# PlanetScale vs TiDB

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** PlanetScale

| Attribute | PlanetScale | TiDB |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 65.7 (70% (medium)) | 48.5 (19% (low)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"PlanetScale is a database platform providing MySQL and PostgreSQL databases with horizontal scaling capabilities powered by Vitess clustering technology. It is indexed under Relational Databases.","source":"https://planetscale.com","question":"What is PlanetScale?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"PlanetScale is a paid product; published pricing starts at $5 per month. There is no free tier. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://planetscale.com/blog/amazon-aurora-pricing-the-many-surprising-costs-of-running-an-aurora-database","question":"How much does PlanetScale cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"PlanetScale supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://planetscale.com/blog/amazon-aurora-pricing-the-many-surprising-costs-of-running-an-aurora-database","question":"What platforms does PlanetScale support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for PlanetScale, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://planetscale.com/blog/amazon-aurora-pricing-the-many-surprising-costs-of-running-an-aurora-database","question":"Can PlanetScale be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 5 integrations for PlanetScale, including Vantage, Netlify, Debezium, Cursor and Codex. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://planetscale.com","question":"What does PlanetScale integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for PlanetScale. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as PlanetScale not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://planetscale.com/blog/amazon-aurora-pricing-the-many-surprising-costs-of-running-an-aurora-database","question":"What security certifications does PlanetScale have?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"PlanetScale is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://planetscale.com/blog/amazon-aurora-pricing-the-many-surprising-costs-of-running-an-aurora-database","question":"Where is PlanetScale available?","confidence":0.5}]` | `[{"answer":"An open-source database designed for distributed deployment that's compatible with MySQL. It provides full ACID transaction support and can simultaneously handle transactional queries and complex analytics without requiring separate systems, including support for vector search. It is indexed under Relational Databases.","source":"https://www.pingcap.com","question":"What is TiDB?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"TiDB is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. Paid editions are also offered: TiDB Cloud Dedicated, priced on request. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.pingcap.com","question":"Is TiDB free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to TiDB. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pingcap.com","question":"What platforms does TiDB support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. TiDB can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.pingcap.com","question":"Can TiDB be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 3 integrations for TiDB, including Cursor, JDBC and mysql-connector-python. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pingcap.com","question":"What does TiDB integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for TiDB. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as TiDB not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.pingcap.com/trust","question":"What security certifications does TiDB have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | PlanetScale provides managed cloud database services optimized for performance and reliability. It offers sharded versions of MySQL and PostgreSQL that support horizontal scaling, zero-downtime operations including schema changes, automatic failover, and connection pooling. | An open-source, distributed SQL database that provides ACID transactions with automatic scaling from zero to peak load. It maintains MySQL protocol compatibility and supports both analytical and transactional workloads on unified data. |
| features.capabilities | `{"sql_model":"full_sql","data_model":"relational","deployment":"managed","sql_support":true,"extensibility":true,"license_class":"proprietary","managed_cloud":true,"full_text_search":true,"horizontal_scale":"sharded","automatic_failover":true,"horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"sql_model":"full_sql","serverless":true,"license_class":"permissive","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","wire_compatibility":"mysql"}` |
| integrations.count | 3 | 26 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Vantage"},{"name":"Netlify","native":true,"category":"deployment","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Debezium","native":false,"category":"data_integration","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Cursor","native":true,"category":"development_tools","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Codex","native":true},{"name":"Terraform","native":true,"category":"infrastructure","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"JDBC"},{"name":"mysql-connector-python"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true,"category":"infrastructure","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Apache Spark","native":false,"category":"analytics","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Kafka","native":false,"category":"streaming","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Confluent","native":false,"category":"streaming","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Datadog","native":false,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"New Relic","native":false,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Airbyte","native":false,"category":"data-integration","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"AWS AppFlow","native":false,"category":"data-integration","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"dbt","native":false,"category":"analytics","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Superset","native":false,"category":"dashboards","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Terraform","native":true,"category":"infrastructure","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"CloudFormation","native":false,"category":"infrastructure","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Google Cloud","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Azure","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Alibaba Cloud","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"AWS Lambda","native":false,"category":"compute","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Vercel","native":false,"category":"deployment","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Netlify","native":false,"category":"deployment","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Hibernate","native":false,"category":"orm","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Prisma","native":false,"category":"orm","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"SQLAlchemy","native":false,"category":"orm","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"PyMySQL","native":false,"category":"driver","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Zapier","native":false,"category":"automation","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"n8n","native":false,"category":"automation","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","native":false,"category":"protocol","direction":"inbound"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Postgres","summary":"From $5/month","features":["High availability","Automatic failover across three availability zones"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Fully managed PostgreSQL cluster","contactSales":false}],"addOns":[{"name":"Private connection traffic (PrivateLink/PSC)","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"From $5/month. Private connection traffic $0.01/GB.","currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://planetscale.com/changelog/updated-pricing-for-postgres-private-traffic","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T12:36:46.926Z","startingPrice":{"amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"TiDB Cloud Starter"},{"free":false,"name":"TiDB Cloud Dedicated","contactSales":true}],"freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.pingcap.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:48:29.248Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | no | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":5,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | no | no |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | 99.99 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"PCI Data Security Standard","level":"Level 1 Service Provider","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | yes |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |

## Capabilities (Relational Databases)

| Capability | PlanetScale | TiDB |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| SQL model | Full SQL | Full SQL |
| **Transactions** |  |  |
| ACID transactions | - | Full |
| Highest isolation level | - | - |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale | Sharded | Natively distributed |
| **Replication** |  |  |
| Replication | - | - |
| **Availability** |  |  |
| Automatic failover / HA | ✓ | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Managed | - |
| Serverless / scale-to-zero | - | ✓ |
| **Compatibility** |  |  |
| Wire compatibility | - | MySQL protocol |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Extensions / plugins / UDFs | ✓ | - |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Proprietary | Permissive OSS |
| **Data types** |  |  |
| JSON / document support | - | - |
| Geo / spatial | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:01:31.325Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*