Side-by-side comparison · Databases & Backend
PlanetScale vs Railway vs Supabase
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: Teams running a real product who need their database to stay fast and never go missing.
Pick it if: Builders and small teams who need to host an app, API, bot or database without managing servers.
Pick it if: Anyone building an app with AI tools who needs somewhere real to keep user accounts and data.
Overview
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Fast, serious databases for apps that have outgrown the free tiers. | Hosts your app and its database in a few clicks, and charges only for what it uses. | A ready-made database, logins and file storage for apps you build with AI tools. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | From $5/mo | $0 | From $25/mo |
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1 | 4.0 | 4.3Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | Yes | 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 | No | No | Yes |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | No | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | No | – | No |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | No | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | – | No |
| Works in many languages | – | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 4/ 17 | 7/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Postgres, single node From $5/mo Staging and small apps that can tolerate a restart. | Free $0, after a 30-day trial with $5 credit Trying it out. | Free Free Prototypes, side projects and seeing if it suits you. |
Postgres, high availabilityOur pick From $15/mo Production apps with paying users. | HobbyOur pick $5/mo, includes $5 of usage Side projects and small business tools. | ProOur pick From $25/mo Anything real people will use. | |
Metal From $50/mo Apps where database speed is the bottleneck. | Pro $20/mo, includes $20 of usage Production apps and teams. | Team From $599/mo Companies that need SSO and compliance paperwork. | |
Vitess (MySQL) From $39/mo MySQL apps that need to shard as they grow. | Enterprise Custom Companies with compliance needs. | Enterprise Custom Large products with uptime guarantees. | |
Enterprise Custom Single-tenant or fully managed setups. | |||
| Which plan to pick | 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. | Use the trial to get your app running, then move to Hobby. Many small apps stay within its included $5. Switch to Pro when a team works on it or it needs more power, and set a usage limit either way. | Build on Free. Switch to Pro the day you share the app with anyone outside your team, mostly so the project stops pausing. Team is a big jump that only makes sense once a client or auditor asks for SSO or a SOC 2 report. |
Key features
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | PlanetScale | Railway | Supabase |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, PlanetScale, Railway or Supabase?
Supabase scores highest overall in our ratings (PlanetScale 4.1/5, Railway 4.0/5 and Supabase 4.3/5). PlanetScale is best for production apps with paying users and predictable database performance. Railway is best for hosting an app with a database in one place and self-hosting tools like n8n from a template. Supabase is best for backend for AI-built apps and user logins and permissions.
Which is cheaper, PlanetScale, Railway or Supabase?
PlanetScale: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at From $5/mo. Railway: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $0. Supabase: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $25/mo.
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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