Neon is a developer tools tool for Developers, offered as freemium. Based in United States, founded in 2021. Popular alternatives include PostHog, Firebase, Sentry.
About Neon
Neon is a serverless PostgreSQL service founded in 2021 by Nikita Shamgunov, Heikki Linnakangas and Stas Kelvich. Its architecture separates storage from compute, so databases can scale to zero when idle, autoscale under load and be branched instantly like a Git repository. Databricks acquired Neon in 2025.
Branching is the headline feature: every pull request, test run or developer can get a full copy-on-write copy of production data in seconds, and point-in-time restore lets you query or recover data from the past. Neon runs standard Postgres with extensions such as pgvector, offers connection pooling and a serverless HTTP driver for edge runtimes, and exposes an API for creating projects and branches programmatically, which is why AI agents and app builders use it to provision databases on demand. It also powers the Postgres integration in Vercel's marketplace. Pricing combines compute hours and storage, with a free plan for prototypes and paid tiers that add storage, compute, longer restore windows and compliance.
Neon suits developers who want elastic Postgres and are comfortable bringing their own auth, storage and backend logic. Cold starts after autosuspend and costs under sustained heavy load are the main trade-offs. Supabase bundles auth, storage and APIs around Postgres, while AWS RDS and Aurora give more control and more predictable costs for steady workloads.
Key features of Neon
- Serverless Postgres with scale-to-zero and autoscaling
- Instant database branching for previews and testing
- Point-in-time restore and time travel queries
- Postgres extensions including pgvector
- Connection pooling and HTTP driver for edge runtimes
- API for programmatic project and branch creation
Pros and cons
Pros
- Branching changes development workflows
- Pay only for compute you use
- Fast provisioning, great for AI agents and previews
- Standard Postgres, no lock-in in the data
Cons
- Cold starts after autosuspend
- Costs can surprise at sustained high compute
- Database only; bring your own auth and storage
- Databricks ownership adds uncertainty for some
Neon pricing
Neon uses a freemium model.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 CU-hours and 1 GB storage per project, 100 projects |
| Launch | $0.106 / CU-hour | Usage-based, no minimum; storage $0.35/GB-month; 7-day restore |
| Scale | $0.222 / CU-hour | Usage-based; 30-day restore; SOC 2, HIPAA, SLA |
Source: neon.com · checked on Oct 20, 2026
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How Neon compares in Developer tools
- Rank by votes
- #2 / 101
- Starting price
- $0
- Free alternatives
- 23
0 votes from members
Category median is $20/mo
Free or open-source tools in Developer tools
Neon ranks #2 of 101 developer tools tools by community votes and is not directly comparable on price.
Common use cases
- 1Preview databases per pull request
- 2Serverless Next.js app with Postgres on Vercel
- 3AI agents creating isolated databases per user
- 4Development databases that scale to zero overnight
Best for
Developers who want elastic Postgres with branching and are comfortable assembling the rest of the stack.
Not ideal for
Teams wanting an all-in-one backend (Supabase) or steady high-throughput workloads where reserved instances are cheaper.
Integrations
- Vercel
- Netlify
- Prisma
- Drizzle
- Hasura
- Replit
- Cloudflare Workers
- GitHub Actions
Our take
Neon is the most developer-friendly Postgres host today and branching alone justifies trying it. For steady production load, compare costs against RDS or Supabase compute.
FAQ
- What is Neon?
- Neon is a Developer tools tool: Serverless Postgres with branching.
- How much does Neon cost?
- Neon uses a Freemium model; see the vendor's pricing page for current plans.
- What are the best alternatives to Neon?
- Community-listed alternatives to Neon include PostHog, Firebase, Sentry, Auth0.
- What does Neon integrate with?
- Neon integrates with Vercel, Netlify, Prisma, Drizzle, Hasura, Replit and more.
- Which platforms does Neon support?
- Neon is available on web.
- Who is Neon for?
- Developers who want elastic Postgres with branching and are comfortable assembling the rest of the stack.
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