Skip to content
inetGeek

Neon vs PlanetScale

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Neon and PlanetScale built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 30 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Neon if…

Workloads that are idle most of the time, and teams who want a real database per pull request. Compute suspends after five minutes and storage is billed separately, so a staging branch costs almost nothing while nobody is using it.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose PlanetScale if…

Production workloads that want replicas across availability zones as the default shape rather than an upgrade, and teams who need MySQL-compatible sharding that the Postgres-only services do not offer.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Neon: You need predictable monthly billing. Usage pricing with no minimum fee cuts both ways, and a runaway query on an autoscaling compute is billed at the rate it ran.
  • PlanetScale: You are prototyping. Pricing starts at a node rather than at zero, and there is no free tier documented on the pricing page.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Neon alternatives · PlanetScale alternatives

15 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Neon documentationVisit PlanetScale documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionNeonPlanetScale
Pricing
Free tier
Yes
No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan.
Entry paid planNo fixed monthly fee. Launch is usage-based — Neon's own worked example puts typical spend at $15/month for intermittent load on 1 GB — so there is no entry price to compare, only a rate card. Recorded without a magnitude because a vendor's spend estimate is not a price.$5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month
Pricing modelUsage-based with no minimum monthly fee on paid plans: $0.106/CU-hour compute and $0.35/GB-month storage on Launch, $0.222/CU-hour on ScalePriced by cluster shape rather than per query, and on two different bases: Vitess by cluster size, VTGate configuration and storage; Neki by shard size and count, router configuration, replicas, storage, backup storage and network usage.
Egress over allowance
5 GB per project included on Free; 500 GB per project included on Launch and Scale, then $0.10/GB
100 GB of egress included, then $0.06/GB
Limits
Storage (entry plan)No included allowance on the Launch plan; storage is metered at $0.35/GB-month. The Free plan includes 0.5 GB per project.First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases
Execution
Managed connection poolingSupportedSupported
Infrastructure
Regions
8 AWS regions: N. Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Sydney, São Paulo. A project's region is fixed at creation and cannot be changed.
19 regions — 12 on AWS (Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Montreal, Frankfurt, Dublin, London, São Paulo, N. Virginia, Ohio, Oregon) and 7 on GCP. A branch's region is fixed at creation and changing it means migrating.
Data
EnginePostgreSQLPostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding
Database branchingSupportedSupported
Point-in-time recoveryHistory window of 6 hours up to 1 GB-month on Free, up to 7 days on Launch, up to 30 days on ScalePoint-in-time recovery through write-ahead log archiving. WAL is kept for as long as the oldest backup, so the default schedule gives a 2-day window and a longer retention extends it.
Read replicasSupportedSupported — Two replicas come with the High Availability shape, across three availability zones.
Backup retention1 day of history on paid plans by default and 6 hours on Free, configurable up to 7 days on Launch or 30 days on Scale. Neon notes that widening the window raises storage cost, so the ceiling is a paid choice rather than an included allowance.Automatic backups every 12 hours on production and development branches, retained 2 days by default. Custom schedules and manual backups can set a longer period, and are charged for it.
Support
Support on entry paid planSupport plans are mapped to pricing plans: community support on Free, billing support on Launch, standard support on Scale.Enterprise lists Slack-based support with a private shared channel, and business support with enhanced response times from support engineers. The self-serve plans have no support level named on the page.
Compliance
SOC 2Annual SOC 2 Type II audits by an accredited independent third party.SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA reports, available on all plans on request via PlanetScale's Trust Center.
HIPAAHIPAA compliance achieved, to support customers handling protected health information (PHI).HIPAA-eligible via a Business Associate Agreement for qualifying customers; PlanetScale notes HHS does not recognize a formal HIPAA certification, so compliance is a shared responsibility rather than a badge.
GDPR / data residency
Follows the GDPR framework; Data Processing Agreements (DPA) offered.
Complies with GDPR; data locality follows the AWS/GCP region a database is created in, and EU-region databases keep data in-region unless a read-only replica is added elsewhere.
PCI DSSThe page attributes PCI-DSS to the AWS and Azure infrastructure Neon runs on. Neon's own compliance list on the same page names CCPA, GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 and HIPAA, and not PCI DSS.PlanetScale Managed — the single-tenant product deployed into the customer's own AWS/GCP account — holds a PCI DSS 4.0 Attestation of Compliance as a Level 1 Service Provider. Not documented for the shared multi-tenant product.
Encryption at restAES-256, with key rotation policies.AES encryption at rest on the storage media serving database branches and backups.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Free tier

Neon
Yes
PlanetScale
No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan.
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

Neon
No fixed monthly fee. Launch is usage-based — Neon's own worked example puts typical spend at $15/month for intermittent load on 1 GB — so there is no entry price to compare, only a rate card. Recorded without a magnitude because a vendor's spend estimate is not a price.
PlanetScale
$5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Neon ↗

    “Launch Usage-based Typical spend: $ 15 /mo Based on: Intermittent load , 1 GB Get started”

    Read 2026-09-07 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — PlanetScale ↗

    “PlanetScale Postgres [...] Single node — Starting at $5/month for development and low-traffic workloads Metal — Starting at $50/month with local NVMe storage for high-performance needs High Availability — 1 primary + 2 replicas across 3 availability zones”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing · Report a correction

Pricing model

Neon
Usage-based with no minimum monthly fee on paid plans: $0.106/CU-hour compute and $0.35/GB-month storage on Launch, $0.222/CU-hour on Scale
PlanetScale
Priced by cluster shape rather than per query, and on two different bases: Vitess by cluster size, VTGate configuration and storage; Neki by shard size and count, router configuration, replicas, storage, backup storage and network usage.
Sources (2) →
  • Neon plans — Neon Docs ↗

    “On Launch and Scale plans, you pay only for what you use; there's no minimum monthly fee. Usage for compute, storage, extra branches, and other features is billed at the published rates”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — PlanetScale ↗

    “Vitess MySQL-compatible databases with horizontal sharding. Pricing based on cluster size, VTGate configuration, and storage. Metal also available. Neki Postgres databases with horizontal sharding. Pricing is based on shard size and count, router configuration, replicas, storage, backup storage, and network usage.”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

Egress over allowance

Neon
5 GB per project included on Free; 500 GB per project included on Launch and Scale, then $0.10/GB
PlanetScale
100 GB of egress included, then $0.06/GB
Sources (2) →

Storage (entry plan)

Neon
No included allowance on the Launch plan; storage is metered at $0.35/GB-month. The Free plan includes 0.5 GB per project.
PlanetScale
First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases
Sources (2) →

Regions

Neon

8 AWS regions: N. Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Sydney, São Paulo. A project's region is fixed at creation and cannot be changed.

PlanetScale

19 regions — 12 on AWS (Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Montreal, Frankfurt, Dublin, London, São Paulo, N. Virginia, Ohio, Oregon) and 7 on GCP. A branch's region is fixed at creation and changing it means migrating.

Sources (2) →
  • Regions — Neon Docs ↗

    “Each Neon project exists in exactly one region. Your database runs in that region. You cannot change the region for an existing project. If you need your data in a different region, you create a new Neon project in that region and migrate your database there.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Selecting a region — PlanetScale Docs ↗

    “Currently, the following regions are supported, with their respective PlanetScale slugs: AWS ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo) [...] AWS us-west-2 (Oregon) [...] GCP us-central1 (Council Bluffs, Iowa) [...] GCP europe-west4 (Eemshaven, Netherlands) [...] Once you select a region for your default branch, it cannot be changed directly, but you can migrate to a new region if needed.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

Engine

Neon
PostgreSQL
PlanetScale
PostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding
Sources (2) →

Point-in-time recovery

Neon
History window of 6 hours up to 1 GB-month on Free, up to 7 days on Launch, up to 30 days on Scale
PlanetScale
Point-in-time recovery through write-ahead log archiving. WAL is kept for as long as the oldest backup, so the default schedule gives a 2-day window and a longer retention extends it.
Sources (2) →
  • Neon plans — Neon Docs ↗

    “History window 6 hours, up to 1 GB-month Up to 7 days Up to 30 days”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Back up and restore — PlanetScale Docs ↗

    “PlanetScale Postgres databases include comprehensive backup and restore capabilities to protect your data. The backup system provides both automated scheduled backups and manual on-demand backups, as well as point-in-time recovery (PITR) support through Write-Ahead Log (WAL) archiving. [...] WAL logs are retained for the same period as your oldest backup.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

Backup retention

Neon
1 day of history on paid plans by default and 6 hours on Free, configurable up to 7 days on Launch or 30 days on Scale. Neon notes that widening the window raises storage cost, so the ceiling is a paid choice rather than an included allowance.
PlanetScale
Automatic backups every 12 hours on production and development branches, retained 2 days by default. Custom schedules and manual backups can set a longer period, and are charged for it.
Sources (2) →
  • Point-in-time restore — Neon Docs ↗

    “Neon retains a history of changes for your branches, with defaults of 6 hours on Free plan and 1 day on paid plans. [...] You can configure it up to 7 days on Launch or 30 days on Scale plans.”

    Read 2026-09-07 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Back up and restore — PlanetScale Docs ↗

    “All PlanetScale Postgres databases include automatic scheduled backups that run every 12 hours for production and development branches. Default backups are created automatically and don't require any setup. There are no additional charges for these backups. [...] The default, included backup schedule retains backups for 2 days. You can set a custom retention period for custom backup schedules and manual one-off backups.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

Support on entry paid plan

Neon
Support plans are mapped to pricing plans: community support on Free, billing support on Launch, standard support on Scale.
PlanetScale
Enterprise lists Slack-based support with a private shared channel, and business support with enhanced response times from support engineers. The self-serve plans have no support level named on the page.
Sources (2) →
  • Support — Neon Docs ↗

    “neon's support plans are mapped to neon pricing plans, as outlined in the following table. neon pricing plan support plan options free plan community support launch plan billing support scale plan standard support”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Pricing — PlanetScale ↗

    “slack-based support private shared slack channel for fast communication more deployment options multi-tenant, single-tenant, or in your own aws / gcp account business support included enhanced response times from support engineers”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

SOC 2

Neon
Annual SOC 2 Type II audits by an accredited independent third party.
PlanetScale
SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA reports, available on all plans on request via PlanetScale's Trust Center.
Sources (2) →
  • Neon Security ↗

    “Neon undergoes annual SOC 2 Type II audits performed by accredited independent third party auditors.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

  • Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗

    “PlanetScale continuously monitors and reports primarily using System and Organization Controls (SOC) 1 & 2 Type 2 paired with the HIPAA Security Rule. To request access to our latest reports, please visit PlanetScale's Trust Center.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction

HIPAA

Neon
HIPAA compliance achieved, to support customers handling protected health information (PHI).
PlanetScale
HIPAA-eligible via a Business Associate Agreement for qualifying customers; PlanetScale notes HHS does not recognize a formal HIPAA certification, so compliance is a shared responsibility rather than a badge.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Neon
Follows the GDPR framework; Data Processing Agreements (DPA) offered.
PlanetScale
Complies with GDPR; data locality follows the AWS/GCP region a database is created in, and EU-region databases keep data in-region unless a read-only replica is added elsewhere.
Sources (2) →
  • Neon Security ↗

    “Neon follows the GDPR framework, ensuring user rights, data minimization, and lawful processing. We offer Data Processing Agreements (DPA) and support compliant cross-border data transfers.”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

  • Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗

    “PlanetScale complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other global privacy regulations, where applicable. [...] If you create a database in a Europe-based region, your data does not leave the region the database was created in, unless you create a read-only region in another region.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction

PCI DSS

Neon
The page attributes PCI-DSS to the AWS and Azure infrastructure Neon runs on. Neon's own compliance list on the same page names CCPA, GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 and HIPAA, and not PCI DSS.
PlanetScale
PlanetScale Managed — the single-tenant product deployed into the customer's own AWS/GCP account — holds a PCI DSS 4.0 Attestation of Compliance as a Level 1 Service Provider. Not documented for the shared multi-tenant product.
Sources (2) →
  • Neon Security ↗

    “Neon's infrastructure runs on AWS and Azure, certified for SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and other global security standards. [...] Compliance CCPA Compliant GDPR Compliant ISO 27001 Certified ISO 27701 Certified SOC 2 Certified HIPAA Compliant”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

  • Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗

    “PlanetScale Managed, when deployed with the appropriate controls enabled via our Shared Responsibility Matrix, has been issued an Attestation of Compliance (AoC) and Report on Compliance (RoC), certifying our compliance with the PCI DSS 4.0 as a Level 1 Service Provider.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction

Encryption at rest

Neon
AES-256, with key rotation policies.
PlanetScale
AES encryption at rest on the storage media serving database branches and backups.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

Confirm by email; unsubscribe from any issue. Your address goes to Kit and nowhere else — what we do with it.

03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Kind of free offerNeon: Free tier
What the free plan includesNeon: 100 projects with 10 branches each, plus allowances for compute and storage, at no monthly cost.
Credit card to startNeon: No
Startup credit programNeon: Via the Databricks Startup Program: up to $1,000 in Neon credits for self-funded startups (<$1M raised), or up to $200K in Neon and Databricks credits for VC-backed startups (≥$1M raised) or accelerator participants. Credits valid 12 months from acceptance.
Scales to zeroNeon: Supported
Connection limitNeon: Scales with compute size: 104 direct connections at 0.25 CU (1 GB RAM), 419 at 1 CU, 2517 at 6 CU; up to 10,000 through the pooler
When idleNeon: Compute suspends after 5 minutes idle on Free and Launch, and can be disabled on Launch; configurable from 1 minute to always-on on Scale. The database is not deleted or paused — the next query restarts the compute.
Audit logsPlanetScale: In addition to the audit log feature available to all PlanetScale plans, Enterprise plans can use our EventBridge configuration to send logs to your AWS account.Neon: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Neon.
ISO 27001Neon: Annual ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27701:2019 audits.PlanetScale: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about PlanetScale.
Role-based access controlNeon: Access to production systems is role-based, requiring SSO and continuous monitoring.
Private networking / VPCPlanetScale: AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect on all plans; PlanetScale Managed on AWS additionally offers fully private network isolation.Neon: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Neon.
Dedicated infrastructurePlanetScale: Two single-tenant options: Enterprise single-tenant, deployed into an AWS/GCP account owned by PlanetScale, or PlanetScale Managed, deployed inside the customer's own AWS or GCP account.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Neon or PlanetScale?

Neon: No fixed monthly fee. Launch is usage-based — Neon's own worked example puts typical spend at $15/month for intermittent load on 1 GB — so there is no entry price to compare, only a rate card. Recorded without a magnitude because a vendor's spend estimate is not a price.

PlanetScale: $5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month

Free tier: Neon or PlanetScale?

Neon: Yes

PlanetScale: No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan.

Egress over allowance: Neon or PlanetScale?

Neon: 5 GB per project included on Free; 500 GB per project included on Launch and Scale, then $0.10/GB

PlanetScale: 100 GB of egress included, then $0.06/GB

Should I choose Neon or PlanetScale?

Pick Neon if Workloads that are idle most of the time, and teams who want a real database per pull request. Compute suspends after five minutes and storage is billed separately, so a staging branch costs almost nothing while nobody is using it.

Pick PlanetScale if Production workloads that want replicas across availability zones as the default shape rather than an upgrade, and teams who need MySQL-compatible sharding that the Postgres-only services do not offer.

Provider pages

NeonServerless Postgres that separates storage from compute, with copy-on-write branching and compute that suspends when idle.PlanetScaleManaged Postgres and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters, sold by node size with replicas across availability zones.

Related comparisons

Aiven vs NeonAiven vs PlanetScaleAmazon Aurora vs NeonAmazon Aurora vs PlanetScaleAmazon RDS vs NeonAmazon RDS vs PlanetScaleCrunchy Bridge vs NeonCrunchy Bridge vs PlanetScale

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.