Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
Neon 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
Neon
4.0Pick it if: Developers and Claude Code users who want a dependable Postgres database and nothing else.
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 | Neon | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | A Postgres database that scales to zero when idle, so side projects cost nothing. | 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 | Freemium | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay as you go | 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 | Neon | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0Winner | 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. | 3.5 | 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. | 4.5 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Neon | 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 | No | No | Yes |
| Understands images | No | No | No |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | Yes | No | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | No | No | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | – | – | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 7/ 17 | 4/ 17 | 11/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | FreeOur pick Free Side projects and learning. | 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. |
Launch Pay as you go, no monthly minimum Small production apps. | 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. | |
Scale Pay as you go, higher rates Teams needing an SLA and bigger databases. | 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 | Free covers more than you'd expect, including several small live apps. Move to Launch when a project needs more than 100 compute hours a month or a longer restore window. Scale is for teams that need an SLA, not for individuals. | 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 | Neon | PlanetScale | Airtable |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Airtable |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Airtable |
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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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