Published 2026-03-26 · Reviewed 2026-11-02 · Figures compiled 2026-03-26, last checked 2026-11-02 · 12 of 13 figures in the “Other Database Alternatives” table come from our records for 1,498 developer tools
100
Neon Projects
2
Supabase Projects
$0.106/CU-hour
Neon Launch — usage-based, no monthly minimum
$25/mo
Supabase Pro
Quick verdict: Both free plans include Postgres, auth, file storage and functions. Choose Neon for database branching on the free plan, scale-to-zero after 5 minutes idle, and up to 100 free projects. Choose Supabase for realtime with 200 concurrent connections on the free plan. Neon's Realtime is in beta and free during the beta.
What each free plan includes: Neon's Free plan gives 100 CU-hours and 1 GB of Postgres storage per project (20 GB in total), auth up to 60k MAU, 5 GB of object storage and Functions, across up to 100 projects. Supabase's Free plan gives a 500 MB database, 50,000 MAU, 1 GB of file storage, 500,000 Edge Function invocations and realtime, across 2 active projects that pause after a week of inactivity.
Side-by-side comparison using verified data from our index. Neon and Supabase free tiers. Compiled 2026-03-26, last checked 2026-11-02.
Feature
Neon Free
Supabase Free
Notes
Database Storage
1 GB per project, 20 GB in total
500 MB
Neon allows 1 GB per project and 20 GB across all projects. Supabase's Free plan lists a 500 MB database size and a limit of 2 active projects.
Projects
100
2
Neon allows 50× more projects — ideal for microservices, multi-tenant apps, or per-client databases
Compute
100 CU-hours/month, up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM)
Shared CPU, 500 MB RAM
Neon offers explicit compute hours with auto-scaling. Supabase's Free plan lists a shared CPU with 500 MB RAM
Branching
10 branches per project
Paid only (Pro+)
Neon includes branching on the free plan; Supabase requires a paid plan.
Auth (MAU)
60K MAU (Neon Auth)
50K MAU (Supabase Auth)
Both include auth on the free plan.
File Storage
5 GB object storage per project
1 GB
Both include file storage on the free plan.
Functions
1M invocations, 10 active capacity-hours a month
500K invocations/month
Both include functions on the free plan.
Realtime
Realtime (Beta) — free during beta
200 concurrent connections
Neon's Realtime is in beta. Supabase's Realtime is generally available.
Scale-to-Zero
Yes (5 min idle timeout)
Pauses after 1 week inactivity
Neon scales to zero quickly and resumes in ~1s. Supabase pauses entirely after a week — requires manual unpause
Connection Pooling
10K connections via pooler
Pooler included (Supavisor)
Both include connection pooling. Neon's 10K limit is generous for serverless workloads
Neon verified data: Serverless Postgres with branching — free tier includes 100 CU-hours/month per project, 1 GB of Postgres storage per project (20 GB total across all projects), 5 GB of public network transfer per project per month, up to 100 projects, 10 branches per project, Neon Auth (60K MAU), auto-scaling up to 2 CU, scale-to-zero, 5 GB of Object Storage, and Functions (10 active capacity-hours, 400 waiting capacity-hours, 1M invocations). No credit card is required. The AI Gateway (one Neon credential for models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others) is available on every plan, including Free. It requires a card and a $5 minimum purchase of prepaid credits in the Neon Console. The Free plan otherwise remains unchanged. Model prices match each provider's list price with no markup.
Neon's Free plan needs no credit card. (From neon.com/pricing, read 2026-10-22.)
An agent can create a Neon Postgres project without a Neon account. Unclaimed projects expire in 72 hours and are limited to 100 MB storage and 1 GB transfer. A person claims the project to keep it. (From neon.com/docs/reference/claimable-neon, read 2026-10-22.)
On the Free plan, scale to zero can't be disabled: computes suspend after 5 minutes of inactivity. (From neon.com/docs/introduction/plans, read 2026-10-04.)
Neon doesn't pause Free projects for inactivity: an idle database starts again on the next query, with no restore step. (From neon.com/pricing, read 2026-11-01.)
Running out of CU-hours or network transfer suspends the compute until the next billing period or an upgrade. (From neon.com/docs/introduction/plans, read 2026-10-04.)
Neon's Free plan provides 100 CU-hours per project per month. One CU allocates about 4 GB of RAM, and 100 CU-hours is enough to run a 0.25 CU compute (about 1 GB of RAM) for 400 hours, about 17 days of continuous running. All computes in a project count toward usage, including those for each branch and any read replicas. (From neon.com/docs/introduction/plans, read 2026-11-03.)
At the storage cap, inserts, updates and deletes fail until space is freed or the plan is upgraded. (From neon.com/docs/introduction/plans, read 2026-10-04.)
Neon's Azure East US 2, West US 3, and Germany West Central regions no longer accept new projects as of April 7, 2026; Free-plan projects there inactive for 90+ days may be deleted after October 5, 2026. (From neon.com/docs/import/azure-regions-deprecation, read 2026-10-07.)
Platforms that create databases for their users can apply for the Agent Plan. You must have a Neon Scale plan with a credit card on file and get Neon's approval. Neon sponsors the databases for your free-tier users. Paid usage gets up to $25,000 in credits and compute at $0.106 per compute-unit hour. (From neon.com/docs/introduction/agent-plan.md, read 2026-10-11.)
Neon gives $20 in free credits to try paid features, claimed through a promo link in the Neon Console. (From neon.com/pricing.md, read 2026-10-11.)
Neon's pricing page offers startups up to $100k in credits. The startup page describes the Databricks Startup Program, up to $200K in credits for Neon and Databricks for qualifying startups. (From neon.com/startups, read 2026-10-11.)
Neon's open source programme: Neon reviews each application and decides per project whether to support it with a monthly cash sponsorship through GitHub Sponsors, Neon credits, or both, and how much. Cash sponsorships come from a pool of at least $200,000 a year and run for six-month terms that do not renew automatically. Supported projects can receive up to $5,000 in Neon credits and up to $5,000 in Neon AI Gateway credits. It requires an OSI-approved license and a GitHub Sponsors profile. (From neon.com/programs/open-source.md, read 2026-10-29.)
After the free plan, Neon's paid plans bill only for usage, with no monthly minimum: Launch charges $0.106 per CU-hour of compute and Scale $0.222, both charge $0.35 per GB-month of storage, extra branches cost $1.50 per branch-month, and network transfer beyond 500 GB per project costs $0.10 per GB. (From neon.com/pricing.md, read 2026-10-15.)
Neon Realtime has been in public beta since 2026-10-15. It provides live updates from SQL queries without polling and is free during the beta. Compute and egress are billed under the plan; beta runs in four AWS regions: us-east-1, us-east-2, eu-central-1 and ap-southeast-1. (From neon.com/docs/realtime/overview, read 2026-10-16.)
Neon archives branches older than 14 days and not accessed for 24 hours. Unarchiving happens automatically when a branch is connected to or queried. Branches with large amounts of data may connect and query slower while unarchiving. (From neon.com/docs/guides/branch-archiving, read 2026-10-29.)
Supabase verified data: Postgres development platform: database, Auth, Storage, Realtime and Edge Functions. The Free plan is $0: unlimited API requests, 50,000 monthly active users, a 500 MB database on a shared CPU with 500 MB RAM, 5 GB egress plus 5 GB cached egress, 1 GB file storage, 500,000 Edge Function invocations, and Realtime with 200 concurrent connections and 2 million messages a month. Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity, with a limit of 2 active projects. Pro starts at $25 a month for the first project and includes $10 a month of compute credits, enough for one Micro instance.
Supabase makes daily backups only for Pro, Team and Enterprise projects, so a free project has none, and Supabase recommends exporting it yourself with the CLI's db dump command. (From supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/backups, read 2026-10-05.)
A paused project can be restored from the dashboard for 1 year. After that, only its backup file and Storage objects can be downloaded. (From supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/upgrading, read 2026-10-05.)
Supabase notifies you when you exceed the Free Plan quota. Continued overuse brings restrictions that can include a read-only database, 402 responses to every API request, or paused projects. They lift when the quota refills next billing cycle or on upgrade to Pro. (From supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/billing-faq, read 2026-10-05.)
Beyond the raw numbers, these architectural differences shape which platform fits your use case.
Both Are Backend Platforms Now
Both free plans bundle Postgres with auth, file storage and functions. Neon made Object Storage, Functions and Managed Better Auth generally available on 2026-09-17 (neon.com/blog/neon-backend-is-ga). Neon's Free plan includes Realtime (Beta); Supabase's Free plan includes GA Realtime with 200 concurrent connections.
Project Limits: 100 vs. 2
Neon's 100 free projects is the standout difference. Each project gets its own 1 GB of storage (20 GB across all projects) and 100 CU-hours/month. This makes Neon ideal for per-client databases, microservices architectures, or agencies managing multiple sites. Supabase's 2-project limit means you'll hit the paid tier quickly if you need more than a couple apps.
Branching: Dev Workflows vs. Production-First
Neon's database branching (10 branches per project) lets you create instant copy-on-write database copies for development, testing, and previews. This is transformative for CI/CD — branch your database like you branch your code. Supabase doesn't offer branching on the free tier (it's a Pro feature), so testing against production-like data requires manual setup.
Scale-to-Zero vs. Inactivity Pausing
Neon scales to zero after 5 minutes of idle and resumes in ~1 second — designed for intermittent workloads. Supabase pauses projects entirely after 1 week of inactivity, requiring manual unpause from the dashboard. For always-on projects this doesn't matter, but for side projects you check weekly, Neon's approach is significantly better.
3. Cost at Scale
What happens when you outgrow the free tier? Neon Launch (pay for what you use, no monthly minimum) vs Supabase Pro (from $25/mo).
Metric
Neon
Supabase
Notes
Starter paid plan
Launch: pay for what you use, no monthly minimum
Pro: from $25/mo
Neon bills $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month. Supabase Pro includes $10/month of compute credits.
Storage included
None included on Launch: $0.35/GB-month, no cap
8 GB disk per project + 100 GB file storage (Pro)
Neon Launch bills object storage at $0.023/GB-month.
Compute
$0.106 per CU-hour (Launch), autoscaling up to 16 CU
$10/month compute credits, enough for one Micro instance (Pro)
Neon bills nothing while compute is scaled to zero.
Branching
Included on all plans
Pro+ only
Neon branching is free-tier-up. Supabase gates it behind Pro
Scale-to-zero
All plans
Not available (always-on)
Neon saves money by scaling down when idle. Supabase bills for always-on compute
Spending protection
Usage-based billing, per-project caps
$25/mo base + usage, spend caps available
Both offer billing alerts. Supabase has a fixed base; Neon is fully usage-based
Bottom line on scaling: Neon Launch has no fixed price. It bills $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month with no monthly minimum, and nothing while compute is scaled to zero. Supabase Pro starts at $25 a month with 8 GB of disk and $10 of compute credits. Both paid plans include auth, file storage and functions; Neon adds Realtime (Beta), Supabase adds GA Realtime.
4. When to Choose Each
Decision Guide
Choose Neon if:
You need Postgres with branching for dev/test workflows, you're running many small projects or microservices (100 free projects), you want scale-to-zero for intermittent workloads. Best for: serverless apps, microservices, CI/CD-heavy teams, agencies.
Choose Supabase if:
You want realtime subscriptions alongside Postgres, auth, file storage and edge functions on one platform. Neon's Realtime is in beta; Supabase's is generally available. Best for: apps that push live updates to clients.
Consider alternatives if:
For embedded/edge databases, try Turso (SQLite at the edge, 100 databases free). For a self-hosted BaaS, try Appwrite or PocketBase. See alternatives below.
5. Other Database Alternatives
If neither Neon nor Supabase fits, these database platforms offer competitive free tiers.
Distributed SQL database. No free plan for new deployments since 2026-09-15, when CockroachDB moved new clusters to Cockroach Continuum pricing. New Cloud organizations get a 30-day free trial with $400 in credit; Standard is $0.092 per vCPU-hour. Clusters created before 2026-09-15 stay on their existing plans during their current term.
Edge SQLite — 100 databases, 5 GB storage, 500M rows read/month, 10M rows written/month free. On 2026-10-02 Turso announced that Supabase is acquiring it. Turso says the service keeps running and that databases, APIs and workflows continue as they do today.
Turso's free plan needs no credit card. (From turso.tech/pricing, read 2026-10-22.)
The Developer plan costs $5.99 per month, or $4.99 per month when billed yearly. It includes 9GB storage, 2.5 billion rows read, 25 million rows written and 10GB syncs per month. Overage rates are $0.75 per GB storage, $1 per billion rows read, $1 per million rows written and $0.35 per GB syncs. (From turso.tech/pricing.md, read 2026-10-29.)
Overage billing on a paid plan is off by default. Enabling it lets you go over your plan's included limits and pay per usage. (From turso.tech/pricing.md, read 2026-10-29.)
On the Free plan, or on a paid plan with Overages off, your databases are blocked once you exceed the limit on any single metric. (From turso.tech/pricing, read 2026-10-29.)
Databases on the free plan are archived after 10 days of inactivity. The CLI command turso group unarchive <group-name> unarchives them. (From docs.turso.tech/cli/group/unarchive, read 2026-10-29.)
Notable mentions:Turso gives 100 databases with 5 GB storage for SQLite-at-the-edge workloads. For a Firebase-like self-hosted experience, see Supabase vs Firebase. See our full database comparison for 30+ options.
6. Recent Deal Changes
From our deal change tracker:
Neon — 2025-08-14
Neon moved its paid Launch and Scale plans to usage-based pricing with a $5 monthly minimum. The Free plan went from 0.5 GB of storage and 191.9 compute hours per account to 0.5 GB and 50 CU-hours per project, across up to 10 projects. Source ↗
Methodology: 12 of 13 figures in the “Other Database Alternatives” table come from our records for 1,498 developer tools. Neon data verified against neon.com/pricing (2026-10-28). Supabase data verified against supabase.com/pricing (2026-11-02). Cost-at-scale analysis based on published pricing tiers. Deal changes tracked from official vendor announcements.
This comparison covers Neon vs Supabase free tiers as of March 2026. For more database options, see our full database comparison with 30+ free options. Browse all 1,498 developer tools at /search.
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