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Nile vs PlanetScale

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Updated 21 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Nile if…

Multi-tenant SaaS where every customer wants isolation — Nile makes a database per tenant the default shape rather than something you build on top of Postgres.

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…

  • Nile: Several of the features on its own pricing table are marked Coming soon, including branching, backups and provisioned compute, so what is bought today is narrower than the table suggests.
  • PlanetScale: You are prototyping. Pricing starts at a node rather than at zero, and there is no free tier documented on the pricing page.

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

Visit Nile 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.

CriterionNilePlanetScale
Pricing
Entry paid plan
$15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.
$5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month
Pricing modelPriced on queries rather than instances, with a $15 base for Pro. Nile's own framing is "Pay for queries, not for instances", and additional tokens are $0.05 per million.Priced by node size and storage rather than usage, with high-availability clusters sold as a primary plus two replicas
Limits
Storage (entry plan)
5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.
First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases
Execution
Managed connection poolingSupportedSupported
Data
EnginePostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited.PostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding

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.

Entry paid plan

Nile
$15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.
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 — Nile ↗

    “Pro For launching production workloads. With production SLA $ 15 / month [...] Scale For scale, more security and global presence $ 350 / month”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • 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

Pricing model

Nile
Priced on queries rather than instances, with a $15 base for Pro. Nile's own framing is "Pay for queries, not for instances", and additional tokens are $0.05 per million.
PlanetScale
Priced by node size and storage rather than usage, with high-availability clusters sold as a primary plus two replicas
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Nile ↗

    “Pay for queries Not for instances [...] 0.05 per million additional tokens Storage 5 GB $1.00 per additional GB”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Pricing — PlanetScale ↗

    “A primary and two included replica nodes ideal for high-availability workloads. 99.99% SLA.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing

Storage (entry plan)

Nile

5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.

PlanetScale

First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases

Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Nile ↗

    “Storage 5 GB $1.00 per additional GB SLA 99.95%”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Pricing — PlanetScale ↗

    “Storage amount — Included for Metal databases. For network-attached storage databases, the first 10 GB is free, with per-GB pricing beyond that.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing

Engine

Nile
PostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited.
PlanetScale
PostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Nile ↗

    “multi-tenant applications with Nile's Postgres Unlimited Databases Unlimited Tenants Pay for queries Not for instances Limitless vector embeddings”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official site

  • Pricing — PlanetScale ↗

    “MySQL-compatible with horizontal sharding for massive scale. Runs on network-attached storage or PlanetScale Metal.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official site

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

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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.

Free tierPlanetScale: No
Egress over allowancePlanetScale: 100 GB of egress included, then $0.06/GB
RegionsPlanetScale: 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.
Connection limitNile: 10,000 connections on Pro, with connection pooling included.
When idleNile: No cold start on Pro — Nile lists it as a plan feature rather than a behaviour to configure.
Database branchingPlanetScale: Supported
Point-in-time recoveryPlanetScale: 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.
Read replicasPlanetScale: Supported
Backup retentionPlanetScale: 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.
SOC 2PlanetScale: SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA reports, available on all plans on request via PlanetScale's Trust Center.
HIPAAPlanetScale: 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 residencyPlanetScale: 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 DSSPlanetScale: 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 restPlanetScale: AES encryption at rest on the storage media serving database branches and backups.
Private networking / VPCPlanetScale: AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect on all plans; PlanetScale Managed on AWS additionally offers fully private network isolation.
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: Nile or PlanetScale?

Nile: $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.

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

Storage (entry plan): Nile or PlanetScale?

Nile: 5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.

PlanetScale: First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases

Should I choose Nile or PlanetScale?

Pick Nile if Multi-tenant SaaS where every customer wants isolation — Nile makes a database per tenant the default shape rather than something you build on top of Postgres.

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

NilePostgres reshaped around tenants, with per-tenant databases and vector embeddings included rather than metered separately.PlanetScaleManaged Postgres and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters, sold by node size with replicas across availability zones.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.