serverless-databases.html

Pick your serverless database — 14 options across the six categories that decide most picks

Your database is the longest-living architectural decision in any new app. The directory filters by category (Postgres / SQLite-at-edge / MySQL / NoSQL / realtime / KV), language, pricing, plus the Postgres-compatibility and edge-ready flags that decide most picks. Every entry gives you a one-line summary, a concrete best-for, an honest skip-this-if, and a paragraph of opinion.

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Showing 14 of 14

Supabase

Postgres-based platform: database, auth, storage, edge functions, realtime, vectors. Open source.

  • CatPostgres
  • EnginePostgres
  • Stars86.4k
  • PricingFreemium
Postgres
Read the take →

CockroachDB

mature

Distributed Postgres-compatible SQL. Strong consistency at global scale, relicensed in 2024.

  • CatPostgres
  • EnginePostgres
  • Stars30.5k
  • PricingPaid
Postgres
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Neon

Serverless Postgres with branching, scale-to-zero, and a deep separation of compute and storage.

  • CatPostgres
  • EnginePostgres
  • Stars16.8k
  • PricingFreemium
Postgres
Read the take →

Turso

SQLite at the edge — libSQL fork with replication to 30+ regions, embedded-replicas pattern.

  • CatSQLite at edge
  • EngineSQLite
  • Stars13.5k
  • PricingFreemium
Edge-ready
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Convex

JS-first reactive database — functions are the API, real-time queries by default.

  • CatRealtime / function-as-DB
  • EngineJS-native
  • Stars1.4k
  • PricingFreemium
Read the take →

Nile

Multi-tenant-first serverless Postgres with tenant isolation as a primitive.

  • CatPostgres
  • EnginePostgres
  • Stars0.6k
  • PricingFreemium
Postgres
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Tigris

Globally-distributed object storage and database. S3-compatible, no egress fees.

  • CatKV / Redis / object
  • EngineJS-native
  • Stars0.5k
  • PricingFreemium
Edge-ready
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Xata

Serverless Postgres with a higher-level data model layer. Search, file attachments, branching included.

  • CatPostgres
  • EnginePostgres
  • Stars0.4k
  • PricingFreemium
Postgres
Read the take →

PlanetScale

MySQL-compatible serverless DB built on Vitess. Reintroduced free tier in 2024 after a controversial removal.

  • CatMySQL
  • EngineMySQL
  • Starsclosed
  • PricingPaid
Read the take →

Vercel Postgres

Postgres bundled into Vercel, now powered by Neon under the hood.

  • CatPostgres
  • EnginePostgres
  • Starsclosed
  • PricingFreemium
Postgres Edge-ready
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Cloudflare D1

SQLite-compatible serverless database in Cloudflare's edge runtime. Tight Workers integration.

  • CatSQLite at edge
  • EngineSQLite
  • Starsclosed
  • PricingFreemium
Edge-ready
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MongoDB Atlas

The hosted MongoDB platform. Document-oriented, mature, serverless tier available.

  • CatNoSQL / document
  • EngineMongoDB Query Language
  • Starsclosed
  • PricingFreemium
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Firebase Firestore

Google's document database with real-time sync and tight Firebase-platform integration.

  • CatNoSQL / document
  • EngineJS-native
  • Starsclosed
  • PricingFreemium
Read the take →

Upstash

Serverless Redis + Kafka with HTTP API. Pay-per-request, edge-friendly.

  • CatKV / Redis / object
  • EngineRedis
  • Starsclosed
  • PricingFreemium
Edge-ready
Read the take →

The database choice is the easy half — your migration is the hard one

Picking the database is the easy half. The hard half is migrating off the previous one without losing data, designing the schema your future-self will not curse, and getting realtime / vector / multi-region right when those matter. The 30-min call is the right starting place — describe your stack, your scale, your constraints; I tell you what fits.