PlanetScale vs Neon

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Introduction

PlanetScale and Neon represent a new generation of database platforms built for modern development workflows. Both offer serverless MySQL (PlanetScale) and PostgreSQL (Neon) with features like branching, instant cloning, and scale-to-zero. They eliminate traditional database management while providing developer-friendly features that integrate with modern CI/CD and version control practices.

Database Technology

PlanetScale: Serverless MySQL

PlanetScale is built on MySQL-compatible Vitess, the same technology that powers YouTube's database infrastructure.

Key characteristics:

• MySQL-compatible (most MySQL tools and ORMs work)
• Vitess-based for horizontal scaling
• Strong consistency with distributed transactions
• VNode-based sharding for large datasets

-- PlanetScale: standard MySQL syntax
CREATE TABLE users (
  id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  name VARCHAR(100),
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  UNIQUE KEY idx_email (email)
);

-- PlanetScale-specific: no foreign key constraints
-- (Vitess does not enforce FKs across shards)

Limitation: No foreign key constraints (Vitess limitation). Joins work within the same shard but are limited across shards.

Neon: Serverless PostgreSQL

Neon is built on PostgreSQL with a custom storage engine that separates compute from storage.

Key characteristics:

• Full PostgreSQL compatibility (all PG features work)
• Bottomless storage with page-level tiering
• Instant branching using copy-on-write
• Autoscaling from 0.25 to 16 vCPU

-- Neon: full PostgreSQL with all features
CREATE TABLE users (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
  email TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,
  name TEXT,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE TABLE posts (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
  author_id UUID REFERENCES users(id),
  title TEXT NOT NULL,
  body TEXT,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- Full PostgreSQL features work: JSONB, full-text search, GIS
CREATE INDEX idx_posts_search ON posts USING GIN(to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || COALESCE(body, '')));

Strengths: Full PostgreSQL compatibility including foreign keys, JSONB, full-text search, PostGIS, and all PostgreSQL extensions.

Database Branching

Branching is the killer feature of both platforms, modeled after Git.

How It Works

# PlanetScale CLI
pscale branch create myapp add-billing-feature
pscale branch promote myapp add-billing-feature

# Neon CLI (neonctl)
neonctl branches create --parent myapp --name add-billing-feature

PlanetScale branches:

• Branches are full read-write copies of the data
• Schema changes are made on branches, then deployed via deploy requests
• Deploy requests show schema diff, handle migrations, and auto-resolve conflicts

Neon branches:

• Branches use copy-on-write at the page level — nearly instant and storage-efficient
• Logical replication between branches is supported
• Time-travel: connect to any point in time within the retention window (like git checkout for databases)

Serverless Capabilities

Pricing

Neon is generally more affordable at lower tiers. PlanetScale's pricing scales with row reads, which can be unpredictable for high-traffic applications.

Developer Experience

PlanetScale offers:

• Web console with schema visualization
• pscale CLI with shell integration
• Deploy request workflow (like GitHub PRs)
• VSCode extension
• Connection pooling via PlanetScale Boost

Neon offers:

• Web console with SQL editor
• neonctl CLI
• Connection pooling via PgBouncer (built-in)
• Vercel, Netlify, and Cloudflare integration
• Drizzle Studio integration

Ecosystem Compatibility

PlanetScale works with MySQL-compatible ORMs:

• Prisma (MySQL adapter)
• Drizzle (MySQL adapter)
• TypeORM
• Knex
• Raw mysql2 driver

Neon works with PostgreSQL-compatible ORMs:

• Prisma (PostgreSQL adapter)
• Drizzle (PostgreSQL adapter)
• TypeORM
• Kysely
• Raw pg driver
• Supabase SDK

When to Choose What

Choose PlanetScale when:

• Your team is more familiar with MySQL
• You want the deploy-request workflow for database schema changes
• You need horizontal read scaling with Vitess
• Your application uses MySQL-compatible tool

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