Tool profile
Managed MySQL platform built for branching, schema changes, scaling, and production safety.
SaaS OLTP on Postgres or MySQL with safe migration workflows
PlanetScale evolved from Vitess expertise into a broader database platform: you can run PlanetScale Postgres (managed PostgreSQL with autoscaling storage and HA layouts) or Vitess-powered MySQL compatible databases with horizontal sharding for hyperscale patterns. The product emphasizes database branching, deploy requests, and query insights backed by engineers who maintain core Vitess.
Public pricing (planetscale.com/pricing) shows Postgres entry around $5/month for single-node development/low-traffic, Metal NVMe clusters from about $50/month, and HA primaries with replicas from about $15/month in the calculator example for small HA footprints—with storage beyond included amounts (often first 10 GB included then about $0.50/GB per instance on Vitess-style docs) and about $0.06/GB egress beyond included bandwidth. Enterprise adds BYOC (PlanetScale Managed in your AWS/GCP), premium support, and custom regions.
PlanetScale fits teams that want Postgres or sharded MySQL with git-like schema promotion workflows. Compare Neon for Postgres branching without Vitess; compare Amazon Aurora for AWS-native HA; compare Cockroach or TiDB when global distributed SQL is the headline requirement.
Quick fit
Editorial take
PlanetScale’s value is split: Postgres customers buy a managed cloud experience; Vitess customers buy scale expertise. Validate whether you need sharding or simple HA Postgres—Neon and RDS compete on the latter. Watch egress and per-instance storage when HA triples nodes. For procurement, Enterprise BYOC shifts infrastructure spend to your cloud bill plus a PlanetScale management fee.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
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Pricing snapshot
PlanetScale's Base plan is pay-as-you-go with no contract. Public pricing lists Postgres single-node deployments from $5/mo, Metal from $50/mo, and a small high-availability example at $15/mo in the calculator. Vitess pricing depends on cluster size, VTGate, and storage. The first 10 GB of storage is included, then storage is $0.50/GB per instance; 100 GB of egress is included, then egress is $0.06/GB. Enterprise BYOC adds a PlanetScale platform fee on top of your cloud bill.
Alation
PaidEnterprise data catalog
Enterprise data intelligence and catalog platform for search, governance, trust, and AI-ready knowledge layers over organizational data.
Choose Alation when the buying problem is enterprise trust, governance, and discoverability across data assets.
