Database & Data Management · alternatives
Alternatives to PlanetScale
20 database & data management tools sit alongside PlanetScale in this directory. Below is what separates each from PlanetScale on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 20
- With a free tier
- 15
- Cheaper to start
- 10
- PlanetScale starts at
- $15/month
Why people look past PlanetScale
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the PlanetScale entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for PlanetScale carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 15 of the 20 alternatives below can be used without paying.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Image and video API for developers
- Can be used without paying; PlanetScale cannot.
- Sold on a freemium model rather than subscription.
Serverless, highly scalable enterprise data warehouse
- Can be used without paying; PlanetScale cannot.
- Starts $15 a month cheaper, at Free.
- Sold on a usage-based model rather than subscription.
Seamless multi-master sync with Apache CouchDB
- Can be used without paying; PlanetScale cannot.
- Sold on a open-source model rather than subscription.
SQL transformation framework enabling analytics engineers to version, test and deploy models
- Can be used without paying; PlanetScale cannot.
- Starts $85 a user/month dearer, at $100/user/month.
- Sold on a freemium model rather than subscription.
The only native GraphQL database with graph backend
- Can be used without paying; PlanetScale cannot.
- Starts $15 a month cheaper, at Free.
- Sold on a freemium model rather than subscription.
MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud
- Can be used without paying; PlanetScale cannot.
- Starts $15 a month cheaper, at Free.
- Sold on a usage-based model rather than subscription.
Every PlanetScale alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlanetScale (this page) | $15/month | Subscription | - | |
| Cloudinary | Free | Freemium | - | vs PlanetScale |
| BigQuery | Free | Usage-based | 2 | vs PlanetScale |
| CouchDB | Free | Open-source | - | vs PlanetScale |
| dbt | Free, then $100/user/month | Freemium | 4 | vs PlanetScale |
| Dgraph | Free | Freemium | 2 | vs PlanetScale |
| Amazon Aurora | Free | Usage-based | 2 | vs PlanetScale |
| Apache Druid | Free | Open-source | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Couchbase | Free | Freemium | 2 | vs PlanetScale |
| Azure SQL | Free | - | - | vs PlanetScale |
| DataStax | Free | Freemium | 2 | vs PlanetScale |
| Amazon Redshift | Free | Usage-based | 2 | vs PlanetScale |
| ClickHouse | Free | - | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Apache Pinot | Free | Open-source | 1 | vs PlanetScale |
| Cockroach Labs | Free | Freemium | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Cassandra | Free | - | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Grist | On request | Subscription | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Knack | On request | Subscription | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Ninox | On request | Subscription | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Chroma | On request | Subscription | - | vs PlanetScale |
| Convex | On request | Usage-based | - | vs PlanetScale |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the PlanetScale badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (15)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- Cloudinary , Free
- BigQuery , Free
- CouchDB , Free
- dbt , Free, then $100/user/month
- Dgraph , Free
- Amazon Aurora , Free
- Apache Druid , Free
- Couchbase , Free
Cheaper than PlanetScale (10)
Entry price under PlanetScale's $15/month. The record does not say what unit that price is charged in, so confirm per-seat versus flat rate before comparing budgets.
- BigQuery , Free
- Dgraph , Free
- Amazon Aurora , Free
- Couchbase , Free
- Azure SQL , Free
- DataStax , Free
- Amazon Redshift , Free
- Apache Pinot , Free
What you would be giving up
PlanetScale is most often brought in for mysql database hosting with automatic failover and replication, vitess-based sharding for horizontal scaling across large datasets, cloud provider flexibility across aws, gcp, azure with 60+ regions, cost-effective database clusters using arm64 architecture options. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If PlanetScale is broadly right and the question is cost, the PlanetScale pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Database & Data Management category lists everything the directory holds, and best database & data management tools ranks them.
PlanetScale runs on cloud-hosted (aws, gcp, azure). Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about PlanetScale alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to PlanetScale?
- 20 other database & data management tools are listed in this directory, led by Cloudinary, BigQuery, CouchDB, dbt. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to PlanetScale?
- 15 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Cloudinary, BigQuery, CouchDB, dbt, Dgraph.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to PlanetScale?
- Yes. 10 of the alternatives below start under PlanetScale's $15/month: BigQuery at Free, Dgraph at Free, Amazon Aurora at Free, Couchbase at Free.
- Why do people look for an alternative to PlanetScale?
- On the figures on record, one thing stands out: there is no free tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from PlanetScale?
- PlanetScale is most often brought in for mysql database hosting with automatic failover and replication, vitess-based sharding for horizontal scaling across large datasets, cloud provider flexibility across aws, gcp, azure with 60+ regions, cost-effective database clusters using arm64 architecture options. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to PlanetScale?
- CouchDB, Apache Druid, Apache Pinot are recorded with an open-source licence model.
- How were these PlanetScale alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Database & Data Management, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored slot runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare PlanetScale against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against PlanetScale covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every database & data management tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Database & Data Management category, 20 tools beside PlanetScale. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.