PlanetScale vs DigitalOcean
A detailed comparison to help you choose between PlanetScale and DigitalOcean.
Quick Verdict
4.2/5
PlanetScale
0 reviews
3.7/5
DigitalOcean
0 reviews
PlanetScale is rated higher (4.2 vs 3.7). 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. Cloud VPS and managed services platform offering droplets, databases, and app hosting. Built for developers who want straightforward pricing and documentation without enterprise complexity.
PlanetScale Serverless MySQL with database branching | DigitalOcean Simple, predictable cloud infrastructure for developers | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.7 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $5/mo | From $4/mo✓ |
| Best for | Teams running MySQL (or Postgres) at scale who want Vitess-grade sharding and safe, reviewable schema migrations without operating the infrastructure themselves | Developer teams and small SaaS companies that value documentation, API quality, and managed add-ons over raw compute value, especially for NA/EU/APAC audiences. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 0 vCPU | 1 vCPU✓ |
| RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Storage | 10 GB | 25 GB✓ |
| Bandwidth | 0 TB/mo | 1 TB/mo✓ |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Data-center count | 19✓ | 16 |
| €/vCPU/mo | — | €4.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €5.00 | €4.00✓ |
| Performance | ||
| CPU score (sysbench) | — | 2,200 |
| Disk read (fio) | — | 560 MB/s |
| Disk IOPS (4K random) | — | 8,400 |
| Network out | — | 0.5 Gbps |
| Latency (TTFB) | — | 32 ms |
| 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) | United StatesNetherlandsSingaporeUnited KingdomGermanyCanada+2 |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access | free tierhourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotsmanaged options3 compatibleeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterterraform providerkubernetes supportprivate networkingapi access |
| Visit PlanetScale → | Visit DigitalOcean → | |
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
DigitalOcean
Pros
- + Transparent bundled pricing from $4/month with per-second billing and monthly caps
- + Documentation and community tutorials are the strongest we have seen in mid-market cloud
- + Real 99.99% SLA with publicly posted service-credit tiers
- + Managed add-ons (databases, Kubernetes with free control plane, S3-compatible Spaces) on one bill and one API
- + GPU Droplets (H100/H200/MI300X) with per-second billing and no commitment
- + Free monitoring, Cloud Firewalls, and generous bundled outbound transfer
Cons
- - Weak compute-per-euro versus Hetzner/UpCloud/Vultr — our benchmarks show ~3.4x price for less CPU at the 4GB tier
- - Backups cost 20% of Droplet price; snapshots billed separately; no permanent free tier
- - No coverage in South America, Africa, the Middle East, or Japan
- - SMTP ports blocked by default on new Droplets; low initial Droplet caps for new accounts
- - Support responsiveness on standard plans is ticket-based and often slow for small accounts
- - SLA uptime is measured by DigitalOcean itself, in its own discretion
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