Neon alternatives

11 tools we tested head to head against Neon, ranked — and what each one actually does differently.

last reviewed 30 jul 2026 · from our best 12 managed postgres providers ·list curated by Onur Ozcanx in

first — what you'd be leaving

Neon ranks #5 of 12 in our managed postgres providers testing. genuine scale-to-zero makes this the cheapest or the dearest option here, depending entirely on whether it's running..

78/100

the wrong tool for the workload we priced and the right one for most of the workloads people actually have.

why people look for an alternative

−most expensive real instance at an always-on workload
−azure projects must migrate by 5 october 2026
−acquired by databricks — roadmap direction unclear
−aws-only for new projects

stay with Neon if genuine scale-to-zero with configurable autosuspend is the thing you care about most — nothing below beats it on that.

the short version

best alternativeCrunchy Bridgeproduction databases where a predictable invoice matters more than a free tier.86/100 best free optionAiventeams who need postgres on a specific cloud, or several, without repricing everything.84/100

Crunchy Bridge

#1 in managed postgres providers · $150 with pooling, backups and egress all included — the only bill here you can predict exactly.

86/100

verdictthe most complete inclusive pricing in the category — everything you'd otherwise pay extra for is in the number — with a new owner worth watching.

Crunchy Bridge vs Neon

	Neon	Crunchy Bridge
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$150/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	no
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$150
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	free
backups and pitr	included via storage history	included
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	no
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	none

switch forproduction databases where a predictable invoice matters more than a free tier.

pros

+pooling, backups and egress all included in the base price
+billed by the minute, prorated to the second
+42 regions across aws, azure and gcp
+publishes a worked pricing example matching real workloads

cons

−acquired by snowflake — long-term roadmap uncertain
−no free tier at all
−no scale-to-zero for intermittent workloads
−high availability doubles the cluster price

visit Crunchy Bridge →full Crunchy Bridge review →

Aiven

#2 in managed postgres providers · one flat $150 across six different clouds, with networking genuinely free — and recovery behind a paywall.

84/100

verdictthe most portable option here and genuinely all-inclusive on networking — with point-in-time recovery you can only buy by upgrading tier.

Aiven vs Neon

	Neon	Aiven
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$150/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	yes
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$150
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	free
backups and pitr	included via storage history	backup yes, pitr on business
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	no
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	1 cpu / 1gb dedicated vm

switch forteams who need postgres on a specific cloud, or several, without repricing everything.

pros

+same product across six underlying cloud providers
+flat $150 with all networking included
+real free tier with a dedicated vm
+no surprise metering on storage or transfer

cons

−no point-in-time recovery on the startup tier at all
−pitr requires a full tier upgrade, not an add-on
−connection pooling costs extra even on paid tiers
−no scale-to-zero — dedicated vm always running

visit Aiven →full Aiven review →

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL

#3 in managed postgres providers · the cheapest real instance here at $128 — before you add the pooler and the standby everyone needs.

82/100

verdictthe lowest verified instance cost in this ranking, on the understanding that pooling and high availability are both separate purchases.

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL vs Neon

	Neon	Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$127.57/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	yes
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$127.57 single-az
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	$0.09/gb past account-wide 100gb
backups and pitr	included via storage history	included in retention window
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	no
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	12 months, new accounts only

switch forteams already inside aws who want the widest region coverage and reserved-instance discounts.

pros

+cheapest verified instance at the anchor spec
+30+ regions, the widest coverage here
+backups and pitr included within the retention window
+per-second billing and reserved-instance discounts

cons

−connection pooling costs extra via rds proxy
−multi-az roughly doubles the compute cost
−egress allowance is account-wide, not per database
−no scale-to-zero on standard rds

visit Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL →full Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL review →

Supabase

#4 in managed postgres providers · a whole platform for $147 — and point-in-time recovery at $100 a month per week of retention.

80/100

verdictthe best free tier here and a fair paid price for what's bundled — with a recovery add-on priced like a separate product.

Supabase vs Neon

	Neon	Supabase
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$146.50/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	yes
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$146.50
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	$0.09/gb past 250gb
backups and pitr	included via storage history	backups free, pitr $100/wk
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	free tier only
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	500mb db, 5gb egress

switch forteams who want auth, storage and edge functions alongside postgres rather than assembled separately.

pros

+most generous free tier in this ranking
+auth, storage and edge functions bundled with postgres
+250gb egress included, covering the anchor entirely
+branching available at about $9.80 per branch-month

cons

−pitr costs $100/mo per seven days of retention
−compute is additive to a mandatory $25 base fee
−free projects auto-pause after a week idle
−regions not listed on the pricing page

visit Supabase →full Supabase review →

Xata

#6 in managed postgres providers · the cheapest number in this ranking, from the vendor that publishes the fewest of the costs behind it.

76/100

verdicta third cheaper than the mid-field on the numbers it does publish — and you cannot construct a complete bill from its pricing page.

Xata vs Neon

	Neon	Xata
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$98.08/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	no
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$98.08 excl. egress
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	not published
backups and pitr	included via storage history	not published
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	yes, idle branches
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	trial only

switch fordevelopment and agentic workloads wanting copy-on-write branching at the lowest compute rate.

pros

+cheapest published rate at the anchor spec
+storage billed by the minute, compute hourly
+copy-on-write branching with shared deltas
+core open-sourced in april 2026, self-hostable

cons

−egress pricing not published anywhere
−backup charges not published
−connection pooling not mentioned
−no persistent free tier — 14-day trial only

visit Xata →full Xata review →

Railway

#7 in managed postgres providers · $142 with nothing rounded up — and no database features to speak of.

72/100

verdictthe most granular metering here with no tier sizes to overpay for — because there is no postgres product, just a container billed like any other.

Railway vs Neon

	Neon	Railway
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$142.49/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	no
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$142.49
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	$0.05/gb
backups and pitr	included via storage history	not documented
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	not confirmed
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	$1/mo credit

switch forteams already deploying on railway who want the database beside their services.

pros

+per-second billing on cpu, memory and storage
+cheapest metered egress here at $0.05/gb
+no instance tiers to overpay for
+sits alongside your application services

cons

−no postgres-specific features documented
−pooling, pitr and backups all unstated
−autosuspend behaviour for postgres unconfirmed
−no meaningful free tier

visit Railway →full Railway review →

PlanetScale Postgres

#8 in managed postgres providers · millisecond-accurate billing on a tier ladder with no rung where our workload fits.

70/100

verdictgenuinely good engineering priced against a tier ladder that makes our anchor look terrible — and no free tier to try it on.

PlanetScale Postgres vs Neon

	Neon	PlanetScale Postgres
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$297.25/mo at the anchor
free tier	yes	no
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	$297.25 (oversized)
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	$0.06-0.137/gb past 100gb
backups and pitr	included via storage history	backups included
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	no
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	none — removed

switch forteams wanting vitess-grade branching and backup tooling who can use the ram they're buying.

pros

+billing prorated to the millisecond
+mature branching and backup model from vitess
+free backup storage at twice disk size per branch
+20+ regions across aws and gcp

cons

−no 2 vcpu / 8gb tier — anchor forces 16gb
−free tier removed entirely
−egress rates vary by cloud and region
−dedicated pooler instances cost extra

visit PlanetScale Postgres →full PlanetScale Postgres review →

Prisma Postgres

#9 in managed postgres providers · billed per database operation, which makes it either the cheapest thing here or uncomparable — and for our anchor, uncomparable.

66/100

verdicta genuinely different pricing model that suits a lot of real applications and cannot be placed against a fixed always-on workload.

Prisma Postgres vs Neon

	Neon	Prisma Postgres
price	$189.76/mo always-on	$129/mo base
free tier	yes	yes
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	n/a — operation-based
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	$0.08-0.09/gib after free tier
backups and pitr	included via storage history	included, 7-30 days
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	implicit — no instance
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	100k operations, 500mb

switch forlow-traffic and spiky applications where a provisioned instance would sit idle.

pros

+no fixed cost when the database is idle
+free tier of 100,000 operations and fifty databases
+pooling and backups included with no add-ons
+storage allowance covers the anchor at the business tier

cons

−operation-based billing can't be compared on a compute anchor
−cost unpredictable if query volume is unpredictable
−branching not documented on the pricing page
−regions not listed

visit Prisma Postgres →full Prisma Postgres review →

Tiger Cloud (formerly Timescale)

#10 in managed postgres providers · no egress fees, no backup fees, and no rate card you can read without signing up.

64/100

verdictgenuinely good inclusive terms on the things it does publish, from the least transparent rate card of the twelve.

Tiger Cloud (formerly Timescale) vs Neon

	Neon	Tiger Cloud (formerly Timescale)
price	$189.76/mo always-on	not published
free tier	yes	no
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	not published
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	free
backups and pitr	included via storage history	included, tier-gated pitr
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	not stated
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	30-day trial only

switch fortime-series and analytics workloads where hypertables and continuous aggregates justify the opacity.

pros

+no egress, ingest or data-transfer fees at all
+backups included with no separate charge
+time-series tooling on top of vanilla postgres
+30-day trial with no card required

cons

−no public per-instance rate card at all
−pricing requires an account and in-product calculator
−pitr retention is tier-gated, not purchasable
−rebrand from timescale makes older references stale

visit Tiger Cloud (formerly Timescale) →full Tiger Cloud (formerly Timescale) review →

Render Postgres

#11 in managed postgres providers · the free database isn't paused after thirty days — it's deleted.

60/100

verdictsensible per-second billing and tight app integration, sold from a page that won't show its own prices — and a free tier that destroys your data.

Render Postgres vs Neon

	Neon	Render Postgres
price	$189.76/mo always-on	not readable
free tier	yes	yes
monthly at anchor	$189.76 always-on	not readable
egress	$0.10/gb past 500gb	not published
backups and pitr	included via storage history	exists, price unconfirmed
scale to zero	yes — default 5 min	no
free tier	100 cu-hours, 0.5gb	deleted after 30 days

switch forteams already running services on render who want the database in the same place.

pros

+billing prorated to the second
+tight integration with render's app hosting
+wide tier range from $6 to $6,200
+storage overage clearly stated at $0.30/gb

cons

−free database is deleted after 30 days, not paused
−pricing table won't render for verification
−egress, backup and pooling costs all unverified
−high availability doubles the price

visit Render Postgres →full Render Postgres review →

+ 1 more tested, not detailed here

we ranked 12 managed postgres providers in total. the 1 that didn't make this page are written up in the full ranking →

how these were compared

every tool on this page went through the same test as Neon — same tasks, same order, scored the same way. the comparison tables are the figures from that testing, not vendor spec sheets.

the managed postgres providers test in full →

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