Serverless & Developer Databases arenaServerless & Developer Databases
Serverless and developer-first cloud databases — Postgres, MySQL/Vitess, SQLite/libSQL, and analytical engines — judged on branching workflows, scale-to-zero economics, connection handling, safe migrations, recovery, local dev loops, and how completely an AI agent can provision and operate databases through APIs, CLIs, and MCP. Full backend platforms such as Supabase and Firebase are judged separately in the Backend-as-a-Service arena.
56 user stories · 280 judged cells · updated 2026-09-16 · Evidence as of 2026-09-16
Leaderboard — every product ranked by evidenceLeaderboard
Rank by
| 1 |  ClickHousefree-tier vs Neon ↗ | 53/100 | 23/100 | 31/100 | 54/100 | 27/100 | ★ 49.9k▲ 4.9k/yrnpm 2.5M/wkpypi 6M/wk | unclear | 20/34 verified | 29/100 integrity | ||
| 2 |  Neonfree-tier vs ClickHouse ↗ | 63/100 | 8/100 | 37/100 | 52/100 | untested | ★ 23.1k▲ 4.2k/yrnpm 2.9M/wk | $0.2/ GB-month | 27/36 verified · 1 disputed | 68/100 integrity | ||
| 3 |  Tursofree-tier vs ClickHouse ↗ | 74/100 | 24/100 | 11/100 | 29/100 | 21/100 | ★ 17.2k▲ 4.4k/yrnpm 2.1M/wk | $0.5/ GB-month | 24/36 verified · 3 disputed | 35/100 integrity | ||
| 4 |  PlanetScaleusage-based vs ClickHouse ↗ | 63/100 | 49/100 | 13/100 | 7/100 | 33/100 | npm 312k/wk | $5/ month (entry plan) | 26/38 verified · 1 disputed | 63/100 integrity | ||
| 5 |  CockroachDBfree-tier vs ClickHouse ↗ | 49/100 | 21/100 | 11/100 | 39/100 | 14/100 | ★ 32.5k▲ 2.6k/yr | $0.18/ compute-hour | 22/36 verified · 5 disputed | 0/100 integrity |
Best by user type — persona-weighted winnersBest by user type
Per persona, the product with the highest persona-weighted coverage over just that persona's stories — not the same ranking as the overall PA Score leaderboard above.
Best for platform-engineer
Neon
60/100
Runner-up: PlanetScale (59/100)
6 platform-engineer stories scored
Story matrix — every product × every judged storyStory matrix
56/56 stories shown · legend
Agent workflows — stories about agent workflows in this arenaAgent workflows
Agent ops
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent workflows — stories about agent workflows in this arenaMy coding agent can provision a database end to end — create it, fetch the connection string, apply schema, and run queries — through the API, CLI, or MCP without touching the dashboard | ai-native | fullT⚿ 8/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 | partialT⚿ 7/10 | partialT 6/10 | partialT⚿ 7/10 |
| Agent workflows — stories about agent workflows in this arenaAn agent can run SQL and schema operations through scoped tools that distinguish read-only from destructive actions, so I can safely delegate database work | ai-native | partialT⚿ 6/10 | none⚿ 0/10 | partialT⚿ 6/10 | partialT 4/10 | partialT⚿ 5/10 |
| Agent workflows — stories about agent workflows in this arenaCheaply create thousands of isolated databases — one per agent, tenant, or preview — and manage the fleet programmatically | ai-native | partialX 6/10 | fullT 7/10 | partialT 5/10 | partialT 4/10 | partialT 4/10 |
Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness
Agent access
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPoint an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productRun the product headlessly / in CI for automation | ai-native | fullT 7/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 7/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPlug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools | ai-native | n/a | n/a | n/a⚿ | n/a | n/a⚿ |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productConnect an agent via an official MCP server | ai-native | fullT⚿ 8/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 | fullT⚿ 9/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productUse an official CLI | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDrive the product through a documented public API | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 | partialT⚿ 6/10 | fullT 8/10 | partialT⚿ 7/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productIssue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent | ai-native | partialT⚿ 4/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 | partialT⚿ 6/10 | none 0/10 | none⚿ 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productBuild against official SDKs | ai-native | partialT 6/10 | fullT⚿ 9/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 3/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSubscribe to events via webhooks | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Agentic features
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productGet AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialT⚿ 4/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSet up automations that run autonomously in the background | ai-native | none⚿ 0/10 | partialT⚿ 5/10 | fullC 7/10 | partialC 4/10 | none⚿ 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDelegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialT⚿ 4/10 | partialC 3/10 | none⚿ 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productOperate the product with natural-language commands | ai-native | partialT⚿ 6/10 | fullT⚿ 8/10 | partialT⚿ 6/10 | partialT 5/10 | fullT⚿ 7/10 |
Api quality
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productExplore an interactive API reference with runnable examples | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDownload a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent) | ai-native | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productTest against a sandbox environment without touching production data | ai-native | fullX 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 9/10 | partialT 6/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productRely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedPerform bulk operations across many items at once | ai-native | none 0/10 | fullC 7/10 | partialT 5/10 | fullT 7/10 | partialC 5/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedDefine rules that trigger actions automatically on events | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 3/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedSchedule recurring jobs or workflows | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedVersion, review, and roll back my automations | ai-native | none 0/10 | partialT⚿ 5/10 | fullC 7/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Branching workflows — stories about branching workflows in this arenaBranching workflows
Branching
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Branching workflows — stories about branching workflows in this arenaReset a branch from its parent or restore it to an earlier state without rebuilding from a dump | developer | fullX 9/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Branching workflows — stories about branching workflows in this arenaCreate and tear down per-pull-request database branches automatically from CI or my deploy platform | platform-engineer | fullX 8/10 | partialT 7/10 | partialT 7/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Branching workflows — stories about branching workflows in this arenaCreate an instant copy-on-write branch of my database — schema and data — to develop and test against production-shaped data | developer | fullX 9/10 | fullC 9/10 | fullX 9/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Connectivity pooling — stories about connectivity pooling in this arenaConnectivity pooling
Drivers
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity pooling — stories about connectivity pooling in this arenaQuery over HTTP or WebSockets from serverless and edge functions with an official driver built for short-lived connections | developer | fullC 9/10 | partialT 7/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Latency
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity pooling — stories about connectivity pooling in this arenaPlace data or replicas in regions close to my users to keep read latency low worldwide | developer | partialX 3/10 | partialX 6/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | fullX 8/10 |
Pooling
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity pooling — stories about connectivity pooling in this arenaA built-in connection pooler handles thousands of concurrent connections without me operating my own pgbouncer or proxy | platform-engineer | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Data capabilities — stories about data capabilities in this arenaData capabilities
Ai data
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data capabilities — stories about data capabilities in this arenaStore embeddings and run vector similarity search natively without adding a separate vector database | developer | fullC 8/10 | fullX 8/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 7/10 | fullC 7/10 |
Analytics
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data capabilities — stories about data capabilities in this arenaRun heavy analytical aggregations over large tables fast enough for dashboards without exporting to a separate warehouse | developer | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | fullX 8/10 | none 0/10 |
Compatibility
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data capabilities — stories about data capabilities in this arenaI get real engine compatibility — the Postgres, MySQL, or SQLite dialect and extensions my existing code expects — not a lookalike subset | developer | partialX 6/10 | disputedD 4/10 | disputedD 4/10 | none 0/10 | disputedD 5/10 |
Local dev — stories about local dev in this arenaLocal dev
Local loop
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local dev — stories about local dev in this arenaThe official CLI covers my daily loop — create, connect, shell into, and inspect databases — without opening the dashboard | developer | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 | partialT 7/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 8/10 |
| Local dev — stories about local dev in this arenaRun the same engine locally and keylessly — no account or cloud dependency — for offline development and CI tests | developer | partialC 6/10 | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 | fullX 9/10 | fullT 9/10 |
Migrations schema — stories about migrations schema in this arenaMigrations schema
Integrations
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Migrations schema — stories about migrations schema in this arenaThe database works out of the box with my ORM and framework (Prisma, Drizzle, Django, Rails) with documented guides | developer | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 3/10 |
Migrations
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Migrations schema — stories about migrations schema in this arenaImport an existing production database with minimal downtime using a documented migration path | developer | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | fullX 8/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 3/10 |
| Migrations schema — stories about migrations schema in this arenaShip schema changes safely — online DDL, deploy requests, or branch-and-merge workflows — without locking or breaking production | developer | partialX 5/10 | disputedD 5/10 | partialX 7/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesDo everything through the API that I can do in the UI | ai-native | fullT⚿ 8/10 | partialT⚿ 6/10 | partialT 6/10 | partialT 6/10 | partialT⚿ 5/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesExport all of my data in open formats and leave | ai-native | partialC 5/10 | disputedD 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | disputedD 4/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesRead the product's source under an open license | ai-native | fullC 8/10 | partialT 5/10 | none 0/10 | fullT 7/10 | disputedD 4/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesSelf-host the core product | ai-native | partialX 6/10 | partialT 7/10 | none 0/10 | fullT 8/10 | fullT 9/10 |
Operations insights — stories about operations insights in this arenaOperations insights
Cost controls
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations insights — stories about operations insights in this arenaSet spend caps or usage alerts so a runaway query or traffic spike cannot produce a surprise bill | founder | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 3/10 |
Insights
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations insights — stories about operations insights in this arenaSee slow queries, index recommendations, and performance metrics in a built-in insights view | platform-engineer | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | fullX 9/10 | partialC 2/10 | partialC 3/10 |
Pricing plans — plan structure and value — what each tier costs and what it unlocksPricing plans
Pricing
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing plans — plan structure and value — what each tier costs and what it unlocksA genuinely usable free tier lets me run real prototypes before paying | founder | fullX 8/10 | fullX 7/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | disputedD 5/10 |
| Pricing plans — plan structure and value — what each tier costs and what it unlocksPublished per-unit pricing for compute, storage, and traffic lets me predict my bill before committing | founder | disputedD 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 4/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 |
Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesChoose where my data is stored (region/residency) | ai-native | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 6/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrevent my data from being used to train AI models | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesControl data retention and deletion | ai-native | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesOpt out of telemetry and usage tracking | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 |
Reliability recovery — stories about reliability recovery in this arenaReliability recovery
Availability
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability recovery — stories about reliability recovery in this arenaAdd read replicas and rely on documented high-availability and failover behavior | platform-engineer | partialC 5/10 | partialC 5/10 | fullX 7/10 | partialX 3/10 | partialX 6/10 |
Recovery
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability recovery — stories about reliability recovery in this arenaAutomatic backups run on a schedule I can see and configure, and restores are self-serve | founder | partialC 5/10 | partialC 4/10 | fullC 7/10 | partialC 3/10 | disputedD 4/10 |
| Reliability recovery — stories about reliability recovery in this arenaRestore or branch the database to any point in time within the retention window to recover from bad writes | platform-engineer | fullX 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 6/10 |
Serverless scale — stories about serverless scale in this arenaServerless scale
Elasticity
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serverless scale — stories about serverless scale in this arenaCompute autoscales up and down with load automatically, without manual resizes or downtime | platform-engineer | fullX 8/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 4/10 | fullX 7/10 | partialC 5/10 |
| Serverless scale — stories about serverless scale in this arenaIdle databases scale to zero so prototypes and side projects cost nothing while the data stays durable | founder | fullX 9/10 | none 0/10 | partialX 3/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 7/10 |
Provisioning
| Story | Persona | Neon | Turso | PlanetScale | ClickHouse | CockroachDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serverless scale — stories about serverless scale in this arenaCreate a ready-to-connect database in seconds through the CLI or API without capacity planning | developer | fullT 9/10 | fullT 9/10 | partialX 6/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullT 7/10 |
Verdict✓ fullclear evidence~ partialwith caveats! disputedevidence conflicts— noneno evidence foundn/aquestion doesn't apply to this kind of product
ProofT probedtested by usX communityusers back itC claimedvendor claim onlyD contradictedevidence disagrees⚿ auth-gatedprobe hit a live sign-in wall — verified reachable, untestable keylessly
quality 0–10 · PA Score /100 · A–D = evidence confidence · full guideAdjacent arenas — categories often shopped togetherAdjacent arenas
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