Managed Postgres · Comparison
Supabase vs Neon vs PlanetScale: PlanetScale leads at 6.7; a 10 GB app from $15
We read the pricing, security and docs pages of three managed Postgres services on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. How each one bills, what a 10 GB app with staging costs, and who should pick which.
On this page8 sections
On six indicators read from each vendor's public pages, PlanetScale scores 6.7, Neon 6.5 and Supabase 6.0 out of 10. For our reference scenario, a 10 GB production database on always-on compute with about 1 GB of RAM plus a staging branch, PlanetScale comes to $15 a month, Neon $28.06 and Supabase $35.06, all by our arithmetic from the pricing pages. PlanetScale also lists SOC 2 Type 2 reports and BAAs on its entry plan and includes backups with point-in-time recovery. Neon has the most generous free plan and branches that start as copies of your data. Supabase is the only one that puts auth, storage and APIs next to the database.
The scores are close, and they measure what the public pages commit to, not query behaviour, reliability or how a product feels to use. Supabase sells a backend platform, Neon a usage-billed database and PlanetScale clusters by size, so the scenario figures rest on assumptions we name below. We did not sign up for any of the three.
At a glance
| Supabase | Neon | PlanetScale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A Postgres database plus auth, storage and APIs | Postgres billed by compute hours, with scale to zero | Postgres clusters by size, high availability optional |
| Billing units | Plan fee, compute hours, disk (GB) | Compute-unit hours, storage and restore history (GB-month) | Cluster size per month, storage above 10 GB, backups above 2× disk |
| Free option | 500 MB, 2 projects; paused after 1 week inactive | 100 projects, 1 GB each; no card | None; single node from $5/mo |
| 10 GB app with staging, per month | $35.06 (Pro, computed) | $28.06 (Launch, computed) | $15 (Base, computed) |
| Point-in-time recovery | $100/mo add-on per 7 days | Up to 7 days on Launch, $0.20/GB-month | 2 days by default; longer with custom backup schedules |
| SOC 2 Type II report | Team ($599/mo) | Scale | Base |
| HIPAA BAA | Team, paid add-on | Scale, self-serve | Base, on request |
| EU regions | Ireland, Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm | Frankfurt, London | Frankfurt, Dublin (AWS); Belgium, Netherlands (GCP) |
| SAML SSO for the dashboard | Listed on Team; table says Contact Us | Not listed | $199/mo add-on |
| Score (public pages) | 6.0 Good | 6.5 Good | 6.7 Good |
What the public pages show
Supabase gives each project a Postgres database with auth, storage, realtime and edge functions, billed as an organization plan plus compute per project. Pro ($25) includes $10 of compute credit (one Micro instance), 8 GB of disk and daily backups kept 7 days; point-in-time recovery is an add-on from $100 a month. The security page lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA, with the documents and a BAA for Team and Enterprise customers.
Neon, now part of Databricks, bills Postgres by usage with no plan fee: $0.106 per compute-unit hour on Launch, $0.35 per GB-month of storage and $0.20 per GB-month of restore history. Compute scales to zero when idle, and branches start as copies of their parent's data. SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a self-serve HIPAA BAA are listed for Scale, where compute costs $0.222 per CU-hour.
PlanetScale sells Postgres by cluster size on its self-serve Base plan: in us-east-1, a single node from $5 a month, a primary with two replicas across three zones from $15, local-NVMe Metal from $50. Each cluster includes 10 GB of storage, and backups every 12 hours are included up to twice the disk. The docs list SOC 2 Type 2 reports and BAAs on Base, and there is no free plan.
Strengths and things to know
Supabase. Strengths: auth, storage and APIs with the database, daily backups included, 17 AWS regions, a self-hosted version, a spend cap on by default. Things to know: point-in-time recovery is a $100-a-month add-on per 7 days, branches start without data unless that add-on is on, compliance documents start on Team, and free projects pause after a week.
Neon. Strengths: the most generous free plan, compute billed only while it runs, branches that start with your data, up to 7 days of point-in-time restore on Launch without an add-on. Things to know: SOC 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA are on Scale at about twice the compute rate, restore history is billed per GB, and the pages list no SAML SSO or audit log.
PlanetScale. Strengths: the lowest listed price in our scenario, high-availability clusters with replicas across three zones, SOC 2 reports and BAAs on Base, backups and point-in-time recovery included, a 6-month audit log. Things to know: no free plan, new branches start empty and schema changes are not merged for you, the storage rate is not on the pricing page, and new accounts are capped at PS-160 until a $100 invoice is paid.
Pricing reality
The three bill on different models: Supabase charges a plan fee plus compute hours per project, Neon charges only for compute hours, storage and history, and PlanetScale charges a monthly price per cluster size. So we state one scenario and show the arithmetic. Reference scenario: a 10 GB production database on always-on compute with about 1 GB of RAM (Supabase Micro, Neon 0.25 CU, PlanetScale PS-10), plus one staging branch with 1 GB of test data that is in use 176 hours a month (8 hours each weekday), at the lowest listed self-serve rates.
| Service | Plan | Monthly cost | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlanetScale | Base | $15 | Computed: PS-10 single node $10 + PS-DEV staging branch $5; 10 GB of storage included per cluster |
| Neon | Launch | $28.06 | Computed: 182.5 CU-hours for production ($19.35) + 10 GB ($3.50) + 44 CU-hours for staging ($4.66) + 1 GB of staging changes ($0.35) + 1 GB of restore history ($0.20) |
| Supabase | Pro | $35.06 | Computed: $25 plan + Micro covered by the $10 compute credit + 2 GB of extra disk ($0.25) + staging branch 730 hours × $0.01344 ($9.81) |
Each figure rests on assumptions the pricing pages cannot settle. Neon's depends on hours: staging scales to zero when idle, so its compute is billed for the 176 hours we assume; if staging ran all month, Neon would come to $42.74. Its history charge depends on how much you write; we assume 1 GB in the default 1-day window. Supabase bills its staging branch for every hour it exists, and we assume the branch's 1 GB fits in its own included disk, which the docs do not state outright. PlanetScale's figure is a single node; with a highly available PS-10 (a primary and two replicas) it is $35. Egress is assumed to stay within each plan's allowance.
The compliance plans change the picture. Supabase's SOC 2 report and BAA come with Team, from $599 a month, and Neon's with Scale, which would bill the same compute at $0.222 per CU-hour: $54.33 for this scenario by our arithmetic. PlanetScale's $15 already sits on the plan that lists SOC 2 reports and BAAs.
How we scored them
Every product in this category is scored on the same six indicators, read from the vendor's own pricing, security or docs pages, with fixed formulas. The overall score is the plain mean. Our methodology page explains how these scores work.
| Indicator | Supabase | Neon | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing clarity | 7 | 7.5 | 8 |
| Free tier | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| Price for a 10 GB app with staging | 5.8 | 6.6 | 8.6 |
| Backups and point-in-time recovery | 4.3 | 4.6 | 8 |
| Compliance and data residency | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Team and control | 5 | 2 | 7.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 | 6.5 | 6.7 |
PlanetScale's lead rests on price, recovery and team controls; it scores 0 on the free tier because it has no free plan. Neon has the only full free-tier score and loses most on team and control, where the pages list no SAML SSO or audit log, and on recovery, where restore history is billed rather than included. Supabase loses on the scenario price and on recovery, because point-in-time recovery is a flat add-on, and its clarity score reflects three places where the pages leave a price open or disagree with each other. All three score 8 on compliance from different mixes: PlanetScale lists SOC 2 and a BAA on its entry plan but does not state ISO 27001, while Supabase and Neon state ISO 27001 and put the reports and BAA on a higher plan.
The rubric rewards what a buyer can confirm before signing up. It has no item for the services around the database, where Supabase includes auth, storage and APIs, and cannot see query behaviour, reliability or developer experience. Hands-on runs will add that later.
Who should choose which
- Choose Supabase if you want the database and the backend around it, auth, storage and APIs, from one vendor, with daily backups included. Look elsewhere if you need point-in-time recovery without a flat add-on.
- Choose Neon if many of your databases or branches sit idle, you want staging and preview branches that start with your data, or you want a free plan to start. Look elsewhere if you need SOC 2 or a BAA at the Launch rate.
- Choose PlanetScale if you want a production database at a fixed monthly price, replicas across three zones, and SOC 2 reports and a BAA on the entry plan. Look elsewhere if you want a free plan.
Bottom line
From public pages alone, PlanetScale lists the lowest price for a small production database and the most on its entry plan, and Neon is close behind with the strongest free plan and branching. Supabase's lower score reflects how this rubric counts the database alone; if you would otherwise add a separate auth and storage service, its $25 plan covers more than the other two.
How we checked
We read the vendors' pricing, security or trust, and documentation pages on Oct 15, 2026, including PlanetScale's pricing.md catalog and the storage-rate endpoint its docs link, for us-east-1 prices. We did not sign up, create a database or run a query. Facts the pages did not state, such as whether Supabase or PlanetScale ask for a card, are left out rather than guessed. Every figure is on the vendors' pages as of that date or, where marked, computed from them.
