PlanetScale

Serverless MySQL platform.

Best for: Teams that need a MySQL-compatible database that scales without operational overhead.

Free plan

4.6/5Editorial score 90/100planetscale.com

Starts at

Free (5 GB storage)

Get started free

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Editorial score90/100

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The editorial note

What to know about PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a serverless MySQL-compatible database platform built on Vitess — the technology that powers YouTube's MySQL database at massive scale. It popularized database branching for schema migrations, allowing developers to create branch databases, test schema changes, and deploy them without downtime or manual migration scripts. PlanetScale is popular with Next.js and serverless developers who need a highly scalable, developer-friendly MySQL database with zero-downtime schema changes.

Is it right for you?

Who PlanetScale suits

Choose it if

Teams that need a MySQL-compatible database that scales without operational overhead.

Look elsewhere if

Projects requiring foreign key constraints at the database level, or teams on a tight budget — Neon (PostgreSQL) or free-tier databases better suit budget-conscious early-stage developers

What you get

Key features

Serverless MySQL-compatible database
Database branching for schema changes
Non-blocking schema deployments
Vitess-powered auto-scaling
Query insights and performance analytics
Prisma and Drizzle ORM support
Connection pooling
Read-only regions

Works with

Integrations8

Prisma Drizzle ORMNext.jsVercelPlanetScale CLITerraform AWSGitHub Actions

What it costs

Pricing

PlanetScale pricing plans
Plan	Price	What it includes
Hobby	Free (5 GB storage)Billed monthly	Serverless MySQL free with 5 GB storage and 1 billion row reads/month
Scaler	$29 / monthBilled monthly	10 GB storage, branching, and Boost query caching
Scaler Pro	From $39 / monthBilled monthly	Dedicated compute, HTAP, and multi-region replication

Prices are recorded from the vendor's public pricing page and can change. Check before you buy.

The trade-off

Pros and cons

Pros

Database branching enables testing schema changes in isolation before deploying to production
Non-blocking schema changes deploy without locking tables or causing downtime
Scales to billions of rows automatically based on Vitess technology from YouTube
Developer-friendly UI with query insights for performance analysis
Prisma and Drizzle ORM compatibility makes integration with modern JS frameworks easy

Cons

Removed the free Hobby tier in 2024 — minimum cost is now $39/month for the Scaler plan
No foreign key constraints enforced at database level — requires application-level enforcement
Based in US with limited multi-region deployment options compared to CockroachDB
Complex team structures like connection limits differ from standard MySQL expectations

Quick read

At a glance

Category: Development & Coding
Pricing model: Freemium
Entry plan: Free (5 GB storage)
Free plan: Available
Free trial: Not listed
Website: planetscale.com

The verdict

Our take on PlanetScale

PlanetScale is the right choice for teams that need a MySQL-compatible database that scales without operational overhead. Database branching for schema changes is a significant workflow improvement, making it one of the stronger options in its category. The main caveat: no foreign key constraints by default; recent free tier changes. It is free to start with paid upgrades, so factor that into your evaluation.

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