Serverless PostgreSQL database with scale-to-zero and branching. Acquired by Databricks for $1B in 2026, which slashed storage costs 80%. Free tier includes 0.5GB storage per project and 100 compute hours. Launch plan starts at $19/month. Branch-per-PR workflows for preview environments. The default Postgres choice for Vercel and Next.js teams.
Our take
Neon is the modern Postgres default for serverless and edge-deployed applications. Scale-to-zero means you don't pay for idle databases — perfect for development environments and low-traffic projects. The Databricks acquisition is a positive signal: storage costs dropped 80% post-acquisition and the roadmap includes deep data warehouse integration. Database branching (a branch per PR for preview environments) is the killer feature for teams using Vercel Preview Deployments.
Product roadmap
Post-Databricks acquisition, Neon is building native Delta Lake integration and AI/ML pipeline connections to Databricks. The branch-per-PR workflow is expanding with automated branch cleanup and smarter compute scheduling.
Who is Neon for?
Best free Postgres tier available. 20 projects, 100 compute hours, scale-to-zero — covers every side project and staging environment.
Launch at $19/month is excellent value. Pairs perfectly with Vercel for branch-per-PR preview environments with real databases.
Scale tier handles medium production loads. The Databricks integration opens AI/data warehouse workflows previously impossible at this price point.
Large teams with consistent high-load workloads may find managed RDS or Cloud SQL cheaper (no idle penalty). Neon Enterprise for compliance-sensitive deployments.
Pricing
Free
Free- • 0.5GB storage/project
- • 100 compute hours/project
- • 20 projects
- • Community support
Launch
$19/mo- • 10GB storage included
- • $0.14/compute hour
- • Unlimited branches
- • IP allow-lists
- • Email support
Scale
$69/mo- • 50GB storage included
- • Higher compute limits
- • Autoscaling to 8 vCPUs
- • Priority support
Pricing verified 2026-04-16
Ratings
Overall score: 82/100 (composite of the above ratings)
Features
core
advanced
integrations
Compare Neon with
vs Datadog
vs New Relic
vs Twilio
vs GitLab
vs CircleCI
vs Terraform / HCP Terraform
vs Pulumi
vs Contentful
vs Sanity
vs Algolia
vs Elasticsearch / Elastic Cloud
vs Auth0
vs Clerk
vs Netlify
vs Supabase
vs Firebase
vs PlanetScale
vs Cloudflare
vs Fastly
vs Retool
vs Appsmith
vs Sentry
vs AWS SNS
vs Vercel
vs AWS Amplifyvs Firebase Authentication
vs Bubble
vs Typesense
vs LaunchDarkly
vs Split.io
vs Grafana
vs PagerDuty
vs OpsGenie
vs Okta
vs Microsoft Entra ID
vs 1Password
vs Bitwarden
vs Persona
vs Onfido
vs Stytch
vs Resend
vs Knock
vs Courier
vs Inngest
vs TemporalFounded: 2021
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Company size: 51-200
Last updated: 2026-04-16