Neon
by Neon Postgres · Serverless Postgres with branching, auth, functions and object storage
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Neon
Homepage
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
How Neon markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Neon’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“The backend for apps and agents, built to scale on Lakebase Postgres.”
- Angle: Developer-first
- Hero: Abstract graphic
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Neon’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Pricing transparency
Whether real prices are published, self-serve signup exists, and usage costs are knowable without a sales call.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
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
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Neon pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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