PlanetScale
PlanetScale is a managed database platform built by the creators of Vitess, the sharding system originally built at YouTube for scaling MySQL. It has historically been known for serverless MySQL with branching and non-blocking schema changes, and has expanded into a managed Postgres offering. Pricing is pay-as-you-go with no free tier, starting around $5 a month for small Postgres instances, with usage-based and dedicated hardware options above that.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- Pricing
- Pay as you goPaid from $5 a month for a single-node Postgres instance
- Open source
- NoProprietary (Vitess itself, which PlanetScale is built on, is open source under Apache-2.0)
- GitHub stars
- 1,207−1 in the last 30 days
- npm downloads a week
- 493kup 9% on the week before
- Latest release
- v2.0.01 month ago
- Releases in 90 days
- 2about 1 a month
A good fit for
- Teams that want database branching and non-blocking schema changes as part of their workflow
- Production Postgres workloads that want a managed, pay-as-you-go option with no fixed monthly minimum below $5
- Applications that need to shard MySQL at scale, using the Vitess technology PlanetScale's founders created
- Enterprises that want a bring-your-own-cloud managed database option
Not a good fit for
- Hobby projects that want a permanent free database tier, since PlanetScale has none
- Teams that want a single, simple flat-rate plan rather than usage-based, resource-driven pricing
- Very small side projects where the roughly $5 a month minimum is a meaningful barrier compared to free-tier competitors
PlanetScale pricing
There's no free plan. The Base plan is pay-as-you-go with resource-based pricing, starting around $5 a month for a single-node Postgres instance for development, and scaling with compute, storage, replicas and add-ons. Enterprise pricing is custom, including a bring-your-own-cloud option.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Base (Postgres single node) | From $5 a month | Development and low-traffic workloads, pay-as-you-go compute and storage. |
| Base (Postgres Metal) | From $50 a month | Local NVMe storage, higher performance, optional high-availability topology. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Upgraded support, PlanetScale Managed (bring your own cloud), Vitess/Neki sharding for MySQL and Postgres at scale. |
Prices in USD, checked on 27 September 2026. Current prices on planetscale.com.
Main features
- Managed PostgreSQL
- Single-node and high-availability Postgres instances, plus 'Metal' instances with local NVMe storage.
- Vitess-based MySQL
- Horizontally scalable MySQL built on Vitess, the sharding system PlanetScale's founders created at YouTube.
- Database branching
- Create a branch of a database schema to test changes, then merge it, similar to Git branching for code.
- Non-blocking schema changes
- Schema migrations that avoid locking tables during deploys.
- High availability
- Optional multi-zone replica setups (one primary plus two replicas across three zones).
- Bring your own cloud
- PlanetScale Managed lets Enterprise customers run PlanetScale inside their own cloud account.
About PlanetScale
PlanetScale was built by engineers behind Vitess, the database clustering system created at YouTube to shard MySQL at scale, and became known for a serverless MySQL platform with Git-like database branching and schema changes that avoid locking tables.
The platform has since added a managed PostgreSQL offering, including single-node instances for development and low-traffic workloads and higher-availability, NVMe-backed 'Metal' instances for production, alongside Vitess-based sharding for MySQL workloads that need to scale horizontally.
In March 2026 PlanetScale hired the core team behind Drizzle, the open source TypeScript ORM, becoming its main backer while Drizzle continues to ship as an independent open source project.
- Made by
- PlanetScale
- Free plan
- No, there is no free plan; the Base plan is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum contract
- Available on
- MySQL, PostgreSQL, Vitess, REST/CLI tooling
Usage and activity
Weekly npm downloads of @planetscale/database, last 12 months.
Recent releases
PlanetScale alternatives
PlanetScale compared
PlanetScalevsSupabase
PlanetScale is a managed database platform built by the creators of Vitess, offering pay-as-you-go MySQL and Postgres with no free plan, starting around $5 a month.
PlanetScalevsFirebase
Firebase is Google's backend-as-a-service platform, combining a NoSQL database with authentication, hosting, serverless functions and analytics in one product with a free tier.
PlanetScalevsNeon
Neon is a serverless Postgres database platform that separates storage and compute so databases scale to zero when idle, with instant copy-on-write branching for creating full database copies for development or testing.
Questions about PlanetScale
Does PlanetScale have a free plan?
No, PlanetScale removed its free tier and is pay-as-you-go, with Postgres instances starting around $5 a month.
Does PlanetScale support Postgres?
Yes, PlanetScale offers managed PostgreSQL alongside its original Vitess-based MySQL platform, including single-node and high-availability options.
What is Vitess?
Vitess is an open source database clustering system originally built at YouTube to shard MySQL at scale; PlanetScale was founded by its creators and still uses it for horizontally scaled MySQL.
Is PlanetScale connected to Drizzle ORM?
In March 2026 PlanetScale hired the core Drizzle team and became its main backer, though Drizzle continues to be released as an independent open source project.
Sources and links
Work on PlanetScale? Claim this listing. Something wrong or out of date? Suggest a correction. Stats come from the public GitHub and npm APIs and update every day.