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E-Commerce · head to head

Heartland Retail vs PlanetScale

Heartland Retail logo

Heartland Retail

E-Commerce

Omnichannel retail management platform

From
$150/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
PlanetScale logo

PlanetScale

Databases

The MySQL-compatible serverless database

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only PlanetScale has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • They diverge on capability: Heartland Retail covers Point of sale, PlanetScale covers Database Branching.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Heartland Retail and PlanetScale actually diverge.

Attributes where Heartland Retail and PlanetScale differ
AttributeHeartland RetailPlanetScale
Starting price$150/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionusage-based
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebCloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure)
CategoryE-CommerceDatabases
Founded19972018

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Heartland Retail

  • Point of sale
  • Omnichannel selling
  • Inventory management
  • Customer management
  • Payment processing
  • Employee management
  • Analytics
  • Reporting

Only in PlanetScale

  • Database Branching
  • Non-blocking Schema Changes
  • Insights
  • Horizontal Scaling
  • Connection Pooling
  • Query Caching
  • Automatic Backups
  • Global Replication

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Heartland Retail

No use cases recorded yet. See the Heartland Retail review.

PlanetScale

  • MySQL-compatible applications requiring horizontal scalingnot Heartland Retail
  • PostgreSQL deployments with custom cluster configurationsnot Heartland Retail
  • Multi-region database deployments on AWS or GCPnot Heartland Retail
  • Applications requiring transparent sharding via Vitessnot Heartland Retail

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Heartland Retail

Nothing recorded yet. See the Heartland Retail review.

PlanetScale

  • Pricing varies significantly across 17+ AWS and GCP regions
  • Additional costs for EBS storage beyond base tier, backup storage, and egress
  • Dedicated PgBouncer and replicas incur separate charges
  • Metal tier pricing increases sharply with larger configurations

Pricing, plan by plan

Heartland Retail

$150/month
  • Core$150/month
    • POS system
    • Inventory management
    • Customer management
  • Professional$350/month
    • All Core features
    • Omnichannel
    • Advanced analytics

PlanetScale

Free
  • Postgres EBS Single-Node (ARM64 PS-5)$5/month
    • 512 MiB RAM
    • Single-node configuration
    • EBS storage included
  • Postgres EBS HA (ARM64 PS-5)$15/month
    • 512 MiB RAM
    • 3-node high-availability setup
    • 1 primary + 2 replicas
  • Postgres Metal (M-10)$50/month
    • 1/8 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM
    • 3-node HA configuration
    • 10 GiB NVMe storage included
  • Vitess Non-Metal 3-Node$39/month
    • Sharding-capable database
    • x86-64 architecture
    • 3-node configuration

Which should you pick?

Choose Heartland Retail if

  • You need point of sale.
  • You also want omnichannel selling.
Heartland Retail review

Choose PlanetScale if

  • You need database branching.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure).
  • You also want non-blocking schema changes.
PlanetScale review

Questions people ask

Is Heartland Retail or PlanetScale better?
Neither clearly leads. Heartland Retail starts at $150/month and PlanetScale at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Heartland Retail or PlanetScale?
PlanetScale has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $150/month for Heartland Retail and Free for PlanetScale.
Does Heartland Retail or PlanetScale run on more platforms?
Heartland Retail runs on Web. PlanetScale runs on Cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure).
Can I use PlanetScale for free?
Yes. PlanetScale has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Heartland Retail starts at $150/month.
What can Heartland Retail do that PlanetScale cannot?
Heartland Retail covers Point of sale, Omnichannel selling, Inventory management, Customer management. PlanetScale covers Database Branching, Non-blocking Schema Changes, Insights, Horizontal Scaling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PlanetScale: How much does a PlanetScale Postgres database cost per month?

PlanetScale Postgres pricing starts at $5/month for single-node ARM64 configurations with 512 MiB RAM and $15/month for the same specs in high-availability mode with 1 primary and 2 replicas. Metal tier starts at $50/month for M-10 configuration (1/8 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM). Exact pricing depends on cluster size, node architecture (ARM64 vs x86-64), storage configuration, and selected AWS/GCP region.

Source
PlanetScale: Is there a free tier for PlanetScale?

PlanetScale offers a free tier for development and testing workloads. After free tier limits are reached, usage-based pricing applies starting at $5/month for the smallest Postgres single-node configuration, with costs scaling based on cluster size, compute, storage, and additional features like dedicated PgBouncer or replicas.

Source
PlanetScale: What is the difference between PlanetScale ARM64 and x86-64 pricing?

ARM64 instances cost significantly less than x86-64 equivalents. For example, a Postgres EBS HA cluster with 512 MiB RAM costs $15/month on ARM64 but $39/month on x86-64. This pricing difference extends across all cluster sizes, with larger x86-64 configurations reaching up to $5,599/month compared to ARM64 alternatives.

Source
PlanetScale: What is included in a PlanetScale cluster price versus additional costs?

The advertised cluster price covers the base compute and configured storage. Additional charges apply for EBS storage beyond the base allocation, backup storage, data egress, optional dedicated PgBouncer connections, and replicas beyond the base high-availability configuration. Regional pricing varies across 17+ AWS and GCP zones.

Source
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