PlanetScale
Serverless MySQL with branching workflows
What it does
PlanetScale is a serverless MySQL platform built on Vitess (the horizontally scalable MySQL layer that powers YouTube and Slack). Managed MySQL with automatic sharding, branching (like Git for schema and data), non-blocking schema changes via deploy requests, and horizontal scale that goes beyond single-node MySQL. Announced Postgres support in 2024/2025.
Free tier
No
Starts at
$39/mo
Setup
medium
Key features
Integrates with
Vercel, Netlify, Prisma, GitHub Actions
Who this fits
- Mid-to-large SaaS with MySQL workloads that outgrew single-node
- Teams that want schema-change safety (deploy requests review a schema change like a pull request before it merges)
- Companies expecting to scale beyond a single database node
- Teams migrating from Heroku Postgres (before PlanetScale killed free tier) or self-managed MySQL
- Product teams that value the branching workflow for testing schema changes
Who it does NOT fit
- Solo founders and pre-revenue startups (PlanetScale killed the free hobby tier in April 2024; entry pricing is now $39/month minimum)
- Apps that need foreign keys as first-class enforced constraints (Vitess does not enforce foreign keys traditionally; supported since 2023 with caveats)
- Postgres-first teams (PlanetScale's Postgres offering is newer than MySQL; maturity varies)
- Simple use cases where a managed Postgres on Neon or RDS would fit
Pricing
Real gotchas
- PlanetScale killed the free Hobby tier in April 2024, giving 60 days notice. Users on free had to migrate or upgrade to Scaler ($39/month). This move drove many hobby users to Neon, Supabase, or Turso [source: planetscale.com/blog/planetscale-forever, community reactions on HN].
- Vitess does not enforce foreign key constraints by default. Foreign key support was added in 2023 but has caveats around cross-shard queries. Apps that rely on database-enforced referential integrity should verify their needs.
- Schema change workflow (deploy requests) is powerful but adds a step: schema changes go through a branch, get reviewed, then deploy. Teams used to running arbitrary ALTER TABLE in production need to adapt.
- Connection pooling: PlanetScale requires connection pooling for serverless deployments (Vercel Functions, Lambda); their PSDB serverless driver handles this.
- No traditional user-manageable database backups you can download in a file; backups are internal, restored via support or point-in-time restore.
Integrations that matter
Otto’s take on this tool
Recommend PlanetScale for mid-to-large SaaS with MySQL workloads that value schema-change safety and horizontal scale. Recommend Neon or Supabase (both Postgres) when the client is Postgres-first. Recommend RDS or Cloud SQL for enterprise-managed relational databases. Do NOT recommend for solo founders on a tight budget in 2026; the $39/month entry is a real barrier for hobby projects.
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