Is Oyster or PlanetScale better?

Neither clearly leads. Oyster starts at Free and PlanetScale at $15/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Oyster or PlanetScale?

Oyster has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Oyster and $15/month for PlanetScale.

Does Oyster or PlanetScale run on more platforms?

Oyster runs on Web, Ios, Android. PlanetScale runs on Cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure).

Can I use Oyster for free?

Yes. Oyster has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PlanetScale starts at $15/month.

What is Oyster best used for?

Oyster is most often used for hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entity, onboarding and paying international contractors, getting country specific employment compliance advice for distributed teams. Of those, hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entity and onboarding and paying international contractors are not what PlanetScale is typically brought in for.

What can Oyster do that PlanetScale cannot?

Oyster covers Global Employment, Payroll, Benefits, Compliance. PlanetScale covers Database Branching, Non-blocking Schema Changes, Insights, Horizontal Scaling. Both handle Web support.

Payroll & Benefits · head to head

Oyster vs PlanetScale

Oyster

Payroll & Benefits

Hire globally, compliantly

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

PlanetScale

Database & Data Management

The MySQL-compatible serverless database

From: $15/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Oyster has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Oyster employer of Record is $699 per employee per month, with the discount tied to annual billing; PlanetScale eBS High Availability requires 3-node configuration with replication overhead
They diverge on capability: Oyster covers Global Employment, PlanetScale covers Database Branching.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Oyster and PlanetScale actually diverge.

Attributes where Oyster and PlanetScale differ
Attribute	Oyster	PlanetScale
Starting price	Free	$15/month
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Web, Ios, Android	Cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Category	Payroll & Benefits	Database & Data Management
Founded	2020	2018

Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), 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 Oyster

Global Employment
Payroll
Benefits
Compliance
Contractor Management
Time Off
Expenses
BambooHR

Only in PlanetScale

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

Both cover

Web support

What people use each for

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

Oyster

Hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entitynot PlanetScale
Onboarding and paying international contractorsnot PlanetScale
Getting country specific employment compliance advice for distributed teamsnot PlanetScale

PlanetScale

MySQL database hosting with automatic failover and replicationnot Oyster
Vitess-based sharding for horizontal scaling across large datasetsnot Oyster
Cloud provider flexibility across AWS, GCP, Azure with 60+ regionsnot Oyster
Cost-effective database clusters using ARM64 architecture optionsnot Oyster

Where each one falls short

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

Oyster

Employer of Record is $699 per employee per month, with the discount tied to annual billing
A refundable deposit is required before an EOR engagement starts
Contractor management is free for 30 days then $29 per contractor per month
HR advisory through People Partner Services is billed at $300 per hour on top of the subscription
A currency conversion fee applies when you pay Oyster in a currency other than the contract currency
Payments are accepted only by direct debit or wire in USD, EUR, GBP or CAD

PlanetScale

EBS High Availability requires 3-node configuration with replication overhead
EBS Non-HA single-node option lacks redundancy and automatic failover
Pricing varies by cloud provider and region, requiring queries for specific rates
ARM64 architecture only available on EBS tier, not Metal deployments

Pricing, plan by plan

Oyster

Free

Contractor$29/month
- Contractor Payments
- Compliant Contracts
- Invoicing
Employee$599/month
- Global Employment
- Payroll
- Benefits

PlanetScale

$15/month

No published plan breakdown. See the PlanetScale review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Oyster if

You need global employment.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Ios, Android.
You also want payroll.

Oyster review

Choose PlanetScale if

You need database branching.
You work on Cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure).
You also want non-blocking schema changes.

PlanetScale review

Questions people ask

Is Oyster or PlanetScale better?: Neither clearly leads. Oyster starts at Free and PlanetScale at $15/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Oyster or PlanetScale?: Oyster has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Oyster and $15/month for PlanetScale.
Does Oyster or PlanetScale run on more platforms?: Oyster runs on Web, Ios, Android. PlanetScale runs on Cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure).
Can I use Oyster for free?: Yes. Oyster has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PlanetScale starts at $15/month.
What is Oyster best used for?: Oyster is most often used for hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entity, onboarding and paying international contractors, getting country specific employment compliance advice for distributed teams. Of those, hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entity and onboarding and paying international contractors are not what PlanetScale is typically brought in for.
What can Oyster do that PlanetScale cannot?: Oyster covers Global Employment, Payroll, Benefits, Compliance. PlanetScale covers Database Branching, Non-blocking Schema Changes, Insights, Horizontal Scaling. Both handle Web support.

Oyster vs PlanetScale

Oyster

PlanetScale

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Oyster

Only in PlanetScale

Both cover

What people use each for

Oyster

PlanetScale

Where each one falls short

Oyster

PlanetScale

Pricing, plan by plan

Oyster

PlanetScale

Which should you pick?

Choose Oyster if

Choose PlanetScale if

Questions people ask

Related pages

More on Oyster

More on PlanetScale

Keep looking

Other head to heads