#2 in DatabasesUpdated 2026-08

Neon

by Neon Postgres · Serverless Postgres with branching, auth, functions and object storage

80.3 — BenchRank score out of 100

Homepage
Pricing page

Visit website See full Databases ranking

Overview

Neon is a serverless Postgres platform built on Lakebase Postgres, which separates storage from compute so databases autoscale and drop to zero when idle. It adds git-like branching for copy-on-write database copies, plus managed Better Auth, S3-compatible object storage, serverless functions and an AI Gateway. Part of the Databricks Platform since May 2025.

Best for: Developers wanting serverless Postgres with branching for app, agent and per-tenant workloads.
Pricing: Free plan at $0, then usage-based paid plans with no monthly minimum: Launch at $0.106 per CU-hour (typical spend $15/month) and Scale at $0.222 per CU-hour (typical spend $701/month), both $0.35 per GB-month of storage.
Runs on: WebCLI

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

Autoscales and scales to zero, billed per CU-hour used
Git-like branching creates copy-on-write database copies
No monthly minimum or platform fee on paid plans
Auth, object storage and functions sit next to the database

Trade-offs

Object Storage, Functions and AI Gateway are still in beta
Usage-based billing makes monthly costs hard to predict
SLAs, HIPAA and private networking only on the Scale plan
Free plan capped at 0.5 GB storage and 2 CU per project

Pricing

Published plans from Neon’s own pricing page, in USD. Usage charges and add-ons may apply on top.

Neon pricing tiers, monthly rates in USD
Plan	Monthly	Includes
Free	Freeper month	100 projects, 100 CU-hrs monthly per project 0.5 GB storage per project, sizes up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM) Managed Better Auth, Object Storage and Functions (beta) Community support via Discord, unlimited team members
Launch	—usage-based	$0.106 per CU-hr, $0.35 per GB-month; typical spend $15/mo 100 projects, sizes up to 16 CU (64 GB RAM) Instant restore history window up to 7 days 3-day metrics and logs, billing support
Scale	—usage-based	$0.222 per CU-hr, $0.35 per GB-month; typical spend $701/mo 1,000+ projects, sizes up to 56 CU (224 GB RAM) SLAs, HIPAA, SOC 2 report access, private networking History window up to 30 days, 14-day metrics retention

How this score is made up

Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.

MCP support: 92 out of 100
API quality: 55 out of 100
Documentation: 100 out of 100
Agent friendliness: 97 out of 100
Pricing transparency: 100 out of 100
Changelog: 25 out of 100
Marketing site structure: 75 out of 100
Operational trust: 90 out of 100

Measured, but not part of the score

Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.

Openness: 60 out of 100
Maintenance: 70 out of 100

This doesn’t look right — report a problem with Neon’s score

Alternatives in Databases

Ranked 1
87.7 — BenchRank score out of 100
Supabase
Supabase · Hosted Postgres with auth, storage, realtime and edge functions
Best for: Developers who want a hosted Postgres database with auth, storage and APIs in one platform
Ranked 3
75.7 — BenchRank score out of 100
Databend
Databend · Open-source Rust data warehouse for SQL, search and vector workloads
Best for: Data teams wanting SQL analytics, full-text and vector search in one warehouse over object storage
Ranked 4
73.5 — BenchRank score out of 100
Bytebase
Bytebase · Database change management and access control across many engines
Best for: Engineering and platform teams that need reviewed, audited schema changes and query access