Comparison
Neon vs Selfhost.dev
Neon and Selfhost.dev both run managed PostgreSQL, but on opposite models: Neon is usage-based serverless that scales to zero, while Selfhost.dev is a fixed, always-on instance with no cold starts and storage over 4x cheaper ($0.08 vs $0.35 per GB). For steady production workloads, Selfhost.dev is the cheaper, more predictable Neon alternative.
In one line: choose Neon for scale-to-zero and ephemeral workloads; choose Selfhost.dev for cheaper, predictable, always-on production Postgres.
Neon storage is $0.35/GB-month, over 4x Selfhost.dev's $0.08/GB (gp3)
Predictable bills vs Neon's usage-based billing that can spike unexpectedly. Selfhost.dev is prepaid, so resources pause at a $0 balance instead of billing an overage.
Selfhost.dev databases are always on. Neon auto-suspends with 0.5-3s wake time.
Pricing
Neon vs Selfhost.dev:
Real-World Cost Comparison
A direct Neon PostgreSQL price comparison across three common configurations. Neon is usage-based and autoscales, so the figures below assume sustained, always-on use at each size; a real Neon bill varies with load. Selfhost.dev is fixed pay-as-you-go, no tier fee. For the full breakdown, see how Neon pricing actually works.
Small always-on DB
2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 20 GB storage
Production
4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 100 GB storage
Dev/test (scales to zero)
Ephemeral, intermittent usage
Neon wins for scale-to-zero use cases, if your database is idle 95% of the time, usage-based billing is cheaper.
Features
Side by side.
No spin.
Here's how the full Neon cost picture compares feature-for-feature against Selfhost.dev.
| Feature | Selfhost.dev | Neon |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go, fixed rate | Usage-based (per CU-hour + GB) |
| Storage cost | $0.08/GB/mo (gp3) | $0.35/GB/mo |
| Cold starts | None (always on) | Yes (0.5-3s wake) |
| BYOC | Yes (your AWS) | No |
| AI management | 189 MCP tools | 20+ MCP tools |
| Branching | Database forking | Instant branching (all plans) |
| PITR | Included (pay WAL storage) | 6hr (Free) to 30-day (Scale) |
| Connection pooling | Included (PgBouncer) | Built-in pooler |
| Autoscaling | Instance-level | CU-level (all paid plans) |
| Regions | AWS worldwide | 8 AWS regions |
| Instance control | Full (choose type) | None (CU abstraction) |
| Multi-AZ / HA | Multi-AZ standby | Read replicas on paid plans |
| Encryption | At rest (AWS KMS) + in transit | At rest + in transit |
| Egress | $0.15/GB beyond the included allowance | $0.10/GB after 100 GB |
Deep dives
The details
that matter.
The Neon Storage Cost Problem
Neon storage is a flat $0.35/GB-month, versus Selfhost.dev's $0.08/GB (gp3), over 4x cheaper. That gap compounds as your data grows, so Selfhost.dev stays cheaper and more predictable, especially for storage-heavy, always-on databases.
Usage-Based Bill Anxiety
Neon pricing is usage-based, your bill changes every month based on traffic. A single traffic spike can double your compute cost without warning. Keeping an 8-vCPU database online 24/7 burns 5,840 CU-hours monthly, quickly eclipsing Neon's Scale plan allowance. Neon is expensive for sustained, always-on workloads. Selfhost.dev charges a fixed hourly rate you pay as you go, you know exactly what you'll pay before you provision.
That month-to-month swing has a name: we call it Bill Variance and Neon's usage-based model scores high on it. See what your own workload would cost on our Bill Variance calculator.
When Neon Makes Sense
Neon's scale-to-zero is genuinely useful for: CI/CD preview databases, ephemeral dev environments and hobby projects that run intermittently. If your database is idle 95% of the time, Neon's usage-based model wins. But for always-on production workloads, Selfhost.dev is significantly cheaper.
Comparing Neon against Supabase too? See our full Neon vs Supabase comparison.
Branching vs Forking
Neon's instant branching is a standout feature, create a copy-on-write branch of your production database in seconds for testing. Selfhost.dev offers database forking which creates a full copy. Neon's branching is faster and cheaper for ephemeral use; Selfhost.dev's forking creates a fully independent database.
Comparing other platforms? See Selfhost.dev vs Supabase and vs AWS RDS or explore Selfhost.dev managed PostgreSQL.
Migration
Switching from Neon?
We migrate you, free.
There is no migration tool to fight with, because you get people instead. A Selfhost.dev engineer plans and runs the move with you, end to end, at no extra cost.
Your Neon project, data size and Postgres version: the free cost audit form is enough. You get the exact fixed monthly number and a migration plan before anything moves.
Neon supports logical replication out, so we sync your data live to an always-on instance and cut over with near-zero downtime; small databases move even more simply with pg_dump and restore. You keep full access the whole time.
We verify a restore on the new instance first and you flip the connection string only when you are satisfied. From that moment: no cold starts and a bill that does not move with traffic.
Free on every plan size. If the numbers do not work for you, you keep the breakdown.
Based on this page: ยท
On now or still deciding?
What's the bill you're looking at?
Roughly how much a month, all in?
Matched to RDS, we bill 3.0x less in ap-south-1 (Mumbai) and 2.1x less in us-east-1.
2 vCPU / 4 GB with 20 GB: $24.54/mo in Mumbai, $35.27/mo in us-east-1, against an estimated $73.75/mo on RDS.
See a real RDS bill, before and after →Neon meters compute hours and sleeps. We bill one fixed hourly rate and never sleep.
{price} Same number in a quiet month and a launch month.
Price your size →Two ways off the Supabase bill and you can keep the Supabase stack.
Self-host Supabase on a project server from about $0.02/hr or move just the database to a dedicated Postgres. {price}
How self-hosted Supabase works here →An enterprise client is moving production ClickHouse to us at up to 60% less.
Worked example: off ClickHouse Cloud Scale to always-on managed ClickHouse, $891.86 to $364.03 a month, 59%.
See the ClickHouse bill, before and after →A PaaS bills per service. A project server is one bill for everything on it.
Worked example: a studio consolidated client hosting onto project servers, $390.00 to $82.66 a month, 78%.
See that bill, before and after →A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{price} Postgres and MySQL price the same.
Price your size →A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{price}
Price your size →A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{price} Pay-as-you-go credits, top up from $5, no plan tiers.
Price your size →Most setups map onto two shapes: dedicated databases on AWS and a project server for everything else.
{price} Project servers from about $0.02/hr.
Price your size →Under $200 a month, the calculator beats a human reply. Price it there first.
What's it for?
Where do your users mostly sit?
Dedicated managed Postgres or MySQL, with point-in-time restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{region} If you need scale-to-zero or instant branching, Neon fits better than we do.
What managed Postgres includes →Managed ClickHouse for events at volume or TimescaleDB on managed Postgres for time-series next to your app data.
Worked example: off ClickHouse Cloud Scale, $891.86 to $364.03 a month, 59%. {region}
See the ClickHouse bill, before and after →pgvector on managed Postgres: one database instead of a second vendor.
{region} TimescaleDB is one click away on the same instance if you also have time-series.
When a dedicated vector DB is worth it →A project server from about $0.02/hr: push to GitHub and it deploys, several apps and their databases on one box.
Auto-deploy on push, PR previews, custom domains. The $5 welcome credit covers the start of it, no card and you can pause it to $0.
How Projects work →Project servers: many sites per server, one bill.
Worked example: a studio consolidated client hosting, $390.00 to $82.66 a month, 78%.
See that bill, before and after →Most things fit dedicated databases on AWS plus a project server for the apps.
{region}
See it in the live demo →What are you trying to do?
Which editor?
We migrate you, free, on every plan size.
An engineer runs it with you: match the instance, replicate or dump and restore, test the restore, cut over.
See one migration, step by step →The Supabase stack, one click, on a server of your own.
One click from the template, on a project server from about $0.02/hr. Nothing to build or wire up.
The Supabase deploy guide →Paste one config and your editor can run the whole backend.
Run it once, sign in when the browser opens and all 189 tools register.
An hourly instance you pause when done.
Restore a snapshot into a second instance, point staging at it, pause it when idle.
Price a small instance →Push to GitHub and it's live: auto-deploy, PR previews, custom domains.
A project server from about $0.02/hr runs several apps and their databases.
Deploy guides by framework →The one that matters most:
A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Project servers from about $0.02 an hour.
The smallest dedicated Postgres, a t4g.nano with 1 GB, is about $5.34 a month in ap-south-1 (Mumbai) and about $6.41 in us-east-1 and the $5 welcome credit covers its first days. Pay-as-you-go credits, top up from $5, no tiers.
Price your size →When production needs help, you talk to the engineers who run it and a founder reads every request.
Outages, restores, performance issues and migrations reach the people operating the platform. No response-time promise or uptime percentage we cannot prove.
How support and recovery work →Failover, point-in-time restore and backups cover the common ways a database fails.
Multi-AZ failover is a toggle on every engine, Postgres and MySQL add point-in-time restore and all engines get automated backups, live metrics and alerts.
The reliability and recovery details →We migrate you, free. An engineer plans and runs the move with you.
Match the instance, replicate or dump and restore, test the restore, cut over. Any plan size, no extra cost.
See one migration, step by step →Run it in your own AWS account with BYOC, in the region you need.
Encryption in transit and at rest on every managed instance. We do not hold SOC 2 or HIPAA today and we will say so before you spend an hour.
What we can and cannot certify →Fair enough. The live demo is the fastest way to see it.
Or claim $5 to start, no card needed.
Watch the live demo →Our founder
You've already sent us your setup from this browser. A founder will reply to it; no need to send it twice.
Got it. I'll reply to within two working days, from my own inbox.
Noted. One note when it changes, nothing else.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Neon cost for an always-on production PostgreSQL database?
Why is Neon storage so expensive compared to Selfhost.dev?
Is Neon pricing predictable for production workloads?
How does Neon pricing compare to Selfhost.dev for a small database?
When is Neon cheaper than Selfhost.dev?
Does Neon have MCP tools for database management?
Is Selfhost.dev a good Neon alternative for production PostgreSQL?
Does Selfhost.dev have cold starts like Neon?
How does Neon branching compare to Selfhost.dev forking?
Does Selfhost.dev offer BYOC? Does Neon?
How much can I save on storage by switching from Neon to Selfhost.dev?
What regions does Selfhost.dev support compared to Neon?
How do I migrate from Neon to Selfhost.dev?
The best Neon alternative.
Predictable pricing. Always on.
Deploy production PostgreSQL with predictable pricing that beats Neon for always-on workloads, cheaper storage, no cold starts and AWS regions worldwide.