YugabyteDB vs PlanetScale
A detailed comparison to help you choose between YugabyteDB and PlanetScale.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
YugabyteDB
0 reviews
4.2/5
PlanetScale
0 reviews
PlanetScale is rated higher (4.2 vs 4.0). YugabyteDB is a cloud-native distributed PostgreSQL-compatible database designed for global, highly available applications. Active-active geo-distribution, ACID transactions, and auto-sharding. 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.
YugabyteDB Distributed SQL database built for global applications | PlanetScale Serverless MySQL with database branching | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews) | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | paid |
| Starting price | From $125/mo | From $5/mo✓ |
| Best for | Teams with concrete multi-zone or multi-region requirements who want Postgres semantics, a published SLA, and an open-source core they can self-host as an exit path | 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 | 2 vCPU✓ | 0 vCPU |
| RAM | 4 GB✓ | 1 GB |
| Storage | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | 0 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Data-center count | — | 19 |
| €/vCPU/mo | €62.50 | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €31.25 | €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 | AWS/Azure/GCP regions across US, EU and APAC | 12 AWS + 7 GCP regions incl. US, EU, APAC (Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Seoul) and South America (Sao Paulo) |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourcemanaged optioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi access | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapi access |
| Visit YugabyteDB → | Visit PlanetScale → | |
YugabyteDB
Pros
- + Apache 2.0 open core you can self-host without revenue caps or telemetry — real exit option
- + Postgres-compatible SQL with ACID across zones and regions, automatic sharding and failover
- + Published 99.99% SLA with a concrete service-credit table
- + One price model across AWS, Azure, GCP and BYOC; 24/7 support on every paid tier
- + Migration tooling (Voyager) and Terraform/CLI/API automation included, not upsold
Cons
- - Premium pricing: a 3-node/6-vCPU production cluster runs ~$750/month before storage, and PITR is a $25/vCPU/month add-on on Professional
- - Distributed-systems complexity remains even when managed — consistency modes and region placement need real understanding
- - PostgreSQL-compatible, not PostgreSQL-complete; extension and edge-case behaviour gaps exist
- - Free Sandbox is evaluation-only (1 node, 15 connections, deleted after 15 inactive days)
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
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