Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
Convex vs PlanetScale vs Airtable
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.
PlanetScale
3.9Pick it if: Teams running a real product who need their database to stay fast and never go missing.
Airtable
3.9Pick it if: Small marketing and ops teams who need a shared database and don't have a developer.
Overview
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | A backend that keeps every screen of your app in sync the moment the data changes. | Fast, serious databases for apps that have outgrown the free tiers. | Spreadsheets that behave like a database, with forms, views and automations built in. |
| Pricing model | Open source | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | $25/developer/mo | From $5/mo | $24/seat/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1Winner | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | No | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No | Yes |
| Desktop app | No | No | Yes |
| 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 | No | Yes |
| Understands images | No | No | No |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | No | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | No | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | – | – | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 4/ 17 | 11/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free and Starter Free, then pay as you go Side projects and small teams getting started. | Postgres, single node From $5/mo Staging and small apps that can tolerate a restart. | Free Free One person or a tiny team with a small list. |
ProfessionalOur pick $25/developer/mo Products with real users. | Postgres, high availabilityOur pick From $15/mo Production apps with paying users. | TeamOur pick $24/seat/mo, or $20/seat/mo billed yearly Most small teams. | |
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. | Business $54/seat/mo, or $45/seat/mo billed yearly Bigger teams syncing data from other systems. | |
Vitess (MySQL) From $39/mo MySQL apps that need to shard as they grow. | Enterprise Scale Custom Large organisations with many workspaces. | ||
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. | 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. | Free is only for testing; you'll hit the 1,000-record cap fast. Team is the plan for nearly everyone, and billing yearly saves about 17 percent. Keep editor seats to the people who actually change data, since viewers and form fillers are free. |
Key features
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standout features |
|
|
|
Pros and cons
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pros |
|
|
|
| Cons |
|
|
|
Who each one is for
| Attribute | Convex | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for |
|
|
|
| You'll find it used by |
|
|
|
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.
Swap in another tool
More databases & backend tools from the library.
