Nile vs Turso
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Nile and Turso built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
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 Turso if…
Applications that want a database per tenant or per user — 100 databases on the free plan and unlimited above it make that a shape you can actually build.
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.
- Turso: It is SQLite, not Postgres: the metered units are rows read and written rather than compute, and the extension ecosystem you may be relying on is not there.
4 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Nile 0
Turso 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Nile | Turso |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Entry paid plan | $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month. | $4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58. |
| Pricing model | 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. | Per database, metered on rows rather than compute time: 500 million rows read and 10 million written a month on the free plan, 2.5 billion and 25 million on Developer, with overage at $1 per billion rows read and $1 per million written. |
| Limits | ||
| Storage (entry plan) | 5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB. | 9 GB on Developer, then $0.75 per GB. The free plan includes 5 GB; Scaler is 24 GB at $0.50 and Pro 50 GB at $0.45. |
| Data | ||
| Engine | PostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited. | SQLite, via libSQL — Turso's own fork. Not Postgres or MySQL, so the query surface and the client libraries differ from every other database on this site. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- Nile
- $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.
- Turso
- $4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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 — Turso ↗
“Developer $ 4.99 /month Get Developer Scaler $ 24.92 /month Get Scaler Pro $ 416.58 /month”
Read 2026-09-06 · 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.
- Turso
- Per database, metered on rows rather than compute time: 500 million rows read and 10 million written a month on the free plan, 2.5 billion and 25 million on Developer, with overage at $1 per billion rows read and $1 per million written.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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 — Turso ↗
“Monthly Rows Read Free 500 Million Developer 2.5 Billion + $1 / Billion Scaler 100 Billion + $0.80 / Billion [...] Monthly Rows Written Free 10 Million Developer 25 Million + $1 / Million”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Storage (entry plan)
5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.
9 GB on Developer, then $0.75 per GB. The free plan includes 5 GB; Scaler is 24 GB at $0.50 and Pro 50 GB at $0.45.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Nile ↗
“Storage 5 GB $1.00 per additional GB SLA 99.95%”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Turso ↗
“Storage Free 5GB Developer 9GB + $0.75 / GB Scaler 24GB + $0.50 / GB Pro 50GB + $0.45 / GB”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Engine
- Nile
- PostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited.
- Turso
- SQLite, via libSQL — Turso's own fork. Not Postgres or MySQL, so the query surface and the client libraries differ from every other database on this site.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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 — Turso ↗
“Embedded Replicas Database Branching Backups & Recovery Platform API Turso Database Quickstart”
Read 2026-09-06 · official site
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
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.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Nile or Turso?
Nile: $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.
Turso: $4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Storage (entry plan): Nile or Turso?
Nile: 5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.
Turso: 9 GB on Developer, then $0.75 per GB. The free plan includes 5 GB; Scaler is 24 GB at $0.50 and Pro 50 GB at $0.45.
Should I choose Nile or Turso?
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 Turso if Applications that want a database per tenant or per user — 100 databases on the free plan and unlimited above it make that a shape you can actually build.