Neon vs Xata
Pricing
Neon: Free tier, Pro from $19/mo
Xata: Free (open source, self-hosted), Cloud from about $9/mo plus storage
Description
Neon: Serverless Postgres that scales to zero: you only pay when your database is actually being used
Xata: Postgres platform for instant copy-on-write database branches that scale to zero, open source or hosted
Pros
- Scales to zero on the free tier: no cost when your app has no traffic
- Database branching for safe schema changes and testing
- Generous free tier with 0.5 GB storage and autoscaling
- Branch a Postgres database in seconds: branches share storage with the parent and store only their changes
- Idle branches scale to zero and wake on the first query, so preview and test databases cost little
- Runs upstream Postgres, so standard extensions, drivers and tools work
Cons
- Cold starts on free tier add 1-2 seconds to the first query after inactivity
- Newer service than established options like RDS or Supabase
- Compute limits on free tier can bottleneck during traffic spikes
- No free cloud tier: Xata Cloud has a 14-day trial, then hourly billing
- Built around branching for teams and coding agents, more than a simple side project needs
- Smaller community and ecosystem compared to Supabase or Neon
Details
Neon is Postgres that disappears when you are not using it. On the free tier, your database scales to zero during quiet periods and wakes up when a request comes in. This means a side project that gets occasional traffic costs nothing, not $39/month like PlanetScale.
The tradeoff is cold starts: that first query after a period of inactivity takes a second or two while the database wakes up. For APIs and web apps, this is usually fine. For real-time applications, it might matter. The branching feature is great for testing migrations safely. If you want Postgres without paying for idle time, Neon is the best option right now.
Xata is a Postgres platform built around branching. You can start a fresh database or branch an existing one in seconds. Each branch gets its own schema, compute and data, but shares storage with its parent through copy-on-write, so you pay only for what changes. Idle branches hibernate and use no compute until the next query. Xata also maintains two open-source Postgres tools: pgroll for zero-downtime schema migrations and pgstream for anonymizing personal data.
The open-source edition is free to self-host. Xata Cloud starts with a 14-day trial, then bills by the hour: the smallest instance costs $0.012 an hour, about $9 a month, plus $0.28 per GB of storage. For a solo founder who needs one database, Supabase or Neon are simpler starting points with free tiers. Xata makes more sense once you want a separate database branch for every pull request, preview environment or coding agent.
Neon verified
Xata verified
