Neon vs PlanetScale (2026): Which Serverless Database Should You Choose?
Quick Answer
Neon is the serverless PostgreSQL platform — auto-suspend to zero when idle, database branching for development, and a maintained free tier. PlanetScale is the serverless MySQL platform built on Vitess (the MySQL sharding technology used by YouTube) — database branching with schema change workflows and massive horizontal scaling. Important: PlanetScale eliminated their free tier in 2024. For most developers building new projects, Neon's PostgreSQL + free tier makes it the default choice.
Neon
9.1/10
Best serverless PostgreSQL
PlanetScale
8.7/10
Best serverless MySQL at scale
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Neon | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|
| Database | PostgreSQL | MySQL (Vitess) |
| Free Tier | Yes — 0.5GB storage, scale-to-zero | No — eliminated in 2024 |
| Paid Plans | From $19/month | From $39/month (Scaler) |
| Scale-to-Zero | Yes — auto-suspends after idle | Yes — serverless tier |
| Database Branching | Yes — instant branches from copy-on-write | Yes — schema branches with deploy requests |
| Foreign Keys | Full PostgreSQL support | Limited — Vitess limitations apply |
| Extensions | PostgreSQL extensions (pgvector, PostGIS) | MySQL plugins only |
| Best For | Modern apps, free tier users, pgvector AI | High-scale MySQL apps, schema-safe deployments |
Which do you use?
Who Should Choose What?
Choose Neon if:
You are building a new application with PostgreSQL (the recommended default database in 2026), want scale-to-zero for development environments to save costs, need pgvector for AI/embedding use cases, or require the maintained free tier. Neon's database branching works perfectly with preview deployments on Vercel — each PR gets its own database branch.
Choose PlanetScale if:
You need MySQL compatibility at massive scale — PlanetScale's Vitess foundation is the same technology that powers YouTube, Slack, and Square at billions of queries. The deploy request workflow (like GitHub PRs for schema changes) makes it the safest way to manage MySQL schema migrations in production. Budget for the $39/month minimum since the free tier no longer exists.
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