PlanetScale vs PlanetScale Vitess
A detailed comparison to help you choose between PlanetScale and PlanetScale Vitess.
Quick Verdict
4.4/5
PlanetScale
357 reviews
4.8/5
PlanetScale Vitess
205 reviews
PlanetScale Vitess is rated higher (4.8 vs 4.4). PlanetScale is serverless MySQL-compatible database with git-like branching, non-blocking schema changes, and auto-scaling. Used by companies serving billions of queries. PlanetScale is built on Vitess, the database scaling technology developed at YouTube and used to serve billions of queries. Horizontal sharding, schema migrations via Pull Requests, and serverless scaling.
PlanetScale Serverless MySQL with database branching | PlanetScale Vitess MySQL-compatible serverless — Vitess under the hood | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.4 (357 reviews) | 4.8 (205 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | free |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free |
| Best for | Teams running MySQL at scale who need schema migrations without downtime | Database engineers wanting to understand or self-host the Vitess technology underlying PlanetScale |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 0 vCPU | — |
| RAM | 0 GB | — |
| Storage | 0 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | 0 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | — |
| Data-center count | 6 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | United StatesEuropean Union | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access | free tieropen sourceself hostableapi access |
| Visit PlanetScale → | Visit PlanetScale Vitess → | |
PlanetScale
Pros
- + Non-blocking schema changes — no downtime migrations
- + Database branching like git
- + Auto-scales to handle traffic spikes
Cons
- - No foreign keys (Vitess architecture limitation)
- - Read replicas only on higher plans
PlanetScale Vitess
Pros
- + Open-source Vitess powering PlanetScale
- + YouTube-scale tested
- + Horizontal sharding for MySQL
Cons
- - Complex to self-host
- - No foreign key support in Vitess
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new AI tools, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.