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Nile vs TigerData

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 28 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 TigerData if…

Time-series and analytics workloads that want to stay in Postgres — TimescaleDB's compression is the reason the storage line is affordable at volume.

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.
  • TigerData: The advertised storage price assumes 5x compression, so a workload that does not compress that well pays materially more than the figure suggests.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Nile alternatives · TigerData alternatives

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

Visit Nile documentationVisit TigerData 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.

CriterionNileTigerData
Pricing
Free tierYes — Ongoing $0 Free plan: 50M query tokens, 1 GB storage, 500 connections, no pauses.Yes — Free services are in beta, us-east-1 only, and go read-only at the storage limit.
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
Entry paid plan
$15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.
Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/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.Compute and storage are billed separately and hourly rather than as one plan price — compute from $30 a month, storage at $0.177 per GB-month, with the headline storage figure resting on an assumed 5x compression ratio.
Limits
Storage (entry plan)5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.Up to 16 TB per service on the Performance (entry) plan, billed on actual usage; 64 TB on Scale and Enterprise
Memory (entry plan)No memory figure published: serverless compute is billed in query tokens, abstract units of CPU and memory, 50 million included on the Free plan.Up to 32 GB per service on the Performance (entry) plan; 128 GB on Scale and 256 GB on Enterprise
Execution
Managed connection poolingSupportedSupported — pgBouncer pooler added per service in Console, in session or transaction mode.
Infrastructure
RegionsTwo regions selectable for a new database: AWS_US_WEST_2 (AWS US West, Oregon) and AWS_EU_CENTRAL_1 (AWS Europe, Frankfurt). The separate list-available-regions endpoint enumerates a third value, AZURE_EASTUS.13 AWS regions (US, Canada, Sao Paulo, Ireland, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo) and 4 Azure regions for Tiger Cloud services
Data
EnginePostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited.PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB, aimed at time-series, real-time analytics and events. A self-managed edition exists for on-prem and private cloud.
Connection limit10,000 connections on Pro, with connection pooling included.max_connections settable 25-500 on services from 0.5 CPU / 2 GiB to 4 CPU / 16 GiB, and 25-2000 from 8 CPU / 32 GiB up; fixed at 25 on shared CPU
When idleNo cold start on Pro — Nile lists it as a plan feature rather than a behaviour to configure.Billed while running: all active standard services are charged even when not in use, and unused ones must be paused or deleted manually
Database branching
Not supported — Pricing marks Branching 'Coming soon': one branch Free, 50 Pro, unlimited Scale.
Supported — Service forks, created at current state, last snapshot, or a timestamp in the plan recovery window.
Backup retentionThree backups taken daily; restore is request-based through support and available on paid tiers only. No retention window is published.One full backup weekly plus daily incrementals, kept for the plan recovery period; Enterprise can set 14-180 days; cross-region copies always kept 14 days
Compliance
SOC 2
Listed on the pricing plan comparison as 'Coming soon'; the Free and Pro columns show '-' for SOC 2.
SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; the annual report is available to customers on the Scale or Enterprise pricing plans by support ticket.
GDPR / data residency
Region choice covers residency: a database can be provisioned in eu-central-1 (Frankfurt), which Nile presents as easing EU data-residency rules. From Nile's 2024-04-10 regions announcement; the live API region enum still lists AWS_EU_CENTRAL_1.
Complies with EU GDPR; all customer data is processed under Tiger Data's GDPR-compliant Data Processor Addendum, which applies to all customers.
Encryption at rest
Stated for Nile Auth: all communication is encrypted using TLS and all stored data is encrypted at rest. Read in the Nile Auth FAQ; Nile publishes no platform-wide security page.
Both active databases and backups are encrypted at rest (and in transit) with the industry-standard AES-256 algorithm.
Dedicated infrastructureProvisioned compute is dedicated to a single Nile customer; tenants can be placed on either serverless or provisioned compute. The pricing page separately marks Provisioned Compute 'Coming soon' (upto 4 VCPU on Pro).Managed Service for TimescaleDB (TimescaleDB hosted with Aiven): each service virtual machine is dedicated to a single customer, never multi-tenanted. Read on the MST security docs; scope is MST, not the Tiger Cloud platform.

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.
TigerData
Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/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 · Report a correction

  • Pricing — TigerData ↗

    “Performance Compute starts at $ 30 / month Storage priced at $0.177 / GB-month [...] Scale Most popular Compute starts at $ 36 / month”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

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.
TigerData
Compute and storage are billed separately and hourly rather than as one plan price — compute from $30 a month, storage at $0.177 per GB-month, with the headline storage figure resting on an assumed 5x compression ratio.
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 · Report a correction

  • Pricing — TigerData ↗

    “Pay as you go hourly Compute starts at $30/month Storage priced at $0.177/GB-month [...] Effective storage price is based on 5x compression (average customer savings).”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Storage (entry plan)

Nile
5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.
TigerData
Up to 16 TB per service on the Performance (entry) plan, billed on actual usage; 64 TB on Scale and Enterprise
Sources (2) →

Memory (entry plan)

Nile
No memory figure published: serverless compute is billed in query tokens, abstract units of CPU and memory, 50 million included on the Free plan.
TigerData
Up to 32 GB per service on the Performance (entry) plan; 128 GB on Scale and 256 GB on Enterprise
Sources (2) →

Regions

Nile
Two regions selectable for a new database: AWS_US_WEST_2 (AWS US West, Oregon) and AWS_EU_CENTRAL_1 (AWS Europe, Frankfurt). The separate list-available-regions endpoint enumerates a third value, AZURE_EASTUS.
TigerData
13 AWS regions (US, Canada, Sao Paulo, Ireland, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo) and 4 Azure regions for Tiger Cloud services
Sources (2) →

Engine

Nile
PostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited.
TigerData
PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB, aimed at time-series, real-time analytics and events. A self-managed edition exists for on-prem and private cloud.
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 · Report a correction

  • Pricing — TigerData ↗

    “TimescaleDB Enterprise Self-managed TimescaleDB for on-prem, edge and private cloud Open source TimescaleDB Time-series, real-time analytics and events”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official site · Report a correction

Connection limit

Nile
10,000 connections on Pro, with connection pooling included.
TigerData
max_connections settable 25-500 on services from 0.5 CPU / 2 GiB to 4 CPU / 16 GiB, and 25-2000 from 8 CPU / 32 GiB up; fixed at 25 on shared CPU
Sources (2) →

When idle

Nile
No cold start on Pro — Nile lists it as a plan feature rather than a behaviour to configure.
TigerData
Billed while running: all active standard services are charged even when not in use, and unused ones must be paused or deleted manually
Sources (2) →

Database branching

Nile
Not supported — Pricing marks Branching 'Coming soon': one branch Free, 50 Pro, unlimited Scale.
TigerData
Supported — Service forks, created at current state, last snapshot, or a timestamp in the plan recovery window.
Sources (2) →

Backup retention

Nile
Three backups taken daily; restore is request-based through support and available on paid tiers only. No retention window is published.
TigerData
One full backup weekly plus daily incrementals, kept for the plan recovery period; Enterprise can set 14-180 days; cross-region copies always kept 14 days
Sources (2) →
  • Backup and Restore ↗

    “This is available for paid tiers only. We hope to make this process self-serve soon. [...] We take three backups daily to ensure your data is well-protected.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Back up and recover services | Tiger Data Docs ↗

    “Tiger Cloud automatically creates one full backup every week, and incremental backups every day in the same region as your service. [...] on Enterprise you can set a retention period of up to 180 days for each service. [...] Cross-region backups are always kept for 14 days.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

SOC 2

Nile
Listed on the pricing plan comparison as 'Coming soon'; the Free and Pro columns show '-' for SOC 2.
TigerData
SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; the annual report is available to customers on the Scale or Enterprise pricing plans by support ticket.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Nile
Region choice covers residency: a database can be provisioned in eu-central-1 (Frankfurt), which Nile presents as easing EU data-residency rules. From Nile's 2024-04-10 regions announcement; the live API region enum still lists AWS_EU_CENTRAL_1.
TigerData
Complies with EU GDPR; all customer data is processed under Tiger Data's GDPR-compliant Data Processor Addendum, which applies to all customers.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Nile
Stated for Nile Auth: all communication is encrypted using TLS and all stored data is encrypted at rest. Read in the Nile Auth FAQ; Nile publishes no platform-wide security page.
TigerData
Both active databases and backups are encrypted at rest (and in transit) with the industry-standard AES-256 algorithm.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

Nile
Provisioned compute is dedicated to a single Nile customer; tenants can be placed on either serverless or provisioned compute. The pricing page separately marks Provisioned Compute 'Coming soon' (upto 4 VCPU on Pro).
TigerData
Managed Service for TimescaleDB (TimescaleDB hosted with Aiven): each service virtual machine is dedicated to a single customer, never multi-tenanted. Read on the MST security docs; scope is MST, not the Tiger Cloud platform.
Sources (2) →

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 — 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.

Credit card to startTigerData: No
Uptime SLATigerData: Enterprise SLAs, with no percentage published on the pricing page.
Point-in-time recoveryTigerData: 3 days on Performance, with cross-region backups available for disaster recovery on higher tiers.
Read replicasTigerData: Supported
Rewind in placeTigerData: Not supported — Recovery is to a PITR fork you point the app at; the original service stays untouched.
Storage priceTigerData: $0.177 per GB-month on Performance and $0.212 on Scale. TigerData notes the effective price assumes 5x compression, which is an average rather than a guarantee.
Support on entry paid planTigerData: Basic support, 9-5 ET, on the entry plan. Enterprise adds production support at 24x7.
Response time commitmentTigerData: 1 hour for Sev 1, on Enterprise only. The entry plan publishes opening hours, 9-5 ET, which is not a response commitment.
HIPAATigerData: The Tiger Cloud Enterprise plan is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. Enterprise plan only.
Role-based access controlTigerData: Project-level role-based access with Owner, Admin, Developer and Viewer roles; database-level roles are managed separately per service.
Private networking / VPCTigerData: VPC peering leaves no public internet access to the service; AWS PrivateLink private endpoints route traffic over the AWS network.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Nile or TigerData?

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

TigerData: Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/month.

Storage (entry plan): Nile or TigerData?

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

TigerData: Up to 16 TB per service on the Performance (entry) plan, billed on actual usage; 64 TB on Scale and Enterprise

Should I choose Nile or TigerData?

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 TigerData if Time-series and analytics workloads that want to stay in Postgres — TimescaleDB's compression is the reason the storage line is affordable at volume.

Provider pages

NilePostgres reshaped around tenants, with per-tenant databases and vector embeddings included rather than metered separately.TigerDataManaged TimescaleDB — Postgres for time-series and real-time analytics — priced with compute and storage billed separately.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.