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Prisma Postgres vs Turso

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 29 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose 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.

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…

  • 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.
  • 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.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Prisma Postgres alternatives · Turso alternatives

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

Visit Prisma Postgres documentationVisit Turso 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.

CriterionPrisma PostgresTurso
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerAlways freeFree tier
Credit card to startNoNo
Entry paid plan
$10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance.
$4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Pricing modelA 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.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)500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond.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
EnginePostgreSQL.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.
When idleScales to zero when idle, and Prisma states an idle app costs nothing.Databases are archived after 10 days of inactivity on the free plan; an unarchive call through the CLI or Platform API brings the group back. Turso publishes no archival window for paid plans.
Backup retentionDaily backups with 7-day retention on Starter and Pro, 30 days on Business. The free plan has none.Continuous rather than scheduled: backups are taken at every COMMIT and kept for the plan's restore window — 24 hours on Free, 10 days on Developer, 30 on Scaler, 90 on Pro. Turso publishes no separate backup retention setting.
Support
Support on entry paid planCommunity support on Free and Starter; standard support on Pro; premium on Business.Community support on Free and on Developer ($4.99/month), the entry paid plan. Priority email support starts at Pro ($416.58/month); Enterprise adds 24x7.

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.

Kind of free offer

Prisma Postgres
Always free
Turso
Free tier
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

Prisma Postgres
$10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance.
Turso
$4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Sources (2) →

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.
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) →
  • Pricing — Prisma ↗

    “5M requests / month, then $1 per million $0.006 per GB-hour memory $0.064 per active vCPU-hours $0.025 per GB outbound bandwidth”

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

  • 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 · Report a correction

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

Engine

Prisma Postgres
PostgreSQL.
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) →

When idle

Prisma Postgres
Scales to zero when idle, and Prisma states an idle app costs nothing.
Turso
Databases are archived after 10 days of inactivity on the free plan; an unarchive call through the CLI or Platform API brings the group back. Turso publishes no archival window for paid plans.
Sources (2) →

Backup retention

Prisma Postgres
Daily backups with 7-day retention on Starter and Pro, 30 days on Business. The free plan has none.
Turso
Continuous rather than scheduled: backups are taken at every COMMIT and kept for the plan's restore window — 24 hours on Free, 10 days on Developer, 30 on Scaler, 90 on Pro. Turso publishes no separate backup retention setting.
Sources (2) →

Support on entry paid plan

Prisma Postgres
Community support on Free and Starter; standard support on Pro; premium on Business.
Turso
Community support on Free and on Developer ($4.99/month), the entry paid plan. Priority email support starts at Pro ($416.58/month); Enterprise adds 24x7.
Sources (2) →
  • Prisma Pricing ↗

    “platform support free community starter community pro standard business premium”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Turso Pricing ↗

    “1 day community sign up developer $4.99/month [...] 30 day retention priority email + support get pro enterprise custom pricing [...] 24x7 priority email + support”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

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.

What the free plan includesPrisma Postgres: 1 million requests, 360 GB-hours of memory and 4 active vCPU-hours a month, with 500 MB of storage, free forever and no credit card.
When the free offer endsPrisma Postgres: Never — the free tier has no time limit.
Startup credit programPrisma Postgres: Prisma for Startups: database bill covered up to $10,000 for one year, plus 1:1 guidance. Venture-funded track requires pre-seed/seed/Series-A funding raised in the last 12 months and founded in the last 5 years; bootstrapped track requires ≥5k MRR for 6 months and 2 full-time team members.
Managed connection poolingPrisma Postgres: Supported
RegionsTurso: Six AWS locations in the Platform API's location list: Tokyo (ap-northeast-1), Mumbai (ap-south-1), Ireland (eu-west-1), N. Virginia (us-east-1), Ohio (us-east-2) and Oregon (us-west-2). Read from the documented GET /v1/locations sample response; the same six AWS regions are offered for PrivateLink.
Connection limitPrisma Postgres: 100 pooled connections on Starter and 10 direct; 10 pooled on Free, 500 on Pro and 1,000 on Business.
Database branchingTurso: Supported
Point-in-time recoveryTurso: 10 days on Developer. 1 day on the free plan, 30 days on Scaler and 90 days on Pro.
Read replicasTurso: Limited — Embedded replicas run inside your app; managed multi-region Data Edge replica locations are deprecated for new users.
Rewind in placeTurso: Not supported — PITR restores forward into a fresh database; the existing database cannot be rewound in place.
Max vector dimensionsTurso: 65536 dimensions maximum per vector, listed under "Vector Limitations" for libSQL native vector search on Turso Cloud
SOC 2Turso: Volume-level encryption at rest is described as part of Turso's SOC 2 standards; the docs point to Turso's trust center for details.Prisma Postgres: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Prisma Postgres.
HIPAATurso: Turso states it is HIPAA compliant and will provide a HIPAA compliance BAA letter to Pro plan and Enterprise users on request.Prisma Postgres: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Prisma Postgres.
GDPR / data residencyTurso: A database confined to EU locations never leaves the EU; the exception is backups, which are stored in S3 in the us-east-2 region.Prisma Postgres: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Prisma Postgres.
Encryption at restTurso: All databases in Turso Cloud are encrypted at rest at the volume level, which Turso describes as part of its SOC 2 standards.Prisma Postgres: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Prisma Postgres.
Customer-managed keysTurso: BYOK on Pro and Enterprise: each database can be encrypted with a key you supply, and Turso never sees or stores the keys.Prisma Postgres: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Prisma Postgres.
Role-based access controlTurso: Organization members hold one of three roles - admin, member or viewer - and only an admin or owner can change a member's role.
Private networking / VPCTurso: AWS PrivateLink VPC endpoints keep traffic to Turso databases inside AWS's private network; offered in six AWS regions.Prisma Postgres: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Prisma Postgres.
Dedicated infrastructureTurso: Pro and Enterprise can use their own S3 / S3-Express buckets so data lives in their infrastructure; compute in your own account is roadmap, not shipped.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Prisma Postgres or Turso?

Prisma Postgres: $10/month for Starter. Pro is $49 and Business $129, each including a larger request allowance.

Turso: $4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.

Storage (entry plan): Prisma Postgres or Turso?

Prisma Postgres: 500 MB on the free plan across 50 databases. Paid plans raise the database count to 1,000 and beyond.

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 Prisma Postgres or Turso?

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 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.

Provider pages

Prisma PostgresServerless Postgres from the Prisma ORM team, billed on requests and compute with a pooled connection limit per plan.TursoManaged SQLite built on libSQL, priced per database with rows read and written as the metered units.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.