Larger PS sizes and Metal clusters with local storage |
Pricing and free tier (checked Oct 2026)
Neon has a free plan and two usage based plans. Free is permanent and needs no card: up to 100 projects, each with 100 CU-hours of compute a month, 1 GB of storage, 10 branches and 5 GB of egress, with 20 GB of storage across the account. When you hit a limit, Neon suspends compute or blocks writes until the next period. Launch charges $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month with no monthly minimum, and Scale charges $0.222 per CU-hour. Both are billed hourly.
PlanetScale sells fixed cluster sizes, priced per month. In AWS us-east-1, the smallest Postgres cluster, PS-5 (1/16 vCPU, 512 MiB), costs $5 a month as a single node or $15 as a three-node high availability cluster with one primary and two replicas. PS-10 costs $10 single node or $30 HA on arm64. Vitess (MySQL) clusters are all three-node HA and start at $39 a month. Prices vary by cloud and region, and extra storage, backups and egress are billed on top. The pricing page lists no free plan.
Scale to zero or always on
Neon separates storage from compute. Compute stops after 5 minutes without queries and starts again on the next one. On Free you cannot turn that off; on Launch you can disable it; on Scale you can set it from 1 minute to always on. That makes Neon cheap for databases that sit idle, such as previews, demos and side projects.
PlanetScale clusters run all month at a fixed price. That is simpler to budget for a busy production database, and the HA options give you replicas from the smallest size.
Branching and workflow
Neon branches are copies of your database you can create per pull request: 10 per project on Free and Launch, 25 on Scale, and $1.50 per extra branch-month. PlanetScale's pricing page does not price branching, so check its docs for how branches fit your plan.
MySQL
Only PlanetScale offers MySQL, through Vitess. If your app is on MySQL today, PlanetScale is the one to look at. If you are on Postgres, both work.
When to pick Neon
- You want a free plan, or near-zero cost while nobody uses the app.
- You want a database branch per pull request.
- You run many small databases.
When to pick PlanetScale
- You run a busy production database and want a fixed price.
- You want high availability with replicas from $15 a month.
- You need MySQL.
Because both speak Postgres, you can move between them with pg_dump. See also Neon vs Supabase and our Neon pricing breakdown.
FAQ
Does PlanetScale have a free plan?
Not on its pricing page at the time of writing. The cheapest listed option is a single node Postgres PS-5 cluster at $5 a month in AWS us-east-1. Neon's free plan is permanent and needs no card.
Is PlanetScale Postgres or MySQL?
Both. PlanetScale lists Postgres clusters, which start with single node options, and Vitess clusters for MySQL, which are all three-node high availability and start at $39 a month.
Which is cheaper for a small app?
Usually Neon. Its free plan covers small projects, and on Launch you pay only for compute while queries run, since it scales to zero after 5 minutes. A database that is busy all day can cost less on a fixed size PlanetScale cluster, so compare your real hours of compute.
Can I move from Neon to PlanetScale Postgres?
Both are Postgres, so a pg_dump and restore moves your schema and data. Check extension support on both sides before you move.
Sources, checked October 30, 2026
Prices and plans change often. If something here is out of date, tell us through the contact page.