PlanetScalevs
Cockroach Labs
Cockroach Labs: The cloud-native distributed SQL database
PlanetScale
The MySQL-compatible serverless database
As of 30 August 2026, PlanetScale has a free plan and paid plans start at $15/month. PlanetScale is a MySQL-compatible serverless database platform that brings branching, non-blocking schema changes, and insights to database management. Softwr lists it under Databases. PlanetScale is made by PlanetScale Inc, launched in 2018, available on Web.
Overview
What PlanetScale does
PlanetScale is a MySQL-compatible serverless database platform that brings branching, non-blocking schema changes, and insights to database management.
What people use it for
- MySQL-compatible applications requiring horizontal scaling
- PostgreSQL deployments with custom cluster configurations
- Multi-region database deployments on AWS or GCP
- Applications requiring transparent sharding via Vitess
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of PlanetScale
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- PlanetScalevsPostgreSQL
PostgreSQL: The world's most advanced open source relational database
- PlanetScalevsAirtable
Airtable: Create apps that perfectly fit your team's needs
- PlanetScalevsAmazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora: MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud
Pricing
What PlanetScale costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Postgres EBS Single-Node (ARM64 PS-5)
$5 /mo
- 512 MiB RAM
- Single-node configuration
- EBS storage included
Postgres EBS HA (ARM64 PS-5)
$15 /mo
- 512 MiB RAM
- 3-node high-availability setup
- 1 primary + 2 replicas
- EBS storage included
Postgres Metal (M-10)
$50 /mo
- 1/8 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM
- 3-node HA configuration
- 10 GiB NVMe storage included
Vitess Non-Metal 3-Node
$39 /mo
- Sharding-capable database
- x86-64 architecture
- 3-node configuration
Capabilities
Features
Database Branching
Non-blocking Schema Changes
Insights
Horizontal Scaling
Connection Pooling
Query Caching
Automatic Backups
Global Replication
Prisma
Integration with Prisma
Rails
Integration with Rails
Laravel
Integration with Laravel
Django
Integration with Django
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
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.
SourceIs 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.
SourceWhat 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.
SourceWhat 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.
SourceBehind it
Who makes PlanetScale
- Company
- PlanetScale Inc
- Based in
- San Francisco, CA
Keep looking
Where to go from PlanetScale
- PlanetScale alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- PlanetScale pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- PlanetScale badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Databases softwareThe full category
- Best Databases softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Databases software for
Compare PlanetScale with
- Amazon Aurora
- Nile
- Airtable
- Cockroach Labs
- PostgreSQL
- BigQuery
- MotherDuck
- FaunaDB
- DataGrip
- TiDB
- Readyset
- IBM Db2
- Instaclustr
- Knack
- LanceDB
- Marqo
- DynamoDB
- Nile
Other Databases software
MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud
Free plan12 researched notesPostgreSQL database platform built for multi-tenant SaaS applications
Free, then $15/mo11 researched notesCreate apps that perfectly fit your team's needs
Free, then $20/month per editor11 researched notesGoogle Cloud's serverless analytical warehouse, billed either by bytes scanned per query or by reserved compute slots.
Free plan13 researched notesDocument-relational database whose hosted service closed in 2025 and whose core is now unmaintained Apache 2.0 code.
Free plan14 researched notesCross-platform database IDE from JetBrains for SQL and NoSQL databases
Free, then $8.25/mo12 researched notesApache 2.0 distributed SQL database with MySQL wire compatibility and a separate columnar replica for analytical queries.
Free plan12 researched notesDatabase caching and optimization that reduces infrastructure costs 30-70%
Free plan10 researched notesThe AI-powered database built for demanding enterprise workloads
Free, then $99/mo14 researched notesNetApp-owned managed service for Cassandra, Kafka, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL and Cadence with a bring-your-own-cloud model
Pricing on request12 researched notesHosted no-code database and web app builder priced by stored records and storage, with unlimited user accounts on every plan.
From $59/mo14 researched notesEmbedded retrieval library over the Apache 2.0 Lance columnar format, with proprietary Cloud and Enterprise tiers for serving at scale.
Pricing on request14 researched notesAWS-only managed key-value and document database with fixed per-partition throughput limits and no ad hoc queries.
Free, then $0.625/million writes14 researched notesPostgreSQL database platform built for multi-tenant SaaS applications
Free, then $15/mo11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for PlanetScale, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on PlanetScale
PlanetScale alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
PlanetScale pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare PlanetScale
Put it head to head with anything we hold
PlanetScale badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Databases software alternatives
Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees
Per tag band per yearNetApp-owned managed service for Cassandra, Kafka, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL and Cadence with a bring-your-own-cloud model
quote
Erlang MQTT broker for large IoT fleets, relicensed to BSL with production free use limited to one node
Per month by connection and session volume
Attribute-based access control and masking applied inside Snowflake, Databricks and BigQuery
quote
MPP analytical database with a MySQL wire protocol and sub-second aggregation on wide tables
Open source, no licence fee
Streaming database that maintains incremental materialised views in SQL instead of Flink jobs
Per RisingWave Unit hour
Centralised data access governance from the creators of Apache Ranger, now rebranding as Trust3 AI
quote
The Meta-lineage distributed SQL query engine, distinct from the Trino fork
Open source, no licence fee