8 Best Open Source PlanetScale Alternatives
A curated collection of the 8 best open source and self-hosted alternatives to PlanetScale in 2026.
Looking for a free, privacy-friendly, or self-hosted replacement for PlanetScale in 2026? The top open-source alternative is Supabase — Open source Postgres development platform.
Other highly rated open-source PlanetScale alternatives include TiDB, Neon Postgres and Turso.
Open source Postgres development platform
Supabase is an open-source platform that provides developers with a full suite of tools to build scalable applications quickly. Built on top of PostgreSQL, it offers integrated features like authentication, real-time data synchronization, edge functions, and storage. - Postgres Database: Full PostgreSQL database with built-in authentication and Row Level Security (RLS). - Authentication: Secure user sign-ups and logins with RLS for data protection. - Edge Functions: Write and deploy custom code without managing servers. - Realtime: Enable multiplayer experiences with live data synchronization. - Storage: Store, organize, and serve large files like videos and images. - Vector Embeddings: Integrate ML models to store, index, and search vector embeddings. - Instant APIs: Ready-to-use REST APIs for seamless data access. - Dashboard: Manage your app directly from the dashboard with tools like Table Editor, SQL Editor, and RLS Policies. Supabase is open-source and can be self-hosted. It is built on PostgreSQL, making it highly portable and extensible. The platform is trusted by fast-growing companies worldwide and offers a free tier to get started.
Fully managed auto-scaling SQL database
TiDB Cloud is a fully managed, auto-scaling SQL database designed for modern applications, including AI workloads. Built on open-source TiDB, it offers seamless scalability, high availability, and compatibility with MySQL. - Auto-scaling: Dynamically adjusts resources to handle fluctuating workloads without manual intervention. - MySQL Compatibility: Fully compatible with MySQL, enabling easy migration and integration. - High Availability: Multi-region deployments ensure uptime and data durability. - AI-Optimized: Purpose-built for AI applications, including vector search and persistent context for agents. - Generous Free Tier: Start for free with scalable resources and pay-as-you-go pricing. - Global Reach: Deploy in multiple regions for low-latency access worldwide. - Security & Compliance: Enterprise-grade security with GDPR and SOC 2 compliance. TiDB Cloud is a fully managed service, but the open-source TiDB database can be self-hosted for complete control. Self-hosted deployments support Kubernetes, bare metal, and cloud environments. For AI workloads, TiDB provides native vector indexing and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.
Postgres backends for apps and agents
Neon is a serverless Postgres database platform built for modern applications and AI agents. It combines Lakebase Postgres with integrated authentication, serverless functions, S3-compatible storage, and an AI gateway into a unified backend. - Lakebase Postgres: Storage-compute separation for instant scaling and branching - Built-in Auth: Authentication integrated directly into your database - Serverless Functions: Compute next to your data for low-latency operations - Object Storage: S3-compatible storage that branches alongside your database - AI Gateway: Single API for frontier and open-source AI models - Autoscaling: Automatic instance sizing based on workload demands - Branching: Faster Postgres workflows with instant database branches - Instant Restore: Recover from mistakes in seconds - Vector & Hybrid Search: Advanced search capabilities for AI applications Neon is a fully managed cloud service built on Lakebase Postgres architecture. While the core technology is open source (available at https://github.com/neondatabase/neon), the managed service includes additional features like the AI gateway, authentication, and advanced tooling. The platform is designed for high availability with automatic failover and regional replication. For self-hosting the open-source components, documentation is available in the GitHub repository, though the full managed experience requires Neon's cloud infrastructure.
Lightweight SQLite database for AI agents
Turso is a lightweight, cloud-native database built on SQLite, optimized for the era of AI agents. It enables developers to deploy databases everywhere—on servers, in browsers, or on devices—just like files, with no cold starts or wake-up penalties. - Millions of Databases: Spin up unlimited databases for every user, agent, or tenant at minimal cost. - Vector Search: Native similarity search for AI apps and RAG workflows, no extensions required. - Concurrent Writes: Multiple writers with zero conflicts, eliminating locking issues. - Browser & Persistence: Runs in the browser with WebAssembly and OPFS for offline-first applications. - SQLite Compatible: Fully backwards compatible with SQLite, extending its capabilities for modern workloads. - Always On: Databases are files, not processes, ensuring no cold starts or scale-to-zero penalties. - Branching: Create isolated Copy-on-Write branches for rapid experimentation and rollbacks. - Replication & Sync: Keep devices in sync with each other on demand via Turso Cloud. - Analytics: Monitor performance and usage across databases in real-time. Turso is built on libSQL, an open-source fork of SQLite, and is available as: - Turso Cloud: Fully managed cloud service with unlimited databases. - Embedded Engine: Deploy Turso locally or on-device for offline-first applications. - Self-Hosting: The open-source libSQL engine can be self-hosted for full control over your infrastructure. Turso is designed to scale effortlessly, making it ideal for AI-driven applications, multi-tenant systems, and edge computing scenarios.
Instant is a database solution for building real-time and offline-enabled applications, simplifying the development of collaborative products.
Instant is a database solution for building real-time and offline-enabled applications, simplifying the development of collaborative products.
Unified distributed database for transactions, analytics, and AI
OceanBase is a unified distributed database designed to handle transactional, analytical, and AI workloads with ultra-fast performance. It maintains world records in both TPC-C (OLTP) and TPC-H (analytics) benchmarks, demonstrating its exceptional scalability and efficiency. - Unified Database: Supports OLTP, real-time analytics, and AI workloads in a single system - World-Record Performance: Holds TPC-C and TPC-H benchmark records for speed and scalability - Global Deployment: Enables multi-cloud and global application deployment with active geo-redundancy - Elastic Scaling: Automatically scales to handle peak traffic demands without downtime - Mission-Critical Reliability: Powers critical systems for 400+ enterprises including Alipay - Open Source Community Edition: Free, open-source distributed database available - AI Lakebase: Specialized version for operational data, real-time analytics, and AI applications - Database Consolidation: Supports multi-tenant architectures for efficient resource utilization OceanBase offers multiple deployment options: - OceanBase Cloud: Fully managed cloud service for easy deployment and scaling - OceanBase Enterprise: Self-hosted version for on-premises or private cloud deployment - Community Edition: Open-source version available on GitHub for self-hosting - OceanBase seekdb: Open-source AI-native search database The database is compatible with standard SQL interfaces and provides connectors for various programming languages and frameworks. Comprehensive documentation and training resources are available for all deployment options.
Distributed SQL database designed for high-speed ingestion and complex queries on massive datasets, ideal for IoT and time-series data.
Distributed SQL database designed for high-speed ingestion and complex queries on massive datasets, ideal for IoT and time-series data.
Embedded key-value database on object storage
SlateDB is an open-source embedded key-value database built on an LSM tree architecture that relies solely on object storage for durability. Designed for modern cloud-native applications, it eliminates the need for local disks while maintaining 99.999999999% durability and transactional semantics. - Zero-disk architecture: Persist data directly to object storage (S3, R2, GCS) without local disks or cross-AZ traffic, reducing costs and complexity. - Flexible deployment: Single-writer multi-reader model with formally verified manifest fencing for consistency, supporting embedded or separate compaction processes. - Transactional semantics: Full ACID transactions, snapshots, and optimistic concurrency control for demanding OLTP workloads. - Tunable performance: Optimize write durability latency vs. API request costs and leverage hybrid memory/disk caching for reads. - Clones & branches: Zero-copy checkpointing enables efficient cloning, forking, and rescaling operations with O(1) splits and merges. - Multi-language support: Rust core with Go, Java, Node.js, and Python bindings for broad compatibility. - Cloud-agnostic: Runs on AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, and most S3-compatible object stores. - Apache 2.0 license: Free and open-source with permissive licensing. SlateDB is designed for self-hosting and cloud-native environments. It requires no local storage infrastructure and can be deployed as an embedded library or with separate compaction processes. The system is optimized for object storage performance and cost efficiency, making it ideal for scalable, distributed applications. Configuration is handled through standard object storage settings, and the project provides comprehensive documentation for quick setup and tuning.
About PlanetScale
The world’s fastest and most scalable cloud databases
PlanetScale provides the fastest cloud databases for both Postgres and Vitess, delivering exceptional speed, scalability, and reliability. Vitess enables horizontal sharding for massive scale, while NVMe drives unlock unlimited IOPS and data center performance in the cloud.
Key Features of PlanetScale
- Ultra-fast NVMe storage with unlimited IOPS for maximum performance
- Horizontal sharding via Vitess for scaling to petabytes of data across thousands of nodes
- Branch-per-environment for isolated development, testing, and production workflows
- Automated failover across three availability zones with high availability clusters
- Connection pooling with PgBouncer and buffered failovers to minimize downtime
- Database Traffic Control™ to enforce query budgets and prevent runaway queries
- Multi-cloud deployment options including AWS and GCP with BYOC support
- Automated backups and first-class tooling for developer experience
- Neki architecture for next-generation Postgres sharding with predictable performance
Tech / Self-Hosting
PlanetScale offers fully managed cloud hosting with deployment options including:
- PlanetScale Managed for BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud)
- PlanetScale Postgres starting at $5/month
- PlanetScale Metal starting at $50/month with NVMe-backed performance
All services are GDPR compliant and designed for enterprise-grade security and compliance requirements.