Managed databases
Databases store your app's data; managed services handle the database server and backups.
Use for: User accounts, posts, orders and settings.
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, Valkey, OpenSearch and ClickHouse on six clouds, billed hourly per service, with always-free tiers and a $5 Developer plan.
AWS's managed relational databases: RDS for six engines on instances you size, plus Aurora and Aurora Serverless for PostgreSQL and MySQL, and the serverless distributed Aurora DSQL.
Hosted Appwrite, an open-source backend with a database, auth, file storage, functions, messaging and site hosting, with a free plan and a $25/mo Pro plan per project.
French PaaS running on its own data centers in France, with git-push deploys for a dozen runtimes, managed databases, per-second billing and ISO 27001 and HDS certification.
Serverless SQLite database built into Cloudflare Workers, billed per row read and written with no compute hours, 30-day point-in-time restore and free global read replicas.
Managed CockroachDB, a PostgreSQL-compatible distributed SQL database that survives zone and region failures, now sold to new customers as Cockroach Continuum, billed per vCPU-hour.
TypeScript backend platform whose reactive document database pushes query results to clients automatically, with server functions, file storage, search, scheduling and auth in one service.
Managed PostgreSQL from Crunchy Data, now owned by Snowflake, on AWS, Azure or GCP, with flat per-plan prices, included backups and egress, and Postgres-specialist support.
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Valkey, Kafka and OpenSearch clusters on DigitalOcean, with flat monthly prices from about $15 and daily backups with 7-day restore.
Managed Dragonfly, a multi-threaded in-memory store compatible with Redis, Valkey and Memcached, billed per provisioned GB on AWS, Google Cloud or Azure.
Google's app backend platform: Cloud Firestore and Realtime Database for synced NoSQL data, Firebase Authentication, hosting, functions and storage, with a no-card free plan.
Google Cloud's managed PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQL Server, priced per vCPU and GiB of memory by the hour, with Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions and 40+ regions.
MongoDB's managed cloud service on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, with a free 512 MB cluster, usage-priced Flex clusters and dedicated clusters that add search, vector search and sharding.
Serverless Postgres that separates storage from compute, scales to zero when idle and creates copy-on-write database branches in seconds; part of Databricks since 2025.
Open-source backend platform that gives each project a dedicated PostgreSQL database with an instant Hasura GraphQL API, authentication, file storage and serverless functions.
Serverless PostgreSQL built for B2B SaaS: each customer gets a virtual tenant database inside one Postgres, with tenant isolation, pgvector and built-in auth.
Managed Postgres and Vitess-based MySQL on dedicated clusters, with NVMe-backed Metal instances, per-environment branches and sharding for very large workloads, from $5 a month.
Managed PostgreSQL from the makers of Prisma ORM, billed per query operation and storage instead of compute size, with a no-card free plan and spend limits.
Redis Inc.'s own managed Redis 8, with search, JSON and vector features on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, from a free 30 MB database to dedicated clusters.
A Heroku-style platform for web services, workers, cron jobs, static sites, Postgres and Redis-compatible Key Value, with fixed-size instances billed per second.
French cloud provider's managed PostgreSQL and MySQL on dedicated VMs, plus a scale-to-zero Serverless SQL Database, all hosted in Paris, Amsterdam or Warsaw.
French Heroku-style PaaS and DBaaS with all data centers in Europe, per-minute billing, containers that never sleep, and ISO 27001, HDS and SecNumCloud options.
European managed-services platform running PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, Valkey, ClickHouse and dozens more on dedicated instances with flat hourly pricing.
Open-source Postgres platform that bundles a dedicated database with auth, file storage, edge functions, realtime and auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs.
Managed TiDB, a distributed MySQL-compatible database with row and columnar storage, from a free scale-to-zero Starter tier up to dedicated multi-cloud clusters.
Managed PostgreSQL from the makers of TimescaleDB (formerly Timescale Cloud), tuned for time-series and analytics with columnar compression and tiered object storage.
SQLite-compatible database that runs embedded in your app, as a hosted cloud database or both with sync, and is built for thousands of small per-user or per-tenant databases.
Managed PostgreSQL on local NVMe disks from an open-source cloud platform, run on Hetzner, Leaseweb, AWS or Google Cloud at prices well below RDS.
Serverless Redis-compatible store billed per command or at a flat monthly price, reachable over HTTP from edge and serverless runtimes, with global read replicas.
Vanilla PostgreSQL with copy-on-write branches that start in seconds, scale to zero when idle, and can carry anonymized production data; open source under Apache 2.0.
Managed YugabyteDB, an open-source distributed SQL database with a PostgreSQL-compatible API, multi-region and geo-partitioned clusters on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
| Tool | Pricing | Engines | Scale to zero | Branching | Backups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aiven aiven.io · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, Kafka, OpenSearch, ClickHouse | No, hourly-billed dedicated VMs | Database forks (Hobbyist plan and above) | PITR 2 / 14 / 30 days (Startup/Business/Premium) |
| Amazon RDS and Aurora aws.amazon.com · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, Db2, Aurora | Aurora Serverless (scales to 0 ACU); DSQL; RDS no | No; Aurora cloning and snapshots instead | Automated backups and snapshots, point-in-time restore |
| Appwrite Cloud appwrite.io · OSS · EU | Open source | TablesDB; dedicated PostgreSQL, MySQL, Documents, Vectors | Yes, serverless TablesDB billed on reads/writes | Daily, 7-day retention on Pro; PITR on dedicated +20% | |
| Clever Cloud clever.cloud · EU | Paid | ||||
| Cloudflare D1 cloudflare.com · EU | Freemium | SQLite | Yes, scale to zero, billed per row | No; Time Travel restore instead | Time Travel PITR: 30 days paid, 7 days free |
| CockroachDB Cloud (Cockroach Continuum) cockroachlabs.com · EU | Paid | CockroachDB (PostgreSQL wire-compatible) | No scale to zero; provisioned vCPUs, usage storage | Managed backups; default hourly, 30-day retention | |
| Convex convex.dev · OSS · EU | Freemium | Convex document database (relational-style indexes) | Yes; Starter is pay-as-you-go and scales to zero | Preview deployments, not data branching | Daily backups on Professional and above |
| Crunchy Bridge crunchydata.com · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL 14-18 | No, fixed plans billed per second | Forks, including to a different cloud | Included at no cost; restore from backups |
| DigitalOcean Managed Databases digitalocean.com · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Valkey, Kafka, OpenSearch | No, fixed-size clusters billed hourly, monthly cap | Free daily backups, restore to any point in 7 days | |
| Dragonfly Cloud dragonflydb.io · EU | Paid | Dragonfly (Redis, Valkey, Memcached APIs) | No; provisioned memory billed hourly | No | Manual and scheduled, $0.10/GB-mo |
| Firebase firebase.google.com · EU | Freemium | Firestore (document), Realtime Database (JSON) | Yes; per-operation billing, no instances | No | Scheduled backups and PITR, billed on Blaze |
| Google Cloud SQL cloud.google.com · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server | No, instances billed per vCPU and GiB per hour | Automated backups, PITR up to 35 days | |
| MongoDB Atlas mongodb.com · EU | Freemium | MongoDB (document) | Partly; Flex bills by ops/second tier, no scale to zero | No | None on Free; automated backups on paid clusters |
| Neon neon.com · OSS · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL | Yes; scale to zero after 5 min, CU-hour billing | Yes, copy-on-write; 10 per project included | Instant restore: 6 h Free, 7 days Launch, 30 days Scale |
| Nhost nhost.io · OSS · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL with Hasura GraphQL | No; free projects pause when idle | No | Daily, 7 days on Pro; PITR add-on from $100 |
| Nile thenile.dev · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL with tenant virtualization, pgvector | Yes, billed per query token, never pauses | Listed as coming soon | Listed as coming soon on the pricing page |
| PlanetScale planetscale.com · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL, MySQL (Vitess), sharded Postgres (Neki) | No; fixed cluster sizes billed per millisecond | Yes; each branch runs on its own cluster | Automatic; 2x disk size backup storage included |
| Prisma Postgres prisma.io · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL | Yes, per-operation billing, autoscaling | Per-PR preview databases with Prisma Compute | Daily; 7 days (Starter/Pro), 30 days (Business) |
| Redis Cloud redis.io · EU | Freemium | Redis 8 (key-value, JSON, vector, search) | No; sized plans billed hourly | No | Daily and instant backups on paid plans |
| Render render.com · EU | Freemium | ||||
| Scaleway Managed Databases scaleway.com · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL 12-17, MySQL 8; also MongoDB, Redis | Yes, Serverless SQL Database scales to zero | No | Automated; Serverless daily, kept 7 days |
| Scalingo scalingo.com · EU | Paid | ||||
| Stackhero stackhero.io · EU | Paid | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, Valkey, ClickHouse, more | No; fixed instances billed hourly | No | Daily; kept 7 days, weekly 1 mo, monthly 3 mo |
| Supabase supabase.com · OSS · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL | No; per-project compute billed hourly | Yes, $0.01344 per branch-hour (paid plans) | Daily: 7 days Pro, 14 days Team; PITR add-on |
| TiDB Cloud pingcap.com · OSS · EU | Freemium | TiDB (MySQL-compatible), row + columnar | Yes, Starter scales to zero, usage-billed | Yes, up to 5 branches per org by default | PITR up to 30 days on Essential |
| Tiger Cloud tigerdata.com · EU | Freemium | PostgreSQL + TimescaleDB, pgvector, pgvectorscale | No; hourly compute, storage billed by use | Yes, database forks | PITR 3 days (Performance), 14 days (Scale) |
| Turso turso.tech · OSS · EU | Freemium | SQLite-compatible (Turso / libSQL) | Yes; billed on rows and storage, idle DBs cost storage | Yes; a branch counts as a database | PITR: 1 day Free, 10 Developer, 30 Scaler, 90 Pro |
| Ubicloud Managed PostgreSQL ubicloud.com · OSS · EU | Open source | PostgreSQL 16, 17, 18 | No; fixed instances billed per minute | Forks via point-in-time restore | 7 days, restore to any minute |
| Upstash Redis upstash.com · EU | Freemium | Redis-compatible (key-value) | Yes; per-command billing, idle PAYG DB costs $0 | No | Manual and daily backups kept 1 or 3 days |
| Xata xata.io · OSS · EU | Open source | PostgreSQL (vanilla, upstream) | Scale to zero, ~1 s wake-up; billed per hour | Copy-on-write branches in seconds, anonymization | Point-in-time restore; retention not published |
| YugabyteDB Aeon yugabyte.com · OSS · EU | Freemium | YugabyteDB (PostgreSQL YSQL, Cassandra YCQL APIs) | No; provisioned vCPUs | No | Daily, 8-day default retention; PITR add-on |
No tools match these filters.
How to choose a database
- Start from the engine your stack expects (Postgres is the safe default) and the region of your app servers.
- Serverless databases cost little when idle but can cost more under constant load than an always-on instance. Compare both for your expected hours.
- Branching (a copy of the database per pull request) is worth a lot if you run preview environments.
- Check point-in-time recovery retention and whether backups cost extra.
- Watch connection limits on small plans; serverless functions open many connections, so you may need a pooler.
Questions
What is the best free Postgres hosting?
Several providers offer a permanent free Postgres tier with limits on storage, compute hours or inactivity pauses. The table compares those limits side by side.
Do free database tiers pause?
Some do: a free project that is idle for a period can be paused or scaled to zero, and the first query afterwards is slower. The "Scale to zero" column says how each provider handles it.
Pricing changes
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Cockroach Continuum replaces Basic, Standard and Advanced for new organisations
CockroachDB Cloud (Cockroach Continuum) · source ↗
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Remote Config fetches become billable
Firebase · source ↗
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Free plan loses email template editing on default SMTP
Supabase · source ↗
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Render replaces per-seat plans with flat workspace plans and cuts included bandwidth
Render · source ↗
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Business plan and self-serve pricing changes
Convex · source ↗