# ScaleGrid vs Turso

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/scalegrid-vs-turso/

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

## At a glance

| Criterion | ScaleGrid | Turso |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Pricing model | Two models: Dedicated Hosting, an all-inclusive plan covering machine, disk and network cost; or Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC), management-only pricing where the cloud provider is billed separately. | 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. |
| Engine | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and SQL Server. | 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

### Free tier

- ScaleGrid: No ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))
- Turso: Yes ([source](https://turso.tech/pricing))

### Pricing model

- ScaleGrid: Two models: Dedicated Hosting, an all-inclusive plan covering machine, disk and network cost; or Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC), management-only pricing where the cloud provider is billed separately. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))
- 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. ([source](https://turso.tech/pricing))

### Engine

- ScaleGrid: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and SQL Server. ([source](https://scalegrid.io/pricing.html))
- 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. ([source](https://turso.tech/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick ScaleGrid if Teams that already have a favored database engine and cloud provider but want someone else operating it — the BYOC model bills infrastructure at cost and adds management on top, worth it if the operational burden is the actual problem.

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.

Consider something else: ScaleGrid — The workload fits a single-engine specialist with its own scale-to-zero or branching model — ScaleGrid's value is operating an engine you already chose, not offering a distinctive one.

Consider something else: 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.

## Documented by only one

- Entry paid plan: Turso: $4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
- Startup credit program: ScaleGrid: Startup Saver: up to 50% discount on ScaleGrid hosting for 12 months.
- Storage (entry plan): 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.
- Regions: ScaleGrid: Six cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, Oracle Cloud (OCI) and Akamai. Specific regional availability is not published on the pricing or product pages.
- Database branching: Turso: Supported
- Point-in-time recovery: Turso: 10 days on Developer. 1 day on the free plan, 30 days on Scaler and 90 days on Pro.
- Backup retention: ScaleGrid: Up to five backups per deployment on ScaleGrid's dedicated hosting plans.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Free tier: ScaleGrid or Turso?**

ScaleGrid: No
Turso: Yes

**Should I choose ScaleGrid or Turso?**

Pick ScaleGrid if Teams that already have a favored database engine and cloud provider but want someone else operating it — the BYOC model bills infrastructure at cost and adds management on top, worth it if the operational burden is the actual problem.
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.