Neon

Serverless Postgres with branching, built-in connection pooling (pgBouncer, up to 10K connections), multi-AZ HA, read replicas, and Neon Auth (Better Auth, 60K MAU free) — all included on every plan. Usage-based pricing with a $5/month minimum on paid plans.

SOC 2HIPAAGDPRISO 27001ISO 27701CCPA Reviewed: 2026-04-22

When to use Neon

Choose if

You want serverless Postgres with built-in connection pooling, HA, branching, and auth — all usage-based with a $5/month minimum spend on paid plans.

Avoid if

You want predictable fixed monthly pricing — Neon's usage-based model can be unpredictable under variable load.

Risk Flags

  • MEDIUM 350ms cold starts on Free tier — compute pauses after 5 min inactivity. On Launch tier and above, scale-to-zero can be disabled to avoid cold starts entirely.
  • MEDIUM Usage-based pricing beyond the $5/month minimum varies with load. Set autoscaling limits and monitor CU-hr consumption to avoid bill surprises.
  • LOW Free tier is generous (100 projects × 100 CU-hrs each, unlimited team members) but storage-limited at 0.5 GB per project — most real data moves to Launch.
  • LOW Database branching is innovative but workflow-changing; not all ORMs and migration tools handle Neon-style branches smoothly.
  • MEDIUM Confirmed acquired by Databricks in 2026. Post-acquisition prices dropped 15-25% and financial stability is strong, but integration direction may shift focus toward enterprise/analytics use cases over time.

Pricing (Verified)

TierPriceIncludesLimits
Free $0 100 projects, 100 CU-hrs/mo per project, 0.5 GB storage per project Scales to zero after 5 min; up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM)
Launch (usage-based) $5/month minimum $0.106/CU-hr + $0.30/GB-month storage (first 50 GB); $0.15/GB-month beyond 50 GB Up to 16 CU (64 GB RAM); scale-to-zero can be disabled
Scale (usage-based) ~$701/mo typical (high load) $0.222/CU-hr + $0.30/GB-month storage (first 50 GB); $0.15/GB-month beyond 50 GB Up to 56 CU (224 GB RAM); SOC 2, HIPAA, private networking

Hidden Costs

  • Launch pricing is usage-based with $5/month minimum — actual cost depends on compute hours and storage
  • Scale tier CU-hr rate ($0.222) is 2x the Launch rate ($0.106)
  • Snapshot storage billed at $0.09/GB-month starting May 1, 2026
  • History/restore storage billed separately at $0.20/GB-month
  • Extra branches beyond plan limit: $1.50/branch-month

Integration

Default install

Step 1: Install

npm install @neondatabase/serverless

Step 2: Configure

import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless';
const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
const result = await sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`;

Setup docs →

nodejs-express

Step 1: Install

npm install @neondatabase/serverless

Step 3: Report outcome (10 seconds)

After integrating, report back. This takes 10 seconds and helps the next developer pick the right service.

curl -X POST https://auxiliar.ai/api/feedback \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"service":"neon","outcome":"success","framework":"nodejs-express","time_minutes":5,"would_recommend":true}'

Change outcome to "partial" or "failed" if it didn't work. Add "new_gotcha":"description" to warn others about issues you hit.

python

Step 1: Install

pip install psycopg2-binary

Step 2: Integrate (~5 min)

import psycopg2
conn = psycopg2.connect(os.environ['DATABASE_URL'])
cur = conn.cursor()
cur.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = %s", (user_id,))

Step 3: Report outcome (10 seconds)

After integrating, report back. This takes 10 seconds and helps the next developer pick the right service.

curl -X POST https://auxiliar.ai/api/feedback \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"service":"neon","outcome":"success","framework":"python","time_minutes":5,"would_recommend":true}'

Change outcome to "partial" or "failed" if it didn't work. Add "new_gotcha":"description" to warn others about issues you hit.

sveltekit

Step 1: Install

npm install @neondatabase/serverless

Step 3: Report outcome (10 seconds)

After integrating, report back. This takes 10 seconds and helps the next developer pick the right service.

curl -X POST https://auxiliar.ai/api/feedback \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"service":"neon","outcome":"success","framework":"sveltekit","time_minutes":5,"would_recommend":true}'

Change outcome to "partial" or "failed" if it didn't work. Add "new_gotcha":"description" to warn others about issues you hit.

Compared To

AlternativeWhy pick it
Supabase Choose Supabase if you want a full platform (auth, storage, realtime) alongside your database
AWS RDS Choose AWS RDS if you need always-on, battle-tested Postgres with full AWS integration
Render Postgres Choose Render if you want simpler pricing and always-on instances

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