Picks by use caseSQL databases
SQL databases: picks by overall score
Scored with rule v2 on Oct 23, 2026, using only the numbers on this site and facts with a cited source. Referral links, site traffic and clicks are not used. How the score works.
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1st on TierDiff's overall score for SQL databases
Turso
94/100Overall score
What adds most to the score: free-tier limits 65 pts, no card to start 15 pts, no time limit 15 pts
SQLite-compatible, kept light
Good for: people who want a SQLite-compatible database for small apps. A SQLite-compatible database, and even the free plan allows many databases. TierDiff has not confirmed whether it has a Tokyo region.
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2nd on TierDiff's overall score for SQL databases
Neon
82/100Overall score
What adds most to the score: free-tier limits 53 pts, no card to start 15 pts, no time limit 15 pts
If idle databases should stop
Good for: people who want a dev or test Postgres that may stop on its own when idle. It scales to zero when idle and wakes on the next query. On the free plan that setting is fixed. There is no Tokyo region.
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3rd on TierDiff's overall score for SQL databases
Prisma Postgres
76/100Overall score
What adds most to the score: free-tier limits 47 pts, no card to start 15 pts, no time limit 15 pts
Postgres in Tokyo
Good for: people who want a Postgres in a Tokyo region and no card to try it. The free plan has a Tokyo region, and connection pooling comes with every plan. Prisma ORM is optional; any Postgres client works.
Every service and its score
Weights on this page: free-tier limits 60, no card to start 12.5, no time limit 12.5, paid price 15. Paid price is not counted yet: none of the 7 services have a monthly price with a quote from the pricing page, fewer than half. The other weights (85 in total) are scaled up to 100. Each part is scored from 0 to 100, and the overall score is their weighted average.
| Rank | Service | Overall | Free-tier limits | No card to start | No time limit | Paid price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turso | 94 | 92 | 100 | 100 | not counted |
| 2 | Neon | 82 | 75 | 100 | 100 | not counted |
| 3 | Prisma Postgres | 76 | 67 | 100 | 100 | not counted |
| 4 | TiDB Cloud Starter | 65 | 50 | 100 | 100 | not counted |
| 5 | Supabase | 44 | 42 | 0not verified | 100 | not counted |
| 6 | CockroachDB Basic | 15 | 0 | 0 | 100 | not counted |
| 7 | PlanetScale | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not counted |
See the evidence
Where each part of the score comes from: limit values with the quote from the pricing page, and facts with their source, quote and the date we checked them.
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Turso
1st, overall score 94
Free-tier limits: 92
Database size: 5 GB (2nd of 5)
…+ Support Contact us Free $0/month Databases 100 Storage 5GB Monthly Rows Read 500 Million Monthly Rows Written 10…
turso.tech/pricingchecked Oct 22, 2026
Projects / databases: 100 (1st of 4, shared by 2)
…Email + Support Contact us Free $0/month Databases 100 Storage 5GB Monthly Rows Read 500 Million Monthly Rows…
turso.tech/pricingchecked Oct 22, 2026
No card to start: 100
No card needed to start
your credit card details to your account before you can upgrade to a paid plan
docs.turso.tech/cli/plan/selectchecked Oct 16, 2026
No time limit: 100
Free tier with no time limit
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)
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Neon
2nd, overall score 82
Free-tier limits: 75
Database size: 1 GB (4th of 5)
…Postgres 100 projects 100 CU-hrs monthly per project 1 GB of storage per project Sizes up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM)…
neon.com/pricingchecked Oct 23, 2026
Projects / databases: 100 (1st of 4, shared by 2)
…card required. Try Neon Lakebase Postgres 100 projects 100 CU-hrs monthly per project 1 GB of storage per project…
neon.com/pricingchecked Oct 23, 2026
No card to start: 100
No card needed to start
No credit card required.
neon.com/docs/changelog/2026-03-06checked Oct 17, 2026
No time limit: 100
Free tier with no time limit
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)
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Prisma Postgres
3rd, overall score 76
Free-tier limits: 67
Database size: 2 GB (3rd of 5)
…per million Business $1 per million Storage included Free 2 GB Starter 10 GB Pro 50 GB Business 100 GB Storage…
prisma.io/pricingchecked Oct 23, 2026
Projects / databases: 50 (3rd of 4)
…GB Pro $1.50 per GB Business $1.00 per GB Databases Free 50 Starter 1,000 Pro 1,000 Business 1,000 Data transfer…
prisma.io/pricingchecked Oct 23, 2026
No card to start: 100
No card needed to start
Free forever. No credit card required.
prisma.io/pricingchecked Oct 16, 2026
No time limit: 100
Free tier with no time limit
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)
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TiDB Cloud Starter
4th, overall score 65
Free-tier limits: 50
Database size: 25 GB (1st of 5)
…Cloud Starter: Start for Free Free Monthly Allowance¹ 25 GiB row storage 25 GiB columnar storage 250M Request…
pingcap.com/pricingchecked Oct 22, 2026
Projects / databases: no value on TierDiff (counts as 0)
No card to start: 100
No card needed to start
No credit card is required to get started.
docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/select-cluster-tierchecked Oct 16, 2026
No time limit: 100
Free tier with no time limit
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)
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Supabase
5th, overall score 44
Free-tier limits: 42
Database size: 500 MB (5th of 5)
…Unlimited API requests | Included in free Database size | 500 MB database size per project included Advanced disk…
supabase.com/pricingchecked Oct 22, 2026
Projects / databases: 2 (4th of 4)
…projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity. Limit of 2 active projects. Pro Most Popular For production…
supabase.com/pricingchecked Oct 22, 2026
No card to start: 0
Not verified yet (counts as 0)
No time limit: 100
Free tier with no time limit
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)
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CockroachDB Basic
6th, overall score 15
Free-tier limits: 0
Database size: no value on TierDiff (counts as 0)
Projects / databases: no value on TierDiff (counts as 0)
No card to start: 0
A card or other payment method is needed to start
A payment method must be added to the account to be elegible for this benefit
cockroachlabs.com/docs/cockroachcloud/free-trialchecked Oct 17, 2026
No time limit: 100
Free tier with no time limit
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)
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PlanetScale
7th, overall score 0
Free-tier limits: 0
Database size: no value on TierDiff (counts as 0)
Projects / databases: no value on TierDiff (counts as 0)
No card to start: 0
No free tier, so you start on a paid plan (counts as 0)
No time limit: 0
No free tier
Paid price: 0not counted
No monthly price with a quote on TierDiff (counts as 0)