PlanetScale Review 2026: Deep Dive for Solo Devs & Small Teams
Free tier limits, real costs per team size, and honest "not for" warnings. Everything you need to decide if PlanetScale fits your stack.
Quick Summary
💰 Monthly Cost by Team Size
🚫 Not Recommended For
- Projects requiring foreign key enforcement
- Budget-sensitive solo devs
PlanetScale Pricing (2026)
| Plan | Price | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Forever |
| Scaler | $29/mo | monthly |
| Scaler Pro | $39/mo | monthly |
| Enterprise | Custom | yearly |
Pros & Cons
✅ What We Like
- Non-blocking schema changes — no more migration downtime
- Git-like branching for database schemas
- Vitess-powered, horizontally scalable
- Excellent integration with Prisma and Drizzle
❌ What Could Be Better
- Free tier removed for new users (2024)
- No support for foreign key constraints (Vitess limitation)
- Can get expensive at scale compared to self-hosted
Feature Breakdown
🏆 Our Verdict
PlanetScale scores 4.3/5 in our evaluation. Solo Dev Score: 7/10. It's best suited for Startups needing zero-downtime deployments, Teams using Prisma/Drizzle ORM. It's a solid option worth considering, especially for its core use cases.
See how it compares: Supabase
Try PlanetScale Free →Frequently Asked Questions
Is PlanetScale worth the price in 2026?
PlanetScale starts at Free / $29/mo. Based on our evaluation, it scores 4.3/5 overall. Whether it's worth it depends on your team size and feature requirements — read our detailed breakdown above.
What are the main alternatives to PlanetScale?
Several tools compete with PlanetScale in its category. Check our comparison section above for head-to-head matchups with the top alternatives.
Does PlanetScale offer a free plan?
Check our pricing section above for the most up-to-date information on PlanetScale's free tier and paid plans.
Is PlanetScale good for small businesses?
PlanetScale can work for small businesses depending on your budget and requirements. Review our "Best For" section to see if it matches your use case.
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