Supabase
Open source Postgres development platform with auth, instant APIs, realtime, storage and edge functions.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $25 a month (Pro), plus usage above the included limitsOpen source yesStars 112knpm a week 35M
CockroachDB alternatives
11 tools you can use instead of CockroachDB, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Supabase, Redis and MongoDB Atlas are the most used. Stats updated 5 hours ago.
When CockroachDB is not a good fit
CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database made by Cockroach Labs. It is available as the managed CockroachDB Cloud service and as software you run yourself under the CockroachDB Enterprise license. Since 18 November 2024 there is no separate open source Core edition, and the free self-hosted option is Enterprise Free for individuals and businesses under $10M in annual revenue.
It is a weaker choice for:
- Teams that need an open source license: CockroachDB Core was retired on 18 November 2024
- Companies over $10M in annual revenue that want a free self-hosted database: they need a paid Enterprise license
- Small single-region apps where a plain Postgres or MySQL service costs less and is simpler
- Predictable flat monthly bills: Cloud pricing depends on vCPU-hours and region
The alternatives
Most used first.
View Supabase
Redis
In-memory data store used as a cache, database and message broker, available self-hosted or as Redis Cloud.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from about $0.007 an hour, with a $5 a month minimum, for the Essentials planOpen source noStars 76.8knpm a week 17M
MongoDB Atlas
MongoDB's fully managed cloud database service, with a free tier and usage-based paid tiers.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from about $0.011 an hour (up to $30 a month) for the Flex tier, or $0.08 an hour for the smallest Dedicated (M10) tierOpen source noStars 28.6knpm a week 18M
Firebase
Google's backend-as-a-service platform for mobile and web apps: database, auth, hosting and functions.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from Blaze plan is pay-as-you-go on top of the same free limits, billed through Google CloudOpen source noStars 5.2knpm a week 12M
Neon
Serverless Postgres platform with autoscaling and instant branching, owned by Databricks.
Pricing FreemiumOpen source yesStars 23.2knpm a week 5.2M
Pocketbase
Open source backend in a single executable file, with a database, auth and storage built in.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 61.4knpm a week 286k
Upstash
Serverless data platform with Redis, Vector, QStash, Workflow, Box and Blob, billed per request.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from Redis pay as you go at $0.20 per 100,000 commands; fixed plans from $10 a monthOpen source nonpm a week 6.3M
Turso
Distributed SQLite database platform built on libSQL, with databases deployable close to users.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $4.99 a month for the Developer planOpen source noStars 17.3knpm a week 4.1M
Appwrite
Open source backend platform bundling database, auth, storage, functions and messaging.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $25 a month per project for the Pro planOpen source yesStars 57.7knpm a week 53.8k
Convex
Reactive backend platform with a TypeScript database, server functions and real-time sync built in.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $25 a developer a month for the Professional planOpen source noStars 12.7knpm a week 2M
PlanetScale
Managed database platform built on Vitess, now offering both MySQL and Postgres.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $5 a month for a single-node Postgres instanceOpen source noStars 1.2knpm a week 493k
CockroachDB and its alternatives, side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CockroachDB | Pay as you go | Cloud: 30-day trial with $400 in credit. Self-hosted: Enterprise Free for individuals and businesses under $10M in annual revenue. | $0.092 per vCPU-hour on Standard (AWS us-east-1) | No | None |
| Supabase | Freemium | Yes: 2 active projects, 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users, 1 GB file storage. Projects pause after 1 week of inactivity. | $25 a month (Pro), plus usage above the included limits | Yes, Apache-2.0 | 112k |
| Redis | Freemium | Yes: Redis Cloud's free tier includes up to 30 MB of storage on a shared deployment | about $0.007 an hour, with a $5 a month minimum, for the Essentials plan | No | 76.8k |
| MongoDB Atlas | Freemium | Yes: the M0 tier, free forever, with 512 MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU | about $0.011 an hour (up to $30 a month) for the Flex tier, or $0.08 an hour for the smallest Dedicated (M10) tier | No | 28.6k |
| Firebase | Freemium | Yes: the Spark plan, with no-cost usage limits and no payment method required | Blaze plan is pay-as-you-go on top of the same free limits, billed through Google Cloud | No | 5.2k |
| Neon | Freemium | Yes: 0.5 GB storage and 100 compute hours a month per project, no credit card required | Not listed | Yes, Apache-2.0 (core storage engine) | 23.2k |
| Pocketbase | Open source | Yes, PocketBase is free and self-hosted; there is no paid managed version | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 61.4k |
| Upstash | Pay as you go | Yes. Redis free tier: 256 MB data, 500,000 commands a month, 10 GB bandwidth. | Redis pay as you go at $0.20 per 100,000 commands; fixed plans from $10 a month | No | None |
| Turso | Freemium | Yes: 100 databases, 5 GB storage, 500 million rows read and 10 million rows written a month | $4.99 a month for the Developer plan | No | 17.3k |
| Appwrite | Freemium | Yes: 75,000 monthly requests, bandwidth and storage included, unlimited projects | $25 a month per project for the Pro plan | Yes, BSD-3-Clause | 57.7k |
| Convex | Freemium | Yes: 25 million function calls, 50 GB database storage, 100 GB file storage and 50 GB data egress a month included | $25 a developer a month for the Professional plan | No | 12.7k |
| PlanetScale | Pay as you go | No, there is no free plan; the Base plan is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum contract | $5 a month for a single-node Postgres instance | No | 1.2k |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
Questions
What is the most popular alternative to CockroachDB?
By GitHub stars, Supabase is the most used alternative to CockroachDB listed on ScratchDB, with 112k stars.
Which CockroachDB alternatives are open source?
Supabase, Neon, Pocketbase and Appwrite are open source.
Which CockroachDB alternatives have a free plan?
Supabase, Redis, MongoDB Atlas, Firebase, Neon, Pocketbase, Upstash, Turso, Appwrite and Convex have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.