Database · facts read November 6, 2026
Neon
Serverless Postgres with scale-to-zero and database branching. Plain Postgres that scales to zero, with a branch per preview environment.
- Free plan
- Free, no card: 100 CU-hours per project, autoscaling up to 2 CU, 1 GB storage per project, 10 branches and 5 GB egress per project.
- Paid from
- Launch: pay as you go, no monthly minimum: $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month.
- Monthly cost at 1,000 users
- $0/month Free covers 1 GB and 100 CU-hours a month; past that, pay as you go at $0.106 per CU-hour with no minimum.
- Free plan allows commercial use
- Not stated
- Open source
- Yes
- Self-hostable
- No
Source: Neon pricing, read November 6, 2026. Prices change; check the vendor's page before you commit.
Best for
- Postgres on serverless hosts
- A database branch per pull request
- Low idle cost
Watch out for
- Compute scales to zero after 5 minutes idle on Free, so the first query after a pause is slower.
How Cuely scores Neon
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide when Cuely picks it. Method
- +2keep costs as low as possible. Scale-to-zero and a no-minimum paid plan keep idle cost near zero.
- +1Next.js or React. Serverless driver works well from Vercel functions.
- +1regulated or compliance-sensitive. SOC 2 and HIPAA (with a BAA) are listed on the Scale plan.
- +1a database per customer. Up to 100 free projects; branches and projects are cheap to create by API.
- +1fewer vendors. Neon Auth adds managed auth in the same database.
- −2native iOS or Android app. No phone-app client library, so a phone app needs a server of your own in between.
Neon alternatives
Recipes with Neon
- AI app that answers questions over your customers' documents · the pick
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- Consumer web app with accounts and an optional paid plan · the pick
- Casual or daily web game that survives viral spikes · the pick
- Marketplace where customers pay providers and you keep a cut · the pick