PlanetScale vs Neon

PlanetScale vs Neon comparison for serverless databases. Compare MySQL vs Postgres, branching, and pricing for modern apps.

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Quick Verdict

Winner: Depends

PlanetScale offers MySQL with excellent branching and scale. Neon provides serverless Postgres with branching and a generous free tier. Choose based on your SQL preference - MySQL (PlanetScale) or Postgres (Neon).

Choose PlanetScale if...

✓ You prefer MySQL or need MySQL compatibility
✓ You want Vitess-powered horizontal scaling
✓ You need non-blocking schema changes
✓ You're coming from a MySQL background
✓ You need the PlanetScale CLI workflow

Choose Neon if...

✓ You prefer PostgreSQL
✓ You want a generous free tier
✓ You need Postgres extensions (pgvector, etc.)
✓ You want true serverless with scale-to-zero
✓ You're using frameworks that prefer Postgres

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Category	PlanetScale	Neon	Winner
Pricing	Hobby: $0 (deprecated free). Scaler: $29/mo. Usage-based.	Free: 0.5GB storage. Pro: Usage-based from ~$19/mo.	Neon
Free Tier	No free tier (removed). Trial only.	Free forever: 0.5GB storage, 190 compute hours.	Neon
Developer Experience	Excellent CLI, branching, deploy requests. MySQL workflows.	Great dashboard, branching, instant DBs. Postgres familiarity.	Tie
Documentation	Comprehensive docs. Good tutorials. Active community.	Clear docs. Framework guides. Growing community.	Tie
Scalability	Vitess-powered. Horizontal scaling. Used by major companies.	Auto-scaling compute. Scale-to-zero. Growing infrastructure.	PlanetScale
Features	Branching, deploy requests, insights, CLI, read replicas.	Branching, autoscaling, extensions, connection pooling, read replicas.	Tie

Code Comparison

Connect with Prisma

typescript

// schema.prisma
datasource db {
  provider = "mysql"
  url = env("DATABASE_URL")
  relationMode = "prisma"
}

// PlanetScale requires relationMode for foreign keys

PlanetScale uses Vitess which requires Prisma's relation mode.

Connect with Prisma

typescript

// schema.prisma
datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

// Standard Postgres connection - native foreign keys

Neon is standard Postgres - works with any Postgres client.

🔄 Migration Notes

Migrating between MySQL and Postgres requires schema conversion and data migration. Tools like pgLoader can help. Consider the effort before choosing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better for new projects? ▼

For new projects, Neon's free tier and Postgres compatibility make it attractive. Most modern frameworks prefer Postgres. PlanetScale is great if you specifically need MySQL.

Does PlanetScale still have a free tier? ▼

No, PlanetScale removed their free tier in 2024. Neon's free tier makes it a better choice for hobby projects and development.

Try PlanetScale

Serverless MySQL platform

Try Neon

Serverless Postgres

⚖ Compare in Interactive Tool

Last updated: January 11, 2026