vioscaleAI
Comparison

Neon vs PostgreSQL

On the evidence we track, Neon leads this comparison with a composite score of 72/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Neon full profile →PostgreSQL full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★Neon72
PostgreSQL61
Score
vioscaleAI score
Neon72 / 100medium · 70%
PostgreSQL61 / 100medium · 60%
Pricing
Free tier
Neon✓
PostgreSQL✓
Model
Neonfreemium
PostgreSQLopen_source
Price level
Neonlow
PostgreSQLfree
Transparent
Neon✗
PostgreSQL–
Integrations
Count
Neon2
PostgreSQL6
Security
Disclosure policy
Neon–
PostgreSQL✓
Fedramp
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Gdpr
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Hipaa
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Iso27001
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Pci
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Scorecard
Neon–
PostgreSQL6.1
Soc2
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
Neon99.95
PostgreSQL–
Status page
Neon✓
PostgreSQL–
Adoption
Dependent repos
Neon–
PostgreSQL0
Github stars
Neon–
PostgreSQL22,285
Stackoverflow questions
Neon–
PostgreSQL170,000
Activity
Commits last 30d
Neon–
PostgreSQL100
Release
Cadence days
Neon–
PostgreSQL90
License
Spdx
Neon–
PostgreSQLPostgreSQL
Language
Primary
Neon–
PostgreSQLC
Market
Availability
Neon–
PostgreSQLAvailable worldwide
Content
Faq
Neon5 items
PostgreSQL8 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for relational databases. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
SQL model
NeonFull SQL
PostgreSQLFull SQL
Transactions
ACID transactions
NeonFull
PostgreSQLFull
Highest isolation level
NeonSerializable
PostgreSQL-
Consistency
Consistency
NeonStrong
PostgreSQL-
Scale
Horizontal scale
NeonRead replicas
PostgreSQLRead replicas
Replication
Replication
NeonAsync
PostgreSQL-
Availability
Automatic failover / HA
Neon✓
PostgreSQL✓
Deployment
Deployment
NeonManaged
PostgreSQLSelf-hosted
Serverless / scale-to-zero
Neon✓
PostgreSQL✗
Compatibility
Wire compatibility
NeonPostgres protocol
PostgreSQL-
Extensibility
Extensions / plugins / UDFs
Neon-
PostgreSQL✓
Licensing
Licence class
NeonProprietary
PostgreSQLPermissive OSS
Data types
JSON / document support
Neon-
PostgreSQL✓
Geo / spatial
Neon-
PostgreSQLExtension

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Neon

Leader

A fully-managed PostgreSQL database that automatically scales compute resources, supports Git-like environment branching, and includes built-in user authentication without additional licensing.

Independently observed

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an open source relational database with over 35 years of active development. It supports transactions, user-defined functions, and a broad subset of SQL, widely used for data storage and retrieval in applications ranging from small projects to enterprise deployments.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Neon

Leader
from $0.00/moUsage-basedFree tier

Free tier with 100 CU-hours/mo. Usage-based: Launch plan $0.106/CU-hr + $0.35/GB-mo, Scale plan $0.222/CU-hr + $0.35/GB-mo. Typical $15–$701/mo.

  • FreeFree
    • 100 projects
    • 100 CU-hours monthly per project
    • 0.5 GB storage per project
    • Compute up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM)
    • Unlimited team members
    • +4 more
  • LaunchUsage-based, typical $15/mo (intermittent load, 1 GB)
    • Compute autoscaling up to 16 CU
    • Scale to zero when inactive
    • Database storage with 7-day instant restore history
    • 100 snapshots
    • Monitoring with 3-day retention
    • +4 more
  • ScaleUsage-based, typical $701/mo (high load, 100 GB)
    • Compute autoscaling up to 56 CU
    • Configurable scale-to-zero
    • Database storage with up to 30-day instant restore history
    • 100 snapshots
    • SLAs included
    • +8 more
as of verify ↗

PostgreSQL

Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
macOS
Neon✗
PostgreSQL✓
Windows
Neon✗
PostgreSQL✓
Linux
Neon✗
PostgreSQL✓
CLI
Neon✓
PostgreSQL✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Neon✓
PostgreSQL✓
Self-hosted
Neon✗
PostgreSQL✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Neon

Leader
2 total
  • Datadog
  • OpenTelemetry
Independently observed

PostgreSQL

10 total
  • CloudNativePG
  • Kubernetes
  • Patroni
  • pgAdmin
  • pgVector
  • PostGIS
  • pgAudit
  • Spock
  • Cilium
  • Submariner
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Neon or PostgreSQL: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.