# Prisma Postgres vs Nile

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/prisma-postgres-vs-nile/

Every value below is read from Prisma Postgres's and Nile's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Prisma Postgres | Nile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Entry paid plan | $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance. | $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month. |
| Pricing model | A plan fee plus usage: requests, memory GB-hours, active vCPU-hours and outbound bandwidth are each metered — $1 per million requests beyond the allowance, $0.006 per GB-hour, $0.064 per vCPU-hour, $0.025 per GB out. | 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. |
| Storage (entry plan) | 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond. | 5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB. |
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported |
| Engine | PostgreSQL. | PostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited. |
| Connection limit | 100 pooled connections on Starter and 10 direct; 10 pooled on Free, 500 on Pro and 1,000 on Business. | 10,000 connections on Pro, with connection pooling included. |
| When idle | Scales to zero when idle, and Prisma states an idle app costs nothing. | No cold start on Pro — Nile lists it as a plan feature rather than a behaviour to configure. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Prisma Postgres: $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))
- Nile: $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month. ([source](https://www.thenile.dev/pricing))

### Pricing model

- Prisma Postgres: A plan fee plus usage: requests, memory GB-hours, active vCPU-hours and outbound bandwidth are each metered — $1 per million requests beyond the allowance, $0.006 per GB-hour, $0.064 per vCPU-hour, $0.025 per GB out. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))
- 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. ([source](https://www.thenile.dev/pricing))

### Storage (entry plan)

- Prisma Postgres: 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))
- Nile: 5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB. ([source](https://www.thenile.dev/pricing))

### Engine

- Prisma Postgres: PostgreSQL. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))
- Nile: PostgreSQL, with tenant isolation as a first-class concept — databases, tenant databases and vector embeddings are all described as unlimited. ([source](https://www.thenile.dev/pricing))

### Connection limit

- Prisma Postgres: 100 pooled connections on Starter and 10 direct; 10 pooled on Free, 500 on Pro and 1,000 on Business. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))
- Nile: 10,000 connections on Pro, with connection pooling included. ([source](https://www.thenile.dev/pricing))

### When idle

- Prisma Postgres: Scales to zero when idle, and Prisma states an idle app costs nothing. ([source](https://www.prisma.io/pricing))
- Nile: No cold start on Pro — Nile lists it as a plan feature rather than a behaviour to configure. ([source](https://www.thenile.dev/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Prisma Postgres if Prisma ORM users who want the database and the client from one vendor, with a pooled connection limit stated per plan rather than left to be discovered.

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.

Consider something else: Prisma Postgres — Four separate meters — requests, memory, vCPU and bandwidth — sit on top of the plan fee, so the monthly number is a floor rather than a bill.

Consider something else: 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.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Prisma Postgres: Yes
- Backup retention: Prisma Postgres: Daily backups with 7-day retention on Starter and Pro, 30 days on Business. The free plan has none.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Prisma Postgres or Nile?**

Prisma Postgres: $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance.
Nile: $15/month for Pro, which carries a production SLA. Scale is $350/month.

**Storage (entry plan): Prisma Postgres or Nile?**

Prisma Postgres: 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond.
Nile: 5 GB on Pro, then $1.00 per additional GB.

**Should I choose Prisma Postgres or Nile?**

Pick Prisma Postgres if Prisma ORM users who want the database and the client from one vendor, with a pooled connection limit stated per plan rather than left to be discovered.
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.