Serverless Postgres database with autoscaling, instant branching and point-in-time restore, billed by compute and storage usage.
Keep it if You want a serverless Postgres database with instant branching for development or preview environments.
Look elsewhere if You need a fixed, predictable monthly bill rather than usage-based compute and storage pricing.
Neon is a serverless Postgres database that autoscales compute and scales to zero when idle, with instant branching to spin up isolated database copies for development, testing or PR previews, plus point-in-time restore.
The free tier covers 100 CU-hours, 0.5 GB storage and up to 100 projects. Paid usage has no flat monthly price: Launch bills $0.106 per compute-hour and $0.35 per GB-month with no minimum, Scale raises the ceiling to 56 CU autoscaling and a 30-day restore window at $0.222 per compute-hour. It suits developers who want a standard Postgres database without managing servers, more than teams needing predictable flat pricing.
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Checked on September 25, 2026Official pricing
Supabase4.0/5 · ExcellentFree, then from €21.47/moOpen-source, all-in-one Postgres backend (database, auth, storage, auto-generated APIs, realtime), positioned as a Firebase alternative.
Firebase3.6/5 · Very goodFreeFirebase is Google's managed backend platform, bundling database, authentication, storage, serverless functions and hosting under one usage-based billing model.
MongoDB Atlas4.0/5 · ExcellentFree, then from €6.87/moManaged cloud document database from MongoDB, with a free tier and usage-based dedicated clusters.The free tier covers 100 CU-hours, 0.5 GB storage and up to 100 projects with no card required to start, and paid usage has no monthly minimum.
Neutral score: time to a first connected database is not covered by the collected sources.
Autoscaling, scale-to-zero, instant branching and point-in-time restore work as advertised across the stated plans.
The Scale plan autoscales up to 56 CU with unlimited storage and a 30-day history window, indicating a high capability ceiling.
Neon runs standard Postgres, which is portable through the standard pg_dump/export tooling any Postgres database supports.
AI augments this tool
Neon (acquired by Databricks) highlights its integration with AI workflows (database branching to test AI-generated code), but remains fundamentally a serverless PostgreSQL database — infrastructure, not a generator.
Replace Neon with an AI? No: reliably storing structured data remains an infrastructure need. Database branching makes it easier to test AI-generated code, but the database itself remains essential. Verdict: AI augments the development workflow, the database remains the product.
Serverless Postgres database with autoscaling, instant branching and point-in-time restore, billed by compute and storage usage.
Neon costs $0 (free) (Launch plan). Price verified on September 25, 2026.
Developers who need a serverless Postgres database with instant branching for development, testing and preview environments.
The free tier's 100 CU-hours and 0.5 GB storage per project mark the point where a real project needs to move to Launch's $0.106/CU-hour, pay-as-you-go pricing.
The main alternatives to Neon are: Supabase, Firebase, MongoDB Atlas. Free alternatives: Firebase.
