PlanetScale vs Neon: Complete Comparison Guide
Compare PlanetScale and Neon on serverless capabilities, branching, performance, and pricing. Discover which cloud database is the best fit for your project.
PlanetScale
A MySQL-compatible serverless database platform built on Vitess, the scaling technology that powers YouTube. PlanetScale offers non-blocking schema changes, database branching, and horizontal scaling without downtime. The platform targets large teams needing MySQL compatibility with enterprise-grade scalability.
Neon
A serverless PostgreSQL platform offering autoscaling with scale-to-zero functionality. Neon provides database branching, point-in-time recovery, and a generous free tier. The platform separates storage and compute, enabling efficient scaling and only charging for actual usage.
Comparison table
| Feature | PlanetScale | Neon |
|---|---|---|
| Database engine | MySQL-compatible via Vitess — horizontal sharding | PostgreSQL — full PostgreSQL compatibility with extensions |
| Branching | Schema branching with zero-downtime deploys via Vitess | Full database branching with copy-on-write — data and schema |
| Serverless | Serverless with connection pooling and row-based billing | Scale-to-zero with automatic upscaling and per-second compute billing |
| Free tier | Paid platform — no free tier available | Generous free tier with 0.5 GiB storage and 190 compute hours |
| Schema management | Non-blocking schema changes without foreign keys | Standard PostgreSQL migrations with all constraints |
Verdict
PlanetScale and Neon are both innovative cloud database platforms with different foundations. PlanetScale builds on MySQL via Vitess and offers enterprise-grade horizontal scaling, but has deprecated its free tier. Neon builds on PostgreSQL with an innovative storage architecture enabling scale-to-zero, combined with a generous free tier. The choice primarily depends on your database preference: MySQL ecosystem points to PlanetScale, PostgreSQL ecosystem points to Neon. For new projects, Neon offers a lower barrier to entry.
Our recommendation
At MG Software, we choose Neon as our serverless PostgreSQL solution, especially for projects that benefit from scale-to-zero and database branching. The PostgreSQL foundation aligns seamlessly with our Supabase stack and offers full compatibility with all PostgreSQL extensions. We combine Neon with Drizzle or Prisma as ORM for maximum type safety. We recommend PlanetScale when clients specifically need MySQL compatibility or when Vitess scaling is a requirement.
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