Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
Convex vs Firebase vs PlanetScale
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Convex
4.1Pick it if: People building collaborative or real-time apps with Claude Code who want the backend to just work.
Firebase
4.1Pick it if: Teams building mobile or real-time apps, especially if you already live in Google's world.
PlanetScale
3.9Pick it if: Teams running a real product who need their database to stay fast and never go missing.
Overview
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | A backend that keeps every screen of your app in sync the moment the data changes. | Google's backend for mobile and web apps, with logins, data and hosting in one. | Fast, serious databases for apps that have outgrown the free tiers. |
| Pricing model | Open source | Freemium | Paid |
| Starting price | $25/developer/mo | Pay as you go | From $5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.9 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | No | No | No |
| Desktop app | No | No | No |
| Browser extension | No | No | No |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | Yes | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | No |
| Understands images | No | Yes | No |
| Makes images | No | Yes | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | Yes | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | No |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | – | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 4/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free and Starter Free, then pay as you go Side projects and small teams getting started. | SparkOur pick Free Early projects and apps with a small audience. | Postgres, single node From $5/mo Staging and small apps that can tolerate a restart. |
ProfessionalOur pick $25/developer/mo Products with real users. | Blaze Pay as you go, no monthly fee Anything that might grow past the free quotas. | Postgres, high availabilityOur pick From $15/mo Production apps with paying users. | |
Business and Enterprise From $2,500/mo Larger companies with compliance and scale needs. | Metal From $50/mo Apps where database speed is the bottleneck. | ||
Vitess (MySQL) From $39/mo MySQL apps that need to shard as they grow. | |||
Enterprise Custom Single-tenant or fully managed setups. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Start on Free. Move to Professional when you launch, mainly for daily backups and the bigger limits. Business is a big jump aimed at teams of 50 or more, so most readers will never need it. | Spark is enough until real users arrive. Move to Blaze when you need Cloud Functions or you're close to a quota, and set a budget alert the moment you do. There's no middle tier, so your bill goes straight from nothing to usage based. | Don't start here for a weekend project; Neon or Supabase are free. When a product has paying customers, the $15 high-availability Postgres is the sensible entry point. Only go to Metal once Insights shows the disk is the slow part. |
Key features
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Convex | Firebase | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for |
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How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability. The "Visit" buttons may use affiliate links, which never affect a score.
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