Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
Neon vs PlanetScale vs Vercel
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
Pick it if: Developers and Claude Code users who want a dependable Postgres database and nothing else.
Pick it if: Teams running a real product who need their database to stay fast and never go missing.
Pick it if: Anyone who built a website or app with Claude Code, Cursor, v0 or Lovable and needs a fast, reliable place to put it live.
Vercel 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 | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | A Postgres database that switches off when idle, so side projects cost nothing. | Fast, serious databases for apps that have outgrown the free tiers. | Puts the website or app you built with AI live, and publishes every update automatically. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay as you go | From $5/mo | $20/mo per developer |
| 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 | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.4Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| 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 | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | – |
| 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 | – |
| Works in many languages | – | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 7/ 17 | 4/ 17 | 8/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | FreeOur pick Free Side projects and learning. | Postgres, single node From $5/mo Staging and small apps that can tolerate a restart. | Hobby Free Personal projects and trying it out. |
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 $20/mo per developer Any business site or app. | |
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 Large sites that need uptime guarantees. | |
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. | Build and test on Hobby. The day the site is for a business, move to Pro, since Hobby doesn't allow commercial use. One developer seat is enough for most small businesses because people who only review can join free as viewers. Turn on a spending limit straight away. |
Key features
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Vercel |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Neon | PlanetScale | Vercel |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Neon, PlanetScale or Vercel?
Vercel scores highest overall in our ratings (Neon 4.2/5, PlanetScale 4.1/5 and Vercel 4.4/5). Neon is best for postgres for side projects and safe database experiments with branching. PlanetScale is best for production apps with paying users and predictable database performance. Vercel is best for putting a website built with Claude Code live and Next.js sites and apps.
Which is cheaper, Neon, PlanetScale or Vercel?
Neon: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at Pay as you go. PlanetScale: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at From $5/mo. Vercel: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo per developer.
Which is easier to use, Neon, PlanetScale or Vercel?
Vercel rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Anyone who built a website or app with Claude Code, Cursor, v0 or Lovable and needs a fast, reliable place to put it live.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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