Best database tools for founders
Where the data actually lives. All 12 compared on what they actually cost, read from each vendor's own pricing page on 28 August 2026. 10 have a real free tier.
Supabase
Free, then $25/moPostgres you can walk away with, plus auth and storage, and the whole stack is open source if you ever need to self-host.
If you only look at three
The rest of the databases table is worth reading, but these are the three most founders should be choosing between.
- 1
SupabaseFree, then $25/mo · our pickOur pick. Ordinary Postgres with auth and storage attached, and leaving is a dump file rather than a rewrite.
- 2
FirebaseFree, then pay per useStill right for a mobile app that has to work offline. Nothing else here is close on that.
- 3
NeonFree, then pay per useA database and nothing else, with branching and scale-to-zero, for when auth is already handled.
More specific questions
The short version
Twelve products whose feature lists are close to identical, which is exactly why comparing them feature by feature wastes an afternoon. What separates them is what happens when you want to leave. Supabase, Neon, Prisma Postgres and Xata are Postgres, so leaving is a dump and an afternoon. Firebase and Convex are proprietary, so leaving means rewriting every query in your application. Nobody weighs that on day one and everybody weighs it on day four hundred. Supabase is our pick because it is ordinary Postgres with auth and storage attached, and the whole stack is open source if you ever need to run it yourself. We earn nothing on it: no vendor in this category runs an affiliate programme, which is worth knowing when you read a database comparison anywhere else. Firebase is still right for a mobile app that has to work offline, and nothing here is close on that. Ten of the twelve have a free tier. PlanetScale removed its in 2024 and Xata offers a fortnight instead. Read the how to choose section below rather than the price column.
How to choose
The feature lists in this category are close to identical, which is why comparing them feature by feature is a waste of an afternoon. What actually separates these twelve is what happens when you want to leave. A database that speaks standard Postgres or MySQL can be dumped and moved in an afternoon. A proprietary document store cannot: leaving means rewriting every query in your application. That one question decides more than performance, pricing or any feature on the list, and almost nobody asks it on day one.
You are building a mobile app that has to work offline
FirebaseFirestore's offline sync is still better than anything else here, and rebuilding it yourself costs months.
You want to be able to leave later
SupabaseIt is ordinary Postgres. Migrating away is a pg_dump and an afternoon rather than a rewrite.
You want a real database branch on every pull request
NeonBranching is the product rather than a feature, and idle branches cost nothing.
You are already running on Cloudflare Workers
Cloudflare D1Five dollars covers the database and the hosting, and there is no connection pooling problem to solve.
You need a separate database for every customer
TursoA hundred databases on the free plan. Everywhere else that model is priced out of reach.
You know you will have to shard before you are profitable
PlanetScaleVitess is the only thing here proven at that scale, and you start paying for it on day one.
You want Firebase's shape with the data on your own servers
AppwriteThe same auth, storage and functions, open source, with self-hosting as a supported path rather than a theory.
The whole team writes TypeScript and the app is realtime
ConvexReactive queries remove the websocket layer entirely. The trade is a proprietary data model you cannot easily leave.
You need a cache or a rate limiter rather than a database
UpstashPer-command pricing makes a quiet side project cost pennies. Do not use it as primary storage.
The comparisons people actually ask about
Firebase or Supabase?
Both give you a database, auth, file storage and functions in one project, so the feature lists look alike. The difference is what you own. Supabase is Postgres: the data sits in tables, the queries are SQL, and leaving is a pg_dump. Firebase is Firestore, a proprietary document store, and leaving means rewriting every query in the app. Firebase wins on mobile, where its offline sync is genuinely better. Supabase wins nearly everywhere else, and it wins by more the longer you stay.
Supabase or Neon?
Two different products that both say Postgres. Neon is a database and nothing else, with branching and scale-to-zero as the reason to pick it. Supabase is a database plus auth, storage and realtime, which is most of a backend already written. If you have auth handled, Neon is the cheaper and sharper tool. If you are starting from nothing, Supabase saves you a fortnight.
PlanetScale or Neon?
Both are managed SQL that behaves like it is serverless, and the honest split is the free tier against scale. Neon has a free plan and drops compute to zero, so a side project costs nothing. PlanetScale removed its free tier in 2024 and starts at five dollars, but Vitess will shard when you outgrow one machine and Neon will not. Start on Neon. Choose PlanetScale if you already know sharding is coming.
Firebase or Appwrite?
Appwrite is the answer to wanting how Firebase works without Google holding the data. The same shape: auth, storage, functions and a document API. The difference is that Appwrite is open source and self-hosting is supported, so the exit is real. Firebase is more mature, better on mobile, and has far more people who have already hit the problem you are about to hit at two in the morning.
An opinion about databases, held by this site and not bought. Paid placement moves a tool up the table below and is labelled where it does; it never changes what is written here.
Head to head
Compare all 12
| Tool | From | Rating | Free to try | Engine | Free tier | Self-host | Auth and storage built in | Scales to zero | Portability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SupabaseOUR PICK | $25/mo | Not rated | Yes | Postgres | 500 MB, 50K monthly active users | Yes, the whole stack | Yes | Free plan pauses; paid plans stay warm | Standard Postgres, dump and go | Visit |
| Per use | Not rated | Yes | Firestore (document) and Realtime Database | 1 GiB, 50K reads a day | No | Yes | Yes | Proprietary, expect a rewrite to leave | Visit | |
| Per use | Not rated | Yes | Postgres | 0.5 GB, 100 compute-hours | Source is Apache 2.0, but not practical to run yourself | No, database only | Yes, that is the point | Standard Postgres, dump and go | Visit | |
| $4.99/mo | Not rated | Yes | SQLite via libSQL | 5 GB, 100 databases | Yes, libSQL server is open source | No, database only | Yes | SQLite file, about as portable as it gets | Visit | |
| $5/mo | Not rated | Yes | SQLite | 5 GB, 5M rows read a day | No | No, but Workers has its own storage products | Yes | SQLite export, but the app is tied to Workers | Visit | |
| $5/mo | Not rated | No | MySQL on Vitess, and Postgres | None | No, though Vitess itself is open source | No, database only | No | Standard MySQL or Postgres dump | Visit | |
| $8/mo | Not rated | Yes | MongoDB (document) | 512 MB, 100 ops a second | Community edition, under the SSPL | No, database only | No | MongoDB dump, portable to any Mongo host | Visit | |
| $9/mo | Not rated | Yes | Postgres | None, 14-day trial | Yes, open source or in your own cloud | No, database only | Yes | Standard Postgres, dump and go | Visit | |
| $10/mo | Not rated | Yes | Postgres | 500 MB, 200K operations | No, though Postgres is Postgres | No, database only | Yes | Standard Postgres, dump and go | Visit | |
| $10/mo | Not rated | Yes | Redis, plus vector and queue | 256 MB, 500K commands | No, though Redis itself is everywhere | No | Yes | Redis protocol, portable to any Redis | Visit | |
| $25/mo | Not rated | Yes | Its own document API, MariaDB underneath | 2 GB, 75K monthly active users | Yes, the whole stack | Yes | Free plan pauses when idle | Own API, but self-hosting means you never have to leave | Visit | |
| $25/mo | Not rated | Yes | Proprietary document store, TypeScript queries | 25M function calls, 50 GB | Yes, source-available backend | Yes | Yes | Proprietary, expect a rewrite to leave | Visit |
Prices are the cheapest paid plan, annual rate where published. A price band counts a free tool as zero, and leaves out anything whose price is not published, because we cannot say an unknown price fits a budget.
All 12 databases tools
Databases
Postgres with auth, storage and realtime built in
Best for founders who want a normal database they can leave with
Databases
Google's app backend, strongest on mobile
Best for mobile apps that need realtime sync and offline support out of the box
Databases
Serverless Postgres that branches like git
Best for teams who want a real database branch on every preview deploy
Databases
SQLite at the edge, a database per customer if you want
Best for multi-tenant apps that want one database per customer
Databases
SQLite inside Cloudflare Workers
Best for apps already running on cloudflare workers
Databases
MySQL and Postgres on Vitess, built to shard
Best for apps that will outgrow a single database node
Databases
The managed version of the document database everyone knows
Best for teams already writing mongodb who want somebody else running it
Databases
Managed Postgres with branching and anonymised copies
Best for teams who need realistic staging data without copying real customers
Databases
Postgres from the people who make the ORM
Best for teams already using prisma orm who want the database to match
Databases
Serverless Redis, billed per command
Best for caching, rate limiting and queues alongside a real database
Databases
Open-source Firebase you can actually self-host
Best for teams who want firebase's ergonomics without google owning the data
Databases
A reactive backend where queries update themselves
Best for realtime apps where the whole team writes typescript