RxDB vs PlanetScale
A detailed comparison to help you choose between RxDB and PlanetScale.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
RxDB
0 reviews
4.2/5
PlanetScale
0 reviews
PlanetScale is rated higher (4.2 vs 3.9). RxDB is a real-time, offline-first NoSQL database for JavaScript applications. Works in the browser, Node.js, React Native, and Electron. Syncs with CouchDB, Firestore, and others. 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.
RxDB Reactive database for JavaScript apps with real-time sync | PlanetScale Serverless MySQL with database branching | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (0 reviews) | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | paid |
| Starting price | Free tier available✓ | From $5/mo |
| Best for | JavaScript teams building offline-first, UI-reactive apps (PWAs, Electron, React Native) that may later sync with their own backend | Teams running MySQL (or Postgres) at scale who want Vitess-grade sharding and safe, reviewable schema migrations without operating the infrastructure themselves |
| 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 tieropen source | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access |
| Visit RxDB → | Visit PlanetScale → | |
RxDB
Pros
- + Apache 2.0 core at $0 with replication, reactive queries and schema migration included
- + Pluggable storage engines keep one codebase across browser, Node, Electron and React Native
- + Mature project with a public changelog, 15,000+ commits and a documented replication protocol
- + Explicit conflict handling with revisions instead of silent last-write-wins
- + Tier pricing is published openly, including the exact free-tier limits
Cons
- - Paid tiers jump straight to $99/month billed annually with nothing in between
- - Free tier caps at 13 open collections; trial SQLite storage is evaluation-only at 500 documents
- - RxJS-shaped API carries a learning curve for teams new to observables
- - Effectively a one-primary-maintainer project with no support org behind the free tier
- - Sync backend is bring-your-own; there is no managed hosting or SLA on standard tiers
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
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new hosting and infrastructure providers, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.