PlanetScale vs Appwrite Cloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between PlanetScale and Appwrite Cloud.
Quick Verdict
4.2/5
PlanetScale
0 reviews
3.9/5
Appwrite Cloud
0 reviews
PlanetScale is rated higher (4.2 vs 3.9). Managed Postgres and MySQL (Vitess) databases with branching and zero-downtime schema changes. No free tier; Postgres starts at $5/month, Vitess at $39/month. Appwrite is an open source BaaS with database, authentication, storage, functions, and messaging. Self-hostable on Docker. Appwrite Cloud provides managed hosting.
PlanetScale Serverless MySQL with database branching | Appwrite Cloud Open-source backend platform with built-in database, auth, and APIs | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.9 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | freemium |
| Starting price | From $5/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Teams running MySQL (or Postgres) at scale who want Vitess-grade sharding and safe, reviewable schema migrations without operating the infrastructure themselves | Developers and small teams who want a complete managed backend with a genuine self-hosting exit and refuse Firebase-style lock-in. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 0 vCPU | — |
| RAM | 1 GB | — |
| Storage | 10 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | 0 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | — |
| Data-center count | 19 | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €5.00 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | 12 AWS + 7 GCP regions incl. US, EU, APAC (Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Seoul) and South America (Sao Paulo) | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access | free tieropen sourceself hostableapi access |
| Visit PlanetScale → | Visit Appwrite Cloud → | |
PlanetScale
Pros
- + Built by the Vitess maintainers — branching, deploy requests and online schema migrations are first-class
- + Three engines (Postgres, Vitess, sharded Neki) plus Metal local-NVMe tiers for I/O-heavy workloads
- + Unusually transparent pricing: published SKU tables and a SQL-queryable per-region pricing endpoint
- + Three-zone HA with automatic failover and a 99.99% SLA on HA configurations
- + 19 AWS/GCP regions plus a bring-your-own-cloud Managed option for data-residency needs
Cons
- - No free tier or trial — the Hobby plan was retired in April 2024
- - Metered extras (storage, egress, backups, branch hours) make the real bill higher than sticker prices
- - Vitess constraints: no foreign keys in the classic model and a real sharding learning curve
- - Single-node $5 entry is not highly available; production HA starts at $15/month before usage
Appwrite Cloud
Pros
- + BSD 3-Clause open source with full self-hosting on any Docker host
- + Generous Pro resources: 2 TB bandwidth, 150 GB storage, 200K MAU at $25/month
- + Complete backend stack: auth, databases, storage, functions, realtime, messaging
- + Clear published overage rates and budget caps
- + Six regions across NA, EU, and APAC
Cons
- - No published uptime SLA on cloud plans
- - Free tier pauses projects after a week of inactivity; two-project limit
- - Per-project pricing multiplies cost for multi-project architectures
- - Smaller integration ecosystem than Firebase or Supabase
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