Neon
Serverless Postgres with branching and scale-to-zero, now part of Databricks.
- Verified facts
- 4 of 4
- Alternatives ranked
- 5
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Neon
Neon runs Postgres with storage and compute separated, which lets databases scale compute up and down automatically, pause when idle and create instant copy-on-write branches of a database for testing, previews or AI agents. It has become a common default for serverless apps on Vercel and similar hosts, and for app-generation tools that spin up many small databases. Neon was acquired by Databricks and now markets its engine as Lakebase Postgres, adding backend pieces around it such as managed Better Auth, object storage, functions and a realtime beta. The free plan has no time limit and allows many small projects with capped compute hours; paid plans are usage-based, billed per compute-unit hour and per GB of storage, with higher plans adding SLAs and compliance. It is managed through a web console, CLI and API. Because it is standard Postgres, any Postgres driver or ORM works, though cold starts after scale-to-zero can add latency.
Best for: Developers who want cheap, branchable Postgres for serverless apps and preview environments.
Pros and cons
What works
- Instant database branches for previews and testing
- Scales to zero, so idle projects cost little
- Free plan with no time limit and no card
Why people leave
- Cold starts after scale-to-zero add latency
- Usage-based billing needs monitoring
- Direction now depends on Databricks priorities
Top Neon alternatives
See all 5- 1
Supabase66.5Postgres plus auth, storage and realtime in a more complete backend.
- 2
Xata62.6Postgres branching with an open-source, self-hostable platform.
- 3
Prisma Postgres59.6Managed Postgres with a free tier, tightly integrated with the Prisma ORM.
- 4
PlanetScale57.2Higher-performance managed Postgres and MySQL for production scale.
- 5
Aiven55.3Managed Postgres on your choice of cloud with conventional always-on instances.
Why people left Neon
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Reviews
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Neon: common questions
Is Neon free?
Neon has a free plan and paid plans. Free plan: $0, no time limit (checked on Neon's own site).
Is Neon open source?
No, Neon is not open source. Open-source alternatives include Supabase and Xata.
What platforms does Neon run on?
Neon is available for Web.
What are the best alternatives to Neon?
The highest-ranked Neon alternatives right now are Supabase, Xata and Prisma Postgres. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.