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ScaleGrid vs Turso

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 31 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose 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.

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…

  • 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.
  • 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: ScaleGrid alternatives · Turso alternatives

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

Visit ScaleGrid 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.

CriterionScaleGridTurso
Pricing
Free tier
No
Yes
Kind of free offerFree trialFree tier
Credit card to startNoNo
Entry paid plan
Dedicated Hosting starts at $10/month for Redis; $13/month PostgreSQL, $18/month MongoDB, $23/month MySQL, all-inclusive of machine, disk and network costs. From the Dedicated Hosting Plans doc; the live /pricing/ calculator quotes higher figures (see notes).
$4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Pricing modelTwo 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.
Limits
Storage (entry plan)
18 GB storage on NANO, the entry row of the pricing calculator for PostgreSQL on DigitalOcean (1 core, 1 GB RAM); IOPS listed as N/A. Calculator table; renders client-side, so the excerpt needs the render-fetch path.
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.
Infrastructure
RegionsAWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Akamai and DigitalOcean are named as examples, not as a list; the site footer names Oracle and Zadara instead of Akamai. No region list is published.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.
Data
EngineMySQL, 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.
When idleManual pause/resume on Bring Your Own Cloud clusters: a paused cluster's nodes are stopped and its cloud VM costs stop, but ScaleGrid management costs continue and the data is unreachable until resumed. Only standard clusters using persistent storage; high-performance local-SSD clusters cannot be paused.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.
Database branching
Limited — Clone copies a backup's config and contents into a new, separately billed cluster, not an in-place branch.
Supported
Point-in-time recovery
PostgreSQL PITR: backups every 10 minutes by default, transaction logs retained 7 days; supported on Azure, DigitalOcean, EC2 and OCI only.
10 days on Developer. 1 day on the free plan, 30 days on Scaler and 90 days on Pro.
Read replicas
Supported — Converting a standalone deployment to a replica set: 2 + 1 quorum or 3 nodes, in datacenter regions you pick.
Limited — Embedded replicas run inside your app; managed multi-region Data Edge replica locations are deprecated for new users.
Backup retentionUp to five backups per deployment on ScaleGrid's dedicated hosting plans.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.
Rewind in placeNot supported — PITR restores via Peek at Backup or Clone into a brand new cluster; the source deployment is not rewound.Not supported — PITR restores forward into a fresh database; the existing database cannot be rewound in place.
Compliance
SOC 2
SOC 2 Type II audited against the Security trust service criterion by Insight Assurance; report available on request through the Trust Center form.
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.
HIPAA
HIPAA compliance listed under Support for ScaleGrid Enterprise (on-premises / private cloud) deployments. Stated for the Enterprise plan only; the SOC 2 trust page does not mention HIPAA.
Turso states it is HIPAA compliant and will provide a HIPAA compliance BAA letter to Pro plan and Enterprise users on request.
GDPR / data residencyGDPR DPA published with EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Module Two) for EEA transfers; ScaleGrid itself is located in the United States.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.
Encryption at restOptional encryption at rest for data and backups; when enabled, backups are encrypted and can only be mounted on the database machines.All databases in Turso Cloud are encrypted at rest at the volume level, which Turso describes as part of its SOC 2 standards.
Customer-managed keysBring Your Own Encryption Key lets customers control the OS encryption key used for their deployments, announced in the March 2026 platform updates. Listed under Other Relevant Updates in the platform's March 2026 product-update summary.BYOK on Pro and Enterprise: each database can be encrypted with a key you supply, and Turso never sees or stores the keys.
Role-based access controlRole-Based Access Control in the ScaleGrid console: roles and permissions can be assigned to the users on a team account.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 / VPC
Bring Your Own Cloud plans can use VPCs (AWS VPC, GCP VPC, OCI VCN, Azure VNET) and Security Groups; Dedicated Hosting plans cannot.
AWS PrivateLink VPC endpoints keep traffic to Turso databases inside AWS's private network; offered in six AWS regions.
Dedicated infrastructure
Dedicated Hosting plans run on dedicated virtual machines hosted by ScaleGrid, exclusive to a single client or business.
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.

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.

Free tier

ScaleGrid
No
Turso
Yes
Sources (2) →

Kind of free offer

ScaleGrid
Free trial
Turso
Free tier
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

ScaleGrid
Dedicated Hosting starts at $10/month for Redis; $13/month PostgreSQL, $18/month MongoDB, $23/month MySQL, all-inclusive of machine, disk and network costs. From the Dedicated Hosting Plans doc; the live /pricing/ calculator quotes higher figures (see notes).
Turso
$4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Sources (2) →

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.
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) →
  • ScaleGrid Pricing ↗

    “Our Dedicated Hosting plans are all-inclusive and cover machine cost, as well as your disk and network costs and up to 5 free backups. The Bring Your Own Cloud plans are management-only and connect to your existing cloud account so you pay for those costs with your cloud provider.”

    Read 2026-09-14 · 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)

ScaleGrid

18 GB storage on NANO, the entry row of the pricing calculator for PostgreSQL on DigitalOcean (1 core, 1 GB RAM); IOPS listed as N/A. Calculator table; renders client-side, so the excerpt needs the render-fetch path.

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) →

Regions

ScaleGrid
AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Akamai and DigitalOcean are named as examples, not as a list; the site footer names Oracle and Zadara instead of Akamai. No region list is published.
Turso
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.
Sources (2) →
  • ScaleGrid MySQL Hosting ↗

    “offering high availability, dedicated servers, and superuser control across major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Akamai and DigitalOcean”

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

  • List Locations - Turso Platform API ↗

    “"aws-ap-northeast-1" : "AWS AP NorthEast (Tokyo)" , "aws-ap-south-1" : "AWS AP South (Mumbai)" , "aws-eu-west-1" : "AWS EU West (Ireland)" , "aws-us-east-1" : "AWS US East (Virginia)" , "aws-us-east-2" : "AWS US East (Ohio)" , "aws-us-west-2" : "AWS US West (Oregon)"”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Engine

ScaleGrid
MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and SQL Server.
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) →
  • ScaleGrid Pricing ↗

    “ScaleGrid for MySQL™ ScaleGrid for PostgreSQL® ScaleGrid for MongoDB® ScaleGrid for Redis® ScaleGrid for RabbitMQ ScaleGrid for SQL Server®”

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

  • Pricing — Turso ↗

    “Embedded Replicas Database Branching Backups & Recovery Platform API Turso Database Quickstart”

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

When idle

ScaleGrid
Manual pause/resume on Bring Your Own Cloud clusters: a paused cluster's nodes are stopped and its cloud VM costs stop, but ScaleGrid management costs continue and the data is unreachable until resumed. Only standard clusters using persistent storage; high-performance local-SSD clusters cannot be paused.
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) →
  • New Feature for BYOC - Pausing and Resuming Clusters ↗

    “you will be able to pause a running cluster, putting it in a “Paused” state. The “Paused” state means that all cluster nodes are in a stopped state. While a cluster is “Paused” you will no longer get charged for your cloud provider’s VM costs [...] you will still get charged for the ScaleGrid management cost [...] This feature is only available on standard clusters using persistent storage”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • Unarchive Group - Turso Platform API ↗

    “Databases get archived after 10 days of inactivity for users on a free plan. You can unarchive inactive groups using the API.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Database branching

ScaleGrid
Limited — Clone copies a backup's config and contents into a new, separately billed cluster, not an in-place branch.
Turso
Supported
Sources (2) →
  • PostgreSQL Backup Clone ↗

    “you can use the PostgreSQL Clone feature. This allows you to carry over the configuration of that backup along with all its contents to a new cluster. [...] Clone creates a new cluster with the same config and backup contents that you can connect to and examine the data. [...] Standard pricing rules apply for this newly created deployment”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Turso ↗

    “Embedded Replicas Database Branching Backups & Recovery [...] Do Database Branches cost money?”

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

Point-in-time recovery

ScaleGrid

PostgreSQL PITR: backups every 10 minutes by default, transaction logs retained 7 days; supported on Azure, DigitalOcean, EC2 and OCI only.

Turso

10 days on Developer. 1 day on the free plan, 30 days on Scaler and 90 days on Pro.

Sources (2) →

Read replicas

ScaleGrid
Supported — Converting a standalone deployment to a replica set: 2 + 1 quorum or 3 nodes, in datacenter regions you pick.
Turso
Limited — Embedded replicas run inside your app; managed multi-region Data Edge replica locations are deprecated for new users.
Sources (2) →

Backup retention

ScaleGrid
Up to five backups per deployment on ScaleGrid's dedicated hosting plans.
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) →

SOC 2

ScaleGrid
SOC 2 Type II audited against the Security trust service criterion by Insight Assurance; report available on request through the Trust Center form.
Turso
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.
Sources (2) →
  • ScaleGrid SOC 2 Type II Audited Controls ↗

    “ScaleGrid’s SOC 2 Type II audit focused on the Security trust service criterion and evaluated the effectiveness of our Security controls and operational practices over time. The audit was conducted by independent audit firm Insight Assurance. [...] Customers and prospective customers may request access to ScaleGrid’s SOC 2 Type II report and supporting security documentation through the request form on this page.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • BYOK Encryption - Turso Documentation ↗

    “All databases are encrypted-at-rest at the volume level in the Turso Cloud, as part of our SOC2 standards. See our trust center for details.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

HIPAA

ScaleGrid
HIPAA compliance listed under Support for ScaleGrid Enterprise (on-premises / private cloud) deployments. Stated for the Enterprise plan only; the SOC 2 trust page does not mention HIPAA.
Turso
Turso states it is HIPAA compliant and will provide a HIPAA compliance BAA letter to Pro plan and Enterprise users on request.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

ScaleGrid
GDPR DPA published with EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Module Two) for EEA transfers; ScaleGrid itself is located in the United States.
Turso
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.
Sources (2) →
  • Data Processing Addendum (DPA) | ScaleGrid ↗

    “ScaleGrid is located in the United States and to the extent any processing of Personal Data of Data Subjects located in the EEA by ScaleGrid takes place in any country outside the EEA (other than exclusively in an Adequate Country), there must be a lawful basis for this transfer as required by the Data Protection Legislation.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • Turso's Trust Center - FAQ ↗

    “By creating a database that only spans locations in the European Union, your data will never leave the European Union. The exception are backups. Backups are stored in S3, in the us-east-2 region.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

Encryption at rest

ScaleGrid
Optional encryption at rest for data and backups; when enabled, backups are encrypted and can only be mounted on the database machines.
Turso
All databases in Turso Cloud are encrypted at rest at the volume level, which Turso describes as part of its SOC 2 standards.
Sources (2) →

Customer-managed keys

ScaleGrid
Bring Your Own Encryption Key lets customers control the OS encryption key used for their deployments, announced in the March 2026 platform updates. Listed under Other Relevant Updates in the platform's March 2026 product-update summary.
Turso
BYOK on Pro and Enterprise: each database can be encrypted with a key you supply, and Turso never sees or stores the keys.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

ScaleGrid
Role-Based Access Control in the ScaleGrid console: roles and permissions can be assigned to the users on a team account.
Turso
Organization members hold one of three roles - admin, member or viewer - and only an admin or owner can change a member's role.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

ScaleGrid
Bring Your Own Cloud plans can use VPCs (AWS VPC, GCP VPC, OCI VCN, Azure VNET) and Security Groups; Dedicated Hosting plans cannot.
Turso
AWS PrivateLink VPC endpoints keep traffic to Turso databases inside AWS's private network; offered in six AWS regions.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

ScaleGrid
Dedicated Hosting plans run on dedicated virtual machines hosted by ScaleGrid, exclusive to a single client or business.
Turso
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.
Sources (2) →

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 includesScaleGrid: A full week of access with no credit card. There is no ongoing free plan.
When the free offer endsScaleGrid: 7 days.
Startup credit programScaleGrid: Startup Saver: up to 50% discount on ScaleGrid hosting for 12 months. — A discount on the invoice, not a credit balance.
Memory (entry plan)ScaleGrid: 1 GB RAM on NANO, the entry row of the pricing calculator for PostgreSQL on DigitalOcean (1 core, 18 GB storage). Calculator table; renders client-side, so the excerpt needs the render-fetch path.
Managed connection poolingScaleGrid: Supported — PgBouncer for PostgreSQL, enabled at cluster creation or later, with pooling mode and pool size set by you.
Connection limitScaleGrid: No platform cap published: max_connections (maximum permitted simultaneous client connections) is listed as a customer-editable MySQL server parameter in the ScaleGrid console.
Max vector dimensionsTurso: 65536 dimensions maximum per vector, listed under "Vector Limitations" for libSQL native vector search on Turso Cloud
Support on entry paid planTurso: 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.
PCI DSSScaleGrid: PCI compliance listed under Support for ScaleGrid Enterprise (on-premises / private cloud) deployments. Stated for the Enterprise plan only; no PCI DSS attestation or level is published.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: ScaleGrid or Turso?

ScaleGrid: Dedicated Hosting starts at $10/month for Redis; $13/month PostgreSQL, $18/month MongoDB, $23/month MySQL, all-inclusive of machine, disk and network costs. From the Dedicated Hosting Plans doc; the live /pricing/ calculator quotes higher figures (see notes).

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

Free tier: ScaleGrid or Turso?

ScaleGrid: No

Turso: Yes

Storage (entry plan): ScaleGrid or Turso?

ScaleGrid: 18 GB storage on NANO, the entry row of the pricing calculator for PostgreSQL on DigitalOcean (1 core, 1 GB RAM); IOPS listed as N/A. Calculator table; renders client-side, so the excerpt needs the render-fetch path.

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 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.

Provider pages

ScaleGridManaged hosting for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis and more, across six cloud providers via dedicated or bring-your-own-cloud plans.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.