# PlanetScale

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/databases/planetscale/

Managed Postgres and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters, sold by node size with replicas across availability zones.

## Who it suits

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.

Consider something else if You are prototyping. Pricing starts at a node rather than at zero, and there is no free tier documented on the pricing page.

## iScore

67 / 100 (80% interval 61–73), rank 11 of 14 in databases — interval overlaps the next rank, so this is an ordering, not a finding.

inetGeek's own reading, computed from sourced facts against category peers by disclosed rules. Not a provider claim. Intervals are 80%; a provider with few documented facts is pulled toward the category middle rather than scored on what little is known.
Method: https://inetgeek.com/iscore/. Full output with every criterion's basis: https://inetgeek.com/scores.json. Every databases peer ranked: https://inetgeek.com/databases/planetscale/alternatives/

- Price: 65 (54–77), weight 25%, 3 of 6 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: free_card_required, free_expires, free_offer_type
- Capacity and limits: 46 (40–52), weight 20%, 2 of 7 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: entry_plan_memory, entry_plan_storage, max_connections, pitr_window, read_replicas
- Capabilities: 76 (70–82), weight 20%, 3 of 5 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: backtrack, scale_to_zero
- Trust and compliance: 81 (75–87), weight 15%, 9 of 13 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: customer_managed_keys, rbac, support_included, uptime_sla
- Evidence: 88 (88–88), weight 10%, 4 of 4 criteria scored
- Adoption: 53 (8–99), weight 10%, 0 of 1 criteria scored

## What the documentation says

### Pricing

- Free tier: No — $5/month is the cheapest SKU on PlanetScale's whole price list; the document prices no free plan. ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing.md), read 2026-09-13)
- Entry paid plan: $5/month for a single-node Postgres database on network-attached storage; PlanetScale Metal with local NVMe starts at $50/month ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-05)
- 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-14)
- Egress over allowance: 100 GB of egress included, then $0.06/GB ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-05)

### Limits

- Storage (entry plan): First 10 GB free on network-attached storage, then per-GB pricing; storage is included for Metal databases ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-05)

### Execution

- Managed connection pooling: Supported ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/postgres/connecting/pgbouncer), read 2026-09-05)

### 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/plans/regions), read 2026-09-05)

### Data

- Engine: PostgreSQL, and MySQL-compatible Vitess clusters with horizontal sharding ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-05)
- Database branching: Supported ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/postgres/branching), read 2026-09-05)
- 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/postgres/backups), read 2026-09-05)
- Read replicas: Supported — Two replicas come with the High Availability shape, across three availability zones. ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-14)
- 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/postgres/backups), read 2026-09-05)

### Auth

- Audit logs: In addition to the audit log feature available to all PlanetScale plans, Enterprise plans can use our EventBridge configuration to send logs to your AWS account. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-21)

### 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/pricing), read 2026-09-14)

### 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)
- 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)
- 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)
- PCI DSS: PlanetScale Managed — the single-tenant product deployed into the customer's own AWS/GCP account — holds a PCI DSS 4.0 Attestation of Compliance as a Level 1 Service Provider. Not documented for the shared multi-tenant product. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)
- Encryption at rest: AES encryption at rest on the storage media serving database branches and backups. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)
- Private networking / VPC: AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect on all plans; PlanetScale Managed on AWS additionally offers fully private network isolation. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)
- 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. ([source](https://planetscale.com/docs/security), read 2026-09-12)

## Compared with

- [PlanetScale vs Neon](https://inetgeek.com/compare/neon-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Supabase](https://inetgeek.com/compare/supabase-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Turso](https://inetgeek.com/compare/turso-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Aiven](https://inetgeek.com/compare/aiven-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Amazon Aurora](https://inetgeek.com/compare/amazon-aurora-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Amazon RDS](https://inetgeek.com/compare/amazon-rds-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Crunchy Bridge](https://inetgeek.com/compare/crunchy-bridge-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Neo4j](https://inetgeek.com/compare/neo4j-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Nile](https://inetgeek.com/compare/nile-vs-planetscale/)
- [PlanetScale vs Prisma Postgres](https://inetgeek.com/compare/planetscale-vs-prisma-postgres/)
- [PlanetScale vs ScaleGrid](https://inetgeek.com/compare/planetscale-vs-scalegrid/)
- [PlanetScale vs TigerData](https://inetgeek.com/compare/planetscale-vs-tigerdata/)