Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
Neon vs PlanetScale vs Appwrite
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.
Appwrite
3.7Pick it if: Builders who want Firebase-style convenience without being tied to one company's cloud.
Overview
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | An open-source, all-in-one backend with a database, logins, storage and hosting. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Open source |
| Starting price | Pay as you go | From $5/mo | From $25/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 | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0Winner | 3.9 | 3.7 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| 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 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 3.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | No | Yes |
| 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 | Yes |
| 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 | – | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 7/ 17 | 4/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Learning and small personal projects. |
Launch Pay as you go, no monthly minimum Small production apps. | Postgres, high availabilityOur pick From $15/mo Production apps with paying users. | ProOur pick From $25/mo Live apps and 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. | Enterprise Custom Companies with compliance needs. | |
Vitess (MySQL) From $39/mo MySQL apps that need to shard as they grow. | Self-hosted Free (your own server costs) Anyone who wants full control of their data. | ||
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 enough to build and show a prototype. Pro at $25 is good value because the price covers your whole team rather than each seat. Self-host only if you already run servers; the time it takes to keep one patched quickly costs more than $25 a month. |
Key features
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Appwrite |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Appwrite |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Appwrite |
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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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