# Alternatives to Neon

Neon is a serverless Postgres platform with instant database branching, autoscaling, and scale-to-zero; open source with a managed cloud.

Neon ranks #1 of 9 in Managed database hosting, with an Alt Score of 79. It is licensed under Apache-2.0 and available on the web. 13 of 13 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

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

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Developers, startups, and agentic/codegen platforms (e.g. AI app builders that provision databases programmatically) who want a fully managed, serverless Postgres database without capacity planning, and teams that want instant database branching for dev/test/CI workflows.
- **What you get**: A serverless PostgreSQL database with autoscaling and scale-to-zero compute, copy-on-write database branching, instant point-in-time restore, read replicas, PgBouncer connection pooling, a management API/CLI/Terraform provider, and beta services layered on top including a PostgREST-compatible Data API and Managed Better Auth (authentication that branches with the database). The underlying storage/compute engine is open source (Apache-2.0) on GitHub.
- **How it works**: Neon separates Postgres into an ephemeral compute layer (stateless Postgres instances) and a durable storage layer (WAL-replicating safekeepers plus a pageserver backed by object storage), so branching, restores, and autoscaling happen as metadata operations rather than data copies. Users create a project (one AWS region, fixed at creation), connect with any standard Postgres driver or the pooled/serverless HTTP driver, and branch, restore, or scale compute via the Console, CLI, or API.

## Profile

- **License**: Apache-2.0 (verified 2026-07-17)
- **Pricing model**: Usage-based (verified 2026-07-17)
- **Starts at**: $0.106/CU-hour (Launch plan compute, pay-as-you-go, no monthly minimum) (verified 2026-07-17)
- **Platforms**: Web
- **Status**: acquired (verified 2026-07-17)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Turso](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/turso.md) | 72 | MIT | Web |
| 2 | [YugabyteDB](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/yugabytedb.md) | 72 | Apache-2.0 | macOS, Linux, Web |
| 3 | [Nhost](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/nhost.md) | 68 | MIT | Web |
| 4 | [PlanetScale](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/planetscale.md) | 66 | Proprietary | Web |
| 5 | [Aiven](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/aiven.md) | 62 | Proprietary platform (manages open-source engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, OpenSearch, Valkey, ClickHouse, etc.) | Web |
| 6 | [CockroachDB](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/cockroachdb.md) | 62 | CockroachDB Software License (CSL) — proprietary, non-OSI, requires a License Key for production use | 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 | Neon | Turso | YugabyteDB | Nhost | PlanetScale | Aiven |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Usage-based | Freemium |
| Starts at | $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 | $5/month (Developer plan, PostgreSQL/MySQL) |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT | Apache-2.0 | MIT | Proprietary | Proprietary platform (manages open-source engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, OpenSearch, Valkey, ClickHouse, etc.) |
| Platforms | Web | Web | macOS, Linux, Web | Web | Web | Web |
| Database engine (Postgres) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database engine (MySQL) | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Serverless / autoscaling | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| Database branching | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | Partial |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Connection pooling | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Point-in-time recovery | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read replicas | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in REST/GraphQL API | Partial | Partial | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Built-in auth | Partial | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Edge / global replication | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Self-hostable | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |

## Sources

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

- **License**: Apache-2.0 — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neondatabase/neon/main/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Confirmed via GitHub API as well: license.spdx_id 'Apache-2.0', license.name 'Apache License 2.0'.
  - Quote: “Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004”
- **Pricing model**: Usage-based — <https://neon.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Also has a permanent Free tier (not a trial), so could be read as Freemium; judged Usage-based because paid tiers scale purely with metered consumption (CU-hours, GB-month, branch-month) rather than f
  - Quote: “Paid plans are pay-as-you-go: usage is metered hourly and billed at the end of the month, with no monthly minimum.”
- **Starts at**: $0.106/CU-hour (Launch plan compute, pay-as-you-go, no monthly minimum) — <https://neon.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Cheapest paid tier is Launch, billed purely on metered usage (compute, storage, branches) with no flat monthly fee; a permanent $0/month Free plan is also available (100 CU-hours, 0.5GB storage includ
  - Quote: “Compute | 100 CU-hours/project | $0.106/CU-hour | $0.222/CU-hour”
- **Platforms**: Web — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/architecture-overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Managed cloud service accessed via web console, CLI, and API; source is also self-hostable/buildable (Apache-2.0), see self-hostable cell.
  - Quote: “Neon is a serverless database that splits the system into two independent layers: compute and storage.”
- **Status**: acquired — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/neon-and-lakebase> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Neon was acquired by Databricks in 2025 but continues operating as a standalone, actively developed product (GitHub repo not archived; docs, pricing, and roadmap actively maintained).
  - Quote: “In 2025, Neon joined Databricks. Neon continues as a standalone serverless Postgres platform, but the same architectural foundation now also powers Databricks Lakebase, a managed Postgres product that”
- **Database engine (Postgres)**: Yes — <https://neon.com/docs/postgres/overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Neon Postgres is fully managed and compatible with any Postgres driver, ORM, or framework.”
- **Database engine (MySQL)**: No — <https://neon.com/docs/postgres/overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: No MySQL engine is mentioned anywhere in Neon's documentation index (neon.com/docs/llms.txt) or GitHub README; the product and its GitHub repo description ('Neon: Serverless Postgres') identify it exc
  - Quote: “Neon Postgres is a fully managed, serverless PostgreSQL database compatible with any Postgres driver, ORM, or framework.”
- **Serverless / autoscaling**: Yes — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/autoscaling> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Neon's Autoscaling feature dynamically adjusts the amount of compute resources allocated to a Neon compute in response to the current load, eliminating the need for manual intervention or restarts.”
- **Database branching**: Yes — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/branching> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “With Neon, you can quickly branch your data for development, testing, and various other purposes... A branch is a copy-on-write clone of your data.”
- **Free tier**: Yes — <https://neon.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Free plan: 100 CU-hours/project, 0.5GB storage, 10 branches per project, 5GB egress.
  - Quote: “The Free plan is permanent (not a trial); no credit card required.”
- **Connection pooling**: Yes — <https://neon.com/docs/connect/connection-pooling> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Neon uses PgBouncer to provide connection pooling, enabling up to 10,000 concurrent connections.”
- **Point-in-time recovery**: Yes — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/branch-restore> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Instant restore (point-in-time restore, PITR) lets you revert a Neon root branch to any earlier state within your plan's history window using a timestamp or Log Sequence Number (LSN).”
- **Read replicas**: Yes — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/read-replicas> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Neon read replicas are independent read-only compute instances that serve requests from the same storage as the primary compute.”
- **Built-in REST/GraphQL API**: Partial — <https://neon.com/docs/data-api/overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: REST interface exists and is fully functional but explicitly labeled Beta; no GraphQL API found in docs.
  - Quote: “The Neon Data API is in Beta... The Neon Data API is a PostgREST-compatible HTTP query interface for Neon Postgres.”
- **Built-in auth**: Partial — <https://neon.com/docs/auth/overview> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Built on Better Auth, branches with the database, but explicitly labeled Beta.
  - Quote: “The Managed Better Auth is in Beta... Managed Better Auth is the managed authentication service in the Neon backend for apps and agents. It stores users, sessions, and auth configuration directly in y”
- **Edge / global replication**: Partial — <https://neon.com/docs/introduction/read-replicas> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: No automatic multi-region/edge replication; cross-region requires manually setting up a separate project with logical replication.
  - Quote: “Neon only supports creating read replicas in the same region as your database. However, a cross-region replica setup can be achieved by creating a Neon project in a different region and replicating da”
- **Open source**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neondatabase/neon/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Quote: “Neon is an open-source serverless Postgres database platform.”
- **Self-hostable**: Partial — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neondatabase/neon/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-17)
  - Note: Source is Apache-2.0 and buildable locally, but README frames self-hosting as suitable for 'small experiments' and testing, not a documented production self-hosting path; the managed cloud is the prim
  - Quote: “Neon can be run on a workstation for small experiments and to test code changes, by following these instructions... Alternatively, compile and run the project locally.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/