# Alternatives to CockroachDB

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database that scales horizontally and survives failures, offered as CockroachDB Cloud (serverless and dedicated) and self-hosted.

CockroachDB ranks #6 of 9 in Managed database hosting, with an Alt Score of 62. It is licensed under CockroachDB Software License (CSL) — proprietary, non-OSI, requires a License Key for production use and available on the web. 13 of 13 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/cockroachdb/
Category: Managed database hosting

## Where CockroachDB stands out

- **Edge / global replication** — 4 of 9 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Engineering teams building applications that need a horizontally scalable, strongly-consistent SQL database — especially ones with global or multi-region users, high-availability requirements, or workloads that are expected to outgrow a single-node Postgres instance.
- **What you get**: A distributed SQL database that speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol, available as CockroachDB Cloud (Basic serverless with a free monthly allowance, Standard provisioned, and Advanced for high-scale/compliance workloads) or as self-hosted software you run yourself. Both paths are now licensed under the proprietary CockroachDB Software License (CSL) rather than an open-source license.
- **How it works**: You connect with standard PostgreSQL drivers/ORMs since CockroachDB implements the pgwire protocol; data is automatically sharded and replicated across nodes (and optionally across regions) with strongly-consistent ACID transactions, automatic rebalancing, and survival of node/rack/datacenter failures without manual intervention. On CockroachDB Cloud, compute and storage scale automatically (Basic scales to zero); self-hosted deployments require a CSL License Key for production use.

## Profile

- **License**: CockroachDB Software License (CSL) — proprietary, non-OSI, requires a License Key for production use (verified 2026-07-17)
- **Pricing model**: Usage-based (verified 2026-07-17)
- **Starts at**: $0.18/hour (Standard tier, 2 vCPUs; Basic tier is free up to usage limits) (verified 2026-07-17)
- **Platforms**: Web
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-17)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Neon](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/neon.md) | 79 | Apache-2.0 | Web |
| 2 | [Turso](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/turso.md) | 72 | MIT | Web |
| 3 | [YugabyteDB](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/yugabytedb.md) | 72 | Apache-2.0 | macOS, Linux, Web |
| 4 | [Nhost](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/nhost.md) | 68 | MIT | Web |
| 5 | [PlanetScale](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/planetscale.md) | 66 | Proprietary | Web |
| 6 | [Aiven](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/aiven.md) | 62 | Proprietary platform (manages open-source engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, OpenSearch, Valkey, ClickHouse, etc.) | Web |
| 7 | [Timescale](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/timescale.md) | 62 | Apache License 2.0 (core) + Timescale License (TSL, for features in the tsl/ directory) | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| 8 | [Xata](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/xata.md) | 55 | Proprietary platform (Xata Cloud); core engine + self-managed OSS plan are Apache-2.0 | Web |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Managed database hosting checklist | CockroachDB | Neon | Turso | YugabyteDB | Nhost | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Usage-based |
| Starts at | $0.18/hour (Standard tier, 2 vCPUs; Basic tier is free up to usage limits) | $0.106/CU-hour (Launch plan compute, pay-as-you-go, no monthly minimum) | $5.99/month (Developer plan; $4.99/month billed yearly) | $125 / vCPU / month (Standard tier, YugabyteDB Aeon) | $25 USD/month (Pro plan, cheapest paid tier) | $5/month |
| License | CockroachDB Software License (CSL) — proprietary, non-OSI, requires a License Key for production use | Apache-2.0 | MIT | Apache-2.0 | MIT | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web | Web | Web | macOS, Linux, Web | Web | Web |
| Database engine (Postgres) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database engine (MySQL) | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Serverless / autoscaling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Database branching | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Connection pooling | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Point-in-time recovery | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read replicas | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Built-in REST/GraphQL API | No | Partial | Partial | No | Yes | No |
| Built-in auth | No | Partial | No | No | Yes | No |
| Edge / global replication | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |

## Sources

Sources for CockroachDB. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Starts at**: $0.18/hour (Standard tier, 2 vCPUs; Basic tier is free up to usage limits) — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Standard Preview 2 vCPUs start at $0.18 / hr”
- **Platforms**: Web — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Managed cloud console is web-based; self-hosted binaries run on Linux/macOS servers, not a desktop/mobile app.
  - Quote: “CockroachDB Cloud CockroachDB Bring your own cloud CockroachDB Self-Hosted”
- **License**: CockroachDB Software License (CSL) — proprietary, non-OSI, requires a License Key for production use — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/master/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Confirmed by README: 'All versions released on or after November 18, 2024 ... are published under the CockroachDB Software License (CSL)' — the 2024 relicense away from BSL/CockroachDB Community Licen
  - Quote: “CockroachDB Software License ... You will not operate the Software or a Modified Version without a License Key except for Limited Non-Production Use.”
- **Pricing model**: Usage-based — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: CockroachDB Cloud is metered/usage-based (request units or vCPU-hours) with a perpetual free allowance on Basic; self-hosted requires a CSL License Key.
  - Quote: “Basic Starts at $0 / month ... On-demand compute and storage that scales to zero ... Standard Preview 2 vCPUs start at $0.18 / hr ... Advanced 4 vCPUs start at $0.60 / hr”
- **Status**: active — <https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: GitHub API reports repo pushed_at same-day as research (not archived); pricing page also references a 'Standard Preview' tier under active development.
  - Quote: “CockroachDB — the cloud native, distributed SQL database designed for high availability, effortless scale, and control over data placement.”
- **Database engine (Postgres)**: Yes — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/postgresql-compatibility> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: CockroachDB is its own distributed SQL engine that speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol (pgwire v3.0) and is largely syntax-compatible; it is not literally Postgres and has documented unsupported/diffe
  - Quote: “CockroachDB supports the PostgreSQL wire protocol and the majority of PostgreSQL syntax. This means that existing applications built on PostgreSQL can often be migrated to CockroachDB without changing”
- **Database engine (MySQL)**: No — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/postgresql-compatibility> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Docs describe only PostgreSQL wire-protocol compatibility; no MySQL wire-protocol support is documented.
  - Quote: “CockroachDB is compatible with version 3.0 of the PostgreSQL wire protocol (pgwire)”
- **Serverless / autoscaling**: Yes — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “On-demand compute and storage that scales to zero”
- **Database branching**: No — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/cockroachdb-feature-availability> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: No database-branching / instant-fork feature is documented anywhere in the docs sitemap or pricing/feature pages (checked docs and main sitemaps for 'branch'); CockroachDB's closest analogues are back
  - Quote: “Some CockroachDB features are made available in phases prior to being launched in general availability (GA).”
- **Free tier**: Yes — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Basic Starts at $0 / month Get started free ... 50 million RUs and 10 GiB storage free per month”
- **Connection pooling**: Yes — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/connection-pooling> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “This page has information on planning, configuring, and using connection pools when using drivers or frameworks with CockroachDB.”
- **Point-in-time recovery**: Yes — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/backup-and-restore-overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Delivered via 'Backups with Revision History and Point-in-time Restore'.
  - Quote: “A restore from an arbitrary point in time within the revision history of a backup.”
- **Read replicas**: Partial — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/follower-reads> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: CockroachDB uses 'follower reads' (stale/bounded-staleness reads from the nearest replica) and GLOBAL tables instead of traditional primary/read-replica architecture; every replica can already serve r
  - Quote: “A follower read is performed on the relative to the SQL gateway that is executing the SQL statement regardless of the replica's status. Using the nearest replica can reduce read latencies and increase”
- **Built-in REST/GraphQL API**: No — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/cluster-api> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: The only built-in REST API is for cluster administration/monitoring (nodes, health, sessions), not an auto-generated data-access REST or GraphQL API over user tables; GraphQL is only available via thi
  - Quote: “The CockroachDB Cluster API is a REST API that provides information about a cluster and its nodes. The API offers programmatic access to much of the information available in the user interface, enabli”
- **Built-in auth**: No — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/authentication> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Docs cover authenticating clients/users to the database itself (certs, LDAP, JWT, OIDC for DB Console/cluster access) — there is no built-in end-user application authentication/identity service compar
  - Quote: “SQL clients connections, including the CockroachDB CLI client and the , connect directly to CockroachDB clusters using the . A read-only monitoring service, which provides cluster and database details”
- **Edge / global replication**: Yes — <https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/multiregion-overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “CockroachDB multi-region capabilities make it easier to run global applications. ... Database region is a geographic region in which a database operates.”
- **Open source**: No — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/master/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Relicensed in 2024 from BSL/CockroachDB Community License to the proprietary CockroachDB Software License (CSL), which restricts production use without a license key and forbids derivative works beyon
  - Quote: “You will not operate the Software or a Modified Version without a License Key except for Limited Non-Production Use.”
- **Self-hostable**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/master/README.md> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Self-hosting remains supported but is now governed by the proprietary CSL rather than an open-source license.
  - Quote: “Install CockroachDB: using a pre-built executable or build it from source. Start a local cluster and connect to it via the built-in SQL client.”

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