Stack
PlanetScale
A managed database service from the Vitess team, selling Postgres and MySQL on fixed-price nodes with a schema-migration workflow.
What it actually does
PlanetScale sells managed Postgres and MySQL on fixed-price node sizes rather than metered usage, from a $5/mo single-node Postgres instance. It comes from the team behind Vitess, the sharding layer that ran YouTube-scale MySQL, and offers first-class database branching and a deploy-request workflow for schema migrations.
For a solo founder the draw is predictable node pricing and an operational track record over a free tier. You know the monthly cost up front, and the migration workflow catches bad schema changes before they reach production.
The costs are that there is no free tier at all (it was removed in 2024), so even a dormant project costs $5/mo forever, and the cheapest node is non-HA single node with a fraction of a vCPU. High availability triples the price to $15/mo, and storage, backups, and egress bill on top, so budget roughly 1.5x the node price.
PlanetScale vs its main rivals
The tools people actually weigh against PlanetScale: Neon, Supabase, Amazon RDS. Same criteria for every column, including where PlanetScale loses.
| PlanetScale |  Neon |  Supabase | AAmazon RDS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing & access | ||||
| Free tier | UnknownNone | Unknown100 CU-h | Unknown500 MB | Unknown12-mo free |
| Starting price | $5/mo | $0.106/CU-h | $25/mo | ~$13/mo |
| Zero idle cost | NoMin $5/mo | YesScale-to-zero | NoFlat | NoHourly |
Database engine | ||||
| Postgres | YesPG+MySQL | YesYes | YesYes | YesYes |
| Database branching | YesYes | YesYes | UnknownPreview | NoNo |
Operations | ||||
| Safe schema-migration workflow | YesDeploy reqs | UnknownBasic | UnknownMigrations | NoDIY |
| High-availability entry | $15/mo | Included | Add-on | Multi-AZ |
Scaling & limits | ||||
| Horizontal sharding (Vitess) | YesYes | NoNo | NoNo | NoNo |
| Bundled auth / storage | NoNo | UnknownBeta | YesFull | NoNo |
Developer & API | ||||
| CLI | Free | Free | Free | Free |
- Entry price of $5/mo for a single-node Postgres instance, viable for a solo founder
- Operational track record: the Vitess team that ran YouTube-scale MySQL, now applied to Postgres
- First-class branching and a deploy-request workflow catch bad schema changes before production
- No free tier at all since 2024, so even a dead side project costs $5/mo forever
- The $5 node is non-HA single node with 1/16 vCPU; high availability triples it to $15/mo
- Storage, backups, and egress bill on top, so real cost runs roughly 1.5x the node price
Pay less for it
5 ways foundThe $5 PS-5 node skips high availability; only step up to the $15/mo 3-node HA setup when uptime matters
ARM instances run 10 to 20 percent cheaper than x86 for the same node class
Listed prices are AWS us-east-1; other regions cost more, so keep the database there if latency allows
PgBouncer and read replicas add to the bill; leave them off until traffic justifies them
Neon — Neon is standard Postgres with a real free tier and scale-to-zero, so a dormant or low-traffic project can cost $0 instead of a fixed $5/mo
StackTracker tracks what you actually pay for PlanetScale and every other tool, flags overpayment, and shows the dollars you would save by switching.
Is it the right tool for you
- You want predictable node-based pricing over metered usage
- You value an operational track record and safe schema migrations
- You expect to need horizontal sharding as you scale
- You want a free tier or a dormant project to cost nothing → use Neon
- You want auth, storage, and functions bundled with the database → use Supabase
Track what PlanetScale and the rest of your stack cost
StackTracker adds up every subscription, plus your hours, so you see the real number.
Prices and limits last verified 2026-07-20.