Supabase vs PlanetScale: Which Fits Your App in 2026?

Supabase vs PlanetScale: Supabase is a backend platform on Postgres, giving you a database with Auth, a REST API, Realtime, Storage and Edge Functions, with a free plan and Pro from $25 a month. PlanetScale is a database service, offering high-availability Postgres and Vitess (MySQL) clusters, Metal NVMe machines and sharding, with no free plan and Postgres from $5 a month. Choose Supabase if you want to build the app without writing a backend for auth, files and APIs. Choose PlanetScale if you already have an API layer and the database's performance and availability are what you are buying.

Facts are from supabase.com/pricing, planetscale.com/pricing and each vendor's docs, as of November 2026. PlanetScale prices are for AWS us-east-1.

#What each one gives you

Supabase project:

• Postgres database (8 GB disk per project on Pro)
• Auth with Row Level Security integration
• REST API generated from your schema
• Realtime subscriptions
• File storage
• Edge Functions
• A web dashboard

PlanetScale database:

• Postgres or Vitess (MySQL-compatible) cluster
• Production clusters with a primary and two replicas across availability zones
• PgBouncer pooling for Postgres
• Branches, query insights, automated backups every 12 hours
• Metal (local NVMe) options
• Horizontal sharding (Vitess for MySQL, Neki for Postgres)

Everything outside the database (auth, files, API, realtime) is yours with PlanetScale.

#Pricing side by side

For a prototype, Supabase is free and PlanetScale is $5. For a small production app, the comparison isn't fair without adding what PlanetScale leaves out: an auth provider, file storage and a server for your API.

#Availability and performance

PlanetScale's design is built around availability: production clusters always have a primary and two replicas in separate availability zones, with promotion on failover. Metal machines put data on local NVMe drives. Larger workloads can shard.

Supabase runs each project's database on a compute size you choose, from Micro (1 GB RAM, 60 direct and 200 pooler connections) upward, with read replicas available. Its focus is the platform around the database.

If a database outage costs you more than a backend rewrite would, PlanetScale is the stronger choice.

#Branching

Supabase branches are separate environments with their own instance and API credentials, built from your migrations and optionally tied to pull requests through the GitHub integration. Data isn't copied unless you seed it or include it.

PlanetScale branches on Vitess come with deploy requests: review a schema change on a branch, then apply it to production as a non-blocking online change, with revert. Postgres development branches are single-instance databases at $5 a month each.

#Postgres vs MySQL

Supabase is Postgres only. PlanetScale offers both. If your app already runs on MySQL, PlanetScale Vitess avoids a migration. If you are starting fresh, both offer Postgres, and the choice is about platform versus database. Our Postgres vs MySQL guide covers the engines themselves.

#What building looks like

On Supabase, the client can query the database directly, guarded by Row Level Security:

alter table public.comments enable row level security;

create policy "anyone can read comments" on public.comments
  for select to anon, authenticated using (true);

create policy "users write their own comments" on public.comments
  for insert to authenticated with check (author_id = auth.uid());

const { data } = await supabase
  .from('comments')
  .select('id, body, author_id, created_at')
  .eq('post_id', postId)
  .order('created_at')

On PlanetScale, the same feature is an endpoint in your server that checks the session and runs the query:

// your API server, e.g. with a Postgres client
app.get('/posts/:id/comments', async (req, res) => {
  const { rows } = await pool.query(
    'select id, body, author_id, created_at from comments where post_id = $1 order by created_at',
    [req.params.id],
  )
  res.json(rows)
})

Neither is wrong. The first moves authorization into the database; the second keeps it in your code, where many teams prefer it.

#Who should pick which

Pick Supabase if:

• you are a small team or solo developer building a full app,
• you want auth, files, realtime and an API without running servers,
• you want a free tier for prototypes,
• you are happy on Postgres.

Pick PlanetScale if:

• you have a backend team and an existing API,
• you need multi-AZ HA and predictable performance from day one,
• you run MySQL or expect to shard,
• you need GCP or Azure.

#Another option: StitchDB

StitchDB follows the Supabase model and speaks the same APIs, so supabase-js works after changing the URL and keys (compatibility). It differs on pricing: Pro is $15.99 a month and includes 7 days of point-in-time recovery, and Free includes 24 hours of PITR without pausing projects after a week. It runs only in EU data centers and doesn't offer PlanetScale-style HA clusters. See StitchDB vs Supabase, StitchDB vs PlanetScale and plans.

#A small full-stack app, itemized

To compare fairly, list every piece a small production app needs and where it comes from:

PlanetScale's line is cheaper on its own and may be cheaper overall if you already pay for auth, storage and servers. Supabase's line covers more, and most small teams end up below the included amounts.

If you choose the Supabase model, check two things up front: whether you need point-in-time recovery (an add-on there; included on StitchDB, see Backups), and how your Row Level Security policies will cover every table, because the anon key is public.

#FAQ

#Is Supabase or PlanetScale cheaper?

For a prototype, Supabase (free). For a bare production database, PlanetScale's $15 HA PS-5 is cheap for what it is, but you add auth, storage and hosting for your API. For a full small app, Supabase Pro usually costs less in total (as of November 2026).

#Can I use Supabase Auth with a PlanetScale database?

Supabase Auth is tied to the Postgres database of its project, and its RLS integration depends on that. You could verify Supabase-issued JWTs in your own API in front of PlanetScale, but you then run two platforms.

#Does PlanetScale have a REST API like Supabase?

Its plans don't include a REST API generated from your tables. You connect with a Postgres or MySQL driver from your own code.

#Which is better for high traffic?

PlanetScale is designed for high-throughput, highly available production databases. Supabase scales with larger compute add-ons and read replicas.

#Can I start on Supabase and move to PlanetScale later?

Yes, if you plan for it. Your tables move with standard Postgres tools, but anything that depends on Supabase services (Auth users, Storage files, RLS policies that call auth.uid(), Realtime) has to be replaced by your own API and providers. The more logic you keep in plain SQL and your own code, the easier that move is.

Comparing backends rather than databases? Start free on StitchDB and try the Supabase-compatible APIs.