Compare
Selfhost.dev vs
PlanetScaleSelfhost.dev and PlanetScale both run managed PostgreSQL, but the entry machines are very different. PlanetScale's entry is a 1/16 vCPU slice at $5, $7 once you keep a realistic 20 GB; Selfhost.dev's smallest is a t4g.micro with 2 burstable vCPU and 1 GB of RAM, $10.44/mo with 20 GB in ap-south-1 (Mumbai), with every feature on. And you can try it first: a $5 signup credit, no card needed, to spend on a real database before you spend anything.
TL;DR
The short
version.
At a realistic 20 GB, PlanetScale is $7/mo for a 1/16 vCPU slice. Selfhost.dev is $10.44/mo in Mumbai with 2 burstable vCPU, twice the RAM and every feature on.
PlanetScale charges before the instance runs. Selfhost.dev gives a $5 credit at signup (no card needed), so you run a real database before you spend anything.
239 AI-powered MCP tools included. PlanetScale's own MCP server stops at 16 database tools.
Pricing comparison
Same money,
more machine.
PlanetScale's entry looks like $5, but that is a 1/16 vCPU slice at 10 GB. At the 20 GB you should really keep, it is $7. Selfhost.dev is prepaid and pay-as-you-go; stop the database and its compute stops billing.
Entry (10 GB)
- 1/16 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB
- Pay before the instance runs
- t4g.micro: 2 burstable vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB, in Mumbai
- $11.52 in us-east-1
- $5 credit at signup, no card needed
- All features included
Realistic floor (20 GB)
- 1/16 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB
- t4g.micro: 2 burstable vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB, in Mumbai
- $12.60 in us-east-1
Feature by feature
Full
comparison.
| Feature | Selfhost.dev | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | from $8.10 in Mumbai (2 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | $5 (1/16 vCPU, 10 GB) |
| At 20 GB storage | $10.44/mo in Mumbai | $7/mo |
| vCPU at entry | 2 vCPU | 1/16 vCPU |
| Free to start | $5 credit at signup, no card needed | Pay-first, no credit |
| BYOC (your own AWS) | Yes, transparent management fee | Enterprise only (custom) |
| Clouds & regions | AWS, worldwide | AWS (12), Google Cloud (7) |
| Storage autoscale | Yes | Yes (EBS) |
| High availability | Multi-AZ standby | Multi-AZ |
| Scheduled auto start/stop | Included | No |
| Database branching | Forking (PITR clone) | Yes (signature) |
| Encryption | At rest (AWS KMS) + client TLS you switch on | At rest + in transit |
| AI management | 239 MCP tools | 16 MCP tools |
Deep dive
Where the
differences matter.
Feel it work before you spend
PlanetScale charges you before the instance runs. Selfhost.dev grants a $5 welcome credit the moment you sign up, no card needed, to spend on a real database. You get to feel a live database work before you spend anything.
More machine for less money
At the 20 GB storage most production databases should keep, PlanetScale is $7/mo for a 1/16 vCPU slice. Selfhost.dev is $10.44/mo in Mumbai for 2 burstable vCPU and twice the RAM, with backups, alerting and pooling handled from the start, so nobody has to be the DBA. PlanetScale's regions are also limited: AWS in 12, Google Cloud in 7, versus AWS worldwide. And the model cannot be pulled out from under you: prepaid credits with no tiers to deprecate, no invoice after the fact and BYOC that keeps the exit path in your own AWS account. Comparing other managed Postgres options? See Selfhost.dev vs DigitalOcean and Selfhost.dev vs Aiven.
Two real reasons to pick PlanetScale
Pick PlanetScale if you need Google Cloud (Selfhost.dev runs on AWS only) or if its database branching workflow is central to how you ship. Those are genuine strengths. Multi-AZ and storage autoscale are not differentiators, Selfhost.dev has both. If neither Google Cloud nor branching is a must-have, Selfhost.dev gives you 2 burstable vCPU and twice the RAM, a free start and 239 MCP tools to drive it all from your AI editor. Whichever engine you are on, Selfhost.dev also runs managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, ClickHouse, OpenSearch and Kafka on one account.
Migration
Switching from PlanetScale?
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 PlanetScale setup, data size and engine version: the free cost audit form is enough. You get the exact monthly number and a migration plan before anything moves.
PlanetScale's Postgres moves with standard tooling: pg_dump and restore or logical replication for a near-zero-downtime cutover. Coming from PlanetScale's MySQL side instead? Our managed MySQL takes a mysqldump or replication-based move the same way.
We verify a restore on the new instance first and you flip the connection string only when you are satisfied, onto a dedicated instance in the AWS region of your choice.
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 managed server: a European 8 GB server is $0.03/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 →Managed PostgreSQL from $8.10 a month in Mumbai. 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 →Managed PostgreSQL from $8.10 a month in Mumbai. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{price}
Price your size →Managed PostgreSQL from $8.10 a month in Mumbai. 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 in Europe.
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 in Europe: 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 needed; it bills by the hour.
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. A European 8 GB server is $0.03/hr. Nothing to build or wire up.
Self-hosted Supabase in one click →Paste one config and your editor can run the whole backend.
Run it once, sign in when the browser opens and all 239 tools register.
An hourly instance you stop when you are done.
Restore a snapshot into a second instance, point staging at it and stop it when idle: only its storage bills while it is stopped.
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 in Europe runs several apps and their databases.
Deploy guides by framework →The one that matters most:
Managed PostgreSQL from $8.10 a month in Mumbai. Project servers from about $0.02 an hour in Europe.
The smallest dedicated Postgres, a 1 GB t4g.micro with 1 GB of storage, is $8.10 a month in ap-south-1 (Mumbai) and $10.55 in us-east-1; the $5 welcome credit goes toward it. 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 Postgres, MySQL, Redis and ClickHouse and a cluster you pick at create on OpenSearch; Postgres and MySQL add point-in-time restore and every engine gets 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 at rest on every managed instance; client TLS is a switch on PostgreSQL, MySQL and ClickHouse and always on for OpenSearch. 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.