PlanetScale vs Xata
A detailed comparison to help you choose between PlanetScale and Xata.
Quick Verdict
4.2/5
PlanetScale
0 reviews
3.9/5
Xata
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. Xata is a managed Postgres platform built around copy-on-write branching and scale-to-zero compute, aimed at per-PR and per-agent database workflows. Vanilla PostgreSQL, open-source core (Apache 2.0), plus pgroll for zero-downtime migrations. The original search/spreadsheet product was retired during a 2024-2025 pivot.
PlanetScale Serverless MySQL with database branching | Xata Postgres platform with copy-on-write branching and scale-to-zero | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.9 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | pay-as-you-go |
| Starting price | From $5/mo✓ | From $9/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 | Teams that need an isolated Postgres per pull request or per AI agent run, with branching and scale-to-zero economics rather than per-database pricing |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 0 vCPU | 2 vCPU✓ |
| RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Storage | 10 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | 0 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | — |
| Data-center count | 19 | — |
| €/vCPU/mo | — | €4.50 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €5.00✓ | €9.00 |
| 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) | US East (N. Virginia), GCP; EU Central (Frankfurt), GCP |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access |
| Visit PlanetScale → | Visit Xata → | |
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
Xata
Pros
- + Instant copy-on-write branching with no per-branch, per-developer or per-database fees
- + Scale-to-zero: idle branches bill $0 compute and wake in about a second
- + Vanilla PostgreSQL — standard extensions, drivers and tooling, no fork
- + Public pricing is unusually transparent, including a machine-readable pricing.md
- + Open-source core (Apache 2.0) plus genuinely useful standalone tools: pgroll, pgstream
Cons
- - Young platform behind a company that already retired one product its customers relied on
- - No published uptime SLA or backup policy on the public site
- - Self-serve limited to two regions (US East, EU Central); deep compliance and support tiers are BYOC sales conversations
- - Key pieces (Xatastor, multi-tenant control plane) remain proprietary despite the open-source push
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