Managed databases & BaaS, in detail
The most acquisition-shaken category — Neon now belongs to Databricks, PlanetScale killed then replaced its free entry — and the fine print on 'free' matters more than anywhere else (paused projects, expiring credits, capped ops). Two serverless-edge options join the overview five.
| Tool | Free tier | Entry price | Billing unit | Watch out for | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | 2 projects, 500 MB DB, 50k MAU | Pro from $25/mo | Flat + usage over caps | Free projects pause after 1 week idle | Postgres + auth + storage in one bundle |
| Neon | 100 CU-hrs + 0.5 GB/project | From $0.106/CU-hour | Per compute-unit-hour | Databricks-owned (May 2025); plans in flux | Serverless Postgres with branching for previews |
| PlanetScale | None (Hobby removed Apr 2024) | PS-5 from $5/mo | Per cluster size | Entry PS-5 is single-node — HA costs more | Vitess-grade MySQL (and now Postgres) at scale |
| MongoDB Atlas | M0 free forever (512 MB) | Flex $0.011/hr, cap $30/mo | Per cluster-hour | M2/M5 shared tiers replaced by Flex (2024–25) | Document model + search/vector in one cloud |
| Firebase | Spark: 1 GiB, 50k reads/day | Blaze pay-as-you-go | Per operation | Runaway-bill folklore; set budget alerts | Realtime sync for mobile/web in Google's orbit |
| Turso | Generous free tier (many DBs) | Usage-based plans | Per rows-read/storage | SQLite semantics — not a Postgres drop-in | Per-user/per-tenant edge SQLite databases |
| Upstash | Free tier | Per-request | Per command + storage | Redis-compatible, not full Redis Enterprise | Serverless Redis/queues that scale to zero |
Pricing models and free tiers change often — check each vendor for current terms. Compiled July 2026; the most volatile figures verified on official pricing pages.
Official pages: Supabase · Neon · PlanetScale · MongoDB Atlas · Firebase · Turso · Upstash
Entry price at a glance
Cheapest paid plan, USD per month — per-user plans shown for a single seat. Hatched bars are usage-based or quote-only; values marked ~ are approximate.
Notes & recent changes
- Neon was acquired by Databricks in May 2025 and underpins its 'Lakebase' — the standalone free tier survives so far, but re-check plan shapes.
- PlanetScale removed the free Hobby tier in Apr 2024 amid backlash, then introduced the $5/mo PS-5 entry (verified Jul 2026) and added Postgres support in 2025.
- MongoDB replaced serverless and shared M2/M5 instances with capped Flex clusters (from Oct 2024) — $30/month worst case at entry.
Which one should you pick?
- Want auth+storage+Postgres in a weekend → Supabase.
- Preview-environment DB branching → Neon.
- MySQL at serious scale → PlanetScale.
- Per-tenant edge data → Turso; serverless cache/queue → Upstash.