Overview

Neon is a serverless Postgres platform that separates storage and compute, enabling features like autoscaling, branching, and scale-to-zero. It gives you a fully managed Postgres database that starts instantly and costs nothing when idle.

The free tier is generous with 0.5 GB of storage and 190 compute hours per month. The Launch plan at $19/month adds more storage, compute, and support for production workloads. The open-source storage engine means you can also self-host.

Strengths

  • Scale-to-zero means no cost when database is idle
  • Database branching for development and preview environments
  • Fully compatible Postgres with extensions support
  • Generous free tier for development and small projects

Weaknesses

  • Cold starts when scaling from zero can add latency
  • Relatively young platform compared to managed Postgres competitors
  • Connection pooling needed for serverless frameworks
  • Limited regions compared to larger cloud providers

Pricing estimate

10
$190 /month
$2280/year

Free tier with 0.5 GB storage and 190 compute hours

Quick info

Category
Database
Starting price
$19/mo
Free tier
Yes — Free tier with 0.5 GB storage and 190 compute hours
Open source
Yes
Best for
Any size
Founded
2021

Last updated 2026-04-12

Top alternatives to Neon

1
Supabase Free tier Open Source

Open-source Firebase alternative providing a Postgres database, authentication, storage, and edge functions.

Free for 2 projects, pauses after inactivity · Paid from $25/mo Developers who want a full backend with Postgres at the core
Postgres Auth Storage Realtime
2

Serverless MySQL platform with branching, non-blocking schema changes, and unlimited scalability.

Paid from $39/mo Teams running MySQL at scale who need safe schema migrations
Database Branching Schema Migrations Auto-scaling Query Insights
3
Firebase Free tier

Google's app development platform providing a realtime database, authentication, hosting, and cloud functions.

Free Spark plan with generous limits · Paid from Pay as you go Mobile and web apps that need realtime sync and fast prototyping
Firestore Auth Cloud Functions Hosting

Neon comparisons

More Database tools

See all Database tools →

Explore more