PlanetScale vs Supabase
Pricing
PlanetScale: Postgres from $5/mo, Vitess (MySQL) from $39/mo, no free tier
Supabase: Free tier, Pro from $25/mo
Description
PlanetScale: Managed Postgres and Vitess (MySQL) databases with git-like branching for safe schema changes
Supabase: Postgres database with built-in auth, storage, and real-time (the open-source Firebase alternative)
Pros
- Database branching lets you test schema changes without touching production
- Non-blocking schema migrations on Vitess: no downtime during changes
- Postgres starts at $5/mo for a single node, or $15/mo with high availability
- Full Postgres database, not a proprietary system: your data, your queries
- Auth, file storage, edge functions, and real-time included at no extra cost
- Free tier includes 500MB database and 1GB file storage
Cons
- No free tier, and Vitess (MySQL) databases start at $39/mo
- The $5 Postgres node is tiny (1/16 vCPU, 512 MiB of memory), so production apps usually need more
- Foreign keys on Vitess must be turned on per database and work only on unsharded databases
- Some features (like edge functions) are still maturing compared to Firebase
- Free tier pauses inactive projects after 7 days
- Less hand-holding than Firebase: you need to know some SQL
Details
PlanetScale brings git workflows to your database. Create a branch, change your schema, test it, then merge it into production with zero downtime. No more scary migration scripts run against your live database at 2 AM.
The big hit was losing the free tier in 2024, which pushed many indie developers to alternatives like Neon and Supabase. PlanetScale now sells managed Postgres as well as Vitess, its MySQL-compatible option built on the technology that powers YouTube. A single-node Postgres database starts at $5 a month and a three-node high-availability cluster at $15, while Vitess starts at $39. That brings a small database within reach of side projects, but Neon (Postgres, free tier) and Supabase (Postgres plus extras, free tier) are still the cheaper places to start.
Supabase gives you a real Postgres database with the convenience of Firebase. Set up a project, and you immediately get a database, auth system, file storage, edge functions, and real-time subscriptions. No piecing together separate services.
The free tier is enough to build and test a real product. The Pro tier at $25/month gives you a production-ready setup. The key advantage over Firebase: it is Postgres under the hood. Your queries are standard SQL, and you can migrate your data to any Postgres host if you ever want to leave. That data portability is worth a lot for a solo founder building something long-term.
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