PlanetScale vs TigerData
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of PlanetScale and TigerData built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
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
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…
- PlanetScale: You are prototyping. Pricing starts at a node rather than at zero, and there is no free tier documented on the pricing page.
- 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: PlanetScale alternatives · TigerData alternatives
15 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.
PlanetScale 0
TigerData 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | PlanetScale | TigerData |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan. | Yes — Free services are in beta, us-east-1 only, and go read-only at the storage limit. |
| Entry paid plan | $5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month | Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/month. |
| Pricing model | 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. | 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) | First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases | Up to 16 TB per service on the Performance (entry) plan, billed on actual usage; 64 TB on Scale and Enterprise |
| Execution | ||
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported — pgBouncer pooler added per service in Console, in session or transaction mode. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | 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. | 13 AWS regions (US, Canada, Sao Paulo, Ireland, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo) and 4 Azure regions for Tiger Cloud services |
| Data | ||
| Engine | PostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding | PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB, aimed at time-series, real-time analytics and events. A self-managed edition exists for on-prem and private cloud. |
| Database branching | Supported | Supported — Service forks, created at current state, last snapshot, or a timestamp in the plan recovery window. |
| Point-in-time recovery | 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. | 3 days on Performance, with cross-region backups available for disaster recovery on higher tiers. |
| Read replicas | Supported — Two replicas come with the High Availability shape, across three availability zones. | Supported |
| Backup retention | 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. | 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 |
| Support | ||
| Support on entry paid plan | 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. | Basic support, 9-5 ET, on the entry plan. Enterprise adds production support at 24x7. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA reports, available on all plans on request via PlanetScale's Trust Center. | SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; the annual report is available to customers on the Scale or Enterprise pricing plans by support ticket. |
| HIPAA | 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. | The Tiger Cloud Enterprise plan is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. Enterprise plan only. |
| GDPR / data residency | 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. | 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 | AES encryption at rest on the storage media serving database branches and backups. | Both active databases and backups are encrypted at rest (and in transit) with the industry-standard AES-256 algorithm. |
| Private networking / VPC | AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect on all plans; PlanetScale Managed on AWS additionally offers fully private network isolation. | VPC peering leaves no public internet access to the service; AWS PrivateLink private endpoints route traffic over the AWS network. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | 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. | 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. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- PlanetScale
- No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan.
- TigerData
- Yes — Free services are in beta, us-east-1 only, and go read-only at the storage limit.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- PlanetScale pricing (machine-readable) ↗
“| SKU | Architecture | vCPU | Memory | Monthly price (USD) | [...] | PS-5 | x86-64 | 1/16 | 512 MiB | $5 |”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- About Tiger Cloud services | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“You create free and standard services in Tiger Console. A standard service comes with the full range of features according to your pricing plan. A free service comes at zero cost and gives you limited features and resources. [...] Free services come with pre-configured CPU and memory, are hosted in us-east-1 region, and offer limited resources with a basic feature scope.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Entry paid plan
- PlanetScale
- $5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month
- TigerData
- Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/month.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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 — 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
- 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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- 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
- 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)
- PlanetScale
- First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases
- TigerData
- Up to 16 TB per service on the Performance (entry) plan, billed on actual usage; 64 TB on Scale and Enterprise
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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 · Report a correction
- Billing and account management | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“Storage limit per service Up to 16 TB Up to 64 TB Up to 64 TB”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Regions
- 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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Supported regions | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“Tiger Cloud services run in the following Amazon Web Services (AWS) regions: [...] Tiger Cloud services run in the following Microsoft Azure regions:”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Engine
- PlanetScale
- PostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding
- 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) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — PlanetScale ↗
“MySQL-compatible with horizontal sharding for massive scale. Runs on network-attached storage or PlanetScale Metal.”
Read 2026-09-05 · 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
Point-in-time recovery
- 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.
- TigerData
- 3 days on Performance, with cross-region backups available for disaster recovery on higher tiers.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — TigerData ↗
“Point-in-time-recovery to 3 days Performance Insights Basic support (9-5 ET)”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Backup retention
- 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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- 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
- 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
Support on entry paid plan
- 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.
- TigerData
- Basic support, 9-5 ET, on the entry plan. Enterprise adds production support at 24x7.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Tiger Data Pricing ↗
“point-in-time-recovery to 3 days performance insights basic support (9-5 ET) [...] production support (24x7, 1 hour response time for sev 1 issues)”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
SOC 2
- PlanetScale
- SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA reports, available on all plans on request via PlanetScale's Trust Center.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- 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
- About security in Tiger Cloud | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“Tiger Cloud is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant. [...] The annual SOC 2 report is available to customers on the Scale or Enterprise pricing plans. Open a support ticket to get access to it.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
HIPAA
- 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.
- TigerData
- The Tiger Cloud Enterprise plan is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. Enterprise plan only.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗
“PlanetScale can enter into Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with customers who meet qualifying criteria. [...] The Department of Health and Human Services does not recognize any formal certification for HIPAA.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction
- About security in Tiger Cloud | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“The Tiger Cloud Enterprise plan is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- 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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- 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
- About security in Tiger Cloud | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“Tiger Data complies with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [...] All customer data is processed in accordance with Tiger Data's GDPR-compliant”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- PlanetScale
- AES encryption at rest on the storage media serving database branches and backups.
- TigerData
- Both active databases and backups are encrypted at rest (and in transit) with the industry-standard AES-256 algorithm.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗
“Data is encrypted at rest on the underlying storage media that serves database branches and also the underlying storage media that hosts your PlanetScale database backups.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction
- About security in Tiger Cloud | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“Your data on Tiger Cloud is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Both active databases and backups are encrypted. [...] Data encryption uses the industry-standard AES-256 algorithm.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Private networking / VPC
- PlanetScale
- AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect on all plans; PlanetScale Managed on AWS additionally offers fully private network isolation.
- TigerData
- VPC peering leaves no public internet access to the service; AWS PrivateLink private endpoints route traffic over the AWS network.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗
“Optionally, you can connect privately to databases through AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect. [...] PlanetScale Managed on AWS also supports: Fully private network isolation”
Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction
- About security in Tiger Cloud | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“When using VPC peering, no public Internet-based access is provided to the service. [...] Tiger Cloud enables you to connect to your services through a private endpoint in AWS using AWS PrivateLink.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Dedicated infrastructure
- PlanetScale
- 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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance — PlanetScale Docs ↗
“PlanetScale single-tenant deployment options are deployed into a dedicated AWS Organizations member account or GCP organization owned by PlanetScale. [...] PlanetScale Managed is a single-tenant deployment of PlanetScale within your Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official docs · Report a correction
- Security (Managed Service for TimescaleDB) | Tiger Data Docs ↗
“Your MST services are located on one or more virtual machines. Each virtual machine is dedicated to a single customer, and is never multi-tenanted.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
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 — 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.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: PlanetScale or TigerData?
PlanetScale: $5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month
TigerData: Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/month.
Free tier: PlanetScale or TigerData?
PlanetScale: No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan.
TigerData: Yes — Free services are in beta, us-east-1 only, and go read-only at the storage limit.
Storage (entry plan): PlanetScale or TigerData?
PlanetScale: First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases
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 PlanetScale or TigerData?
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.
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.
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