Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
Neon vs PlanetScale vs Firebase
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.
Firebase
4.1Pick it if: Teams building mobile or real-time apps, especially if you already live in Google's world.
Firebase scores highest overall, but Neon gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Firebase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | Google's backend for mobile and web apps, with logins, data and hosting in one. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay as you go | From $5/mo | Pay as you go |
| 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 | Firebase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 3.9 | 4.1Winner |
| 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 | 4.5 |
| 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 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Firebase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | No | No | Yes |
| Understands images | No | No | Yes |
| Makes images | No | No | Yes |
| 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 | 10/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Firebase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | FreeOur pick Free Side projects and learning. | Postgres, single node From $5/mo Staging and small apps that can tolerate a restart. | SparkOur pick Free Early projects and apps with a small audience. |
Launch Pay as you go, no monthly minimum Small production apps. | Postgres, high availabilityOur pick From $15/mo Production apps with paying users. | Blaze Pay as you go, no monthly fee Anything that might grow past the free quotas. | |
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. | ||
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 | 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. | 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. |
Key features
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Firebase |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Firebase |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Firebase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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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