PlanetScale vs Amazon Aurora

Serverless MySQL with branching meets aws's database that makes you feel fancy without the price tag of oracle, but still costs more than your rent. Here's our take.

PlanetScale

Nice Pick

Serverless MySQL with branching. DevOps for databases.

Pros

• Database branching
• Serverless
• No downtime deploys

Cons

• MySQL only
• No foreign keys
• Free tier removed

Amazon Aurora

AWS's database that makes you feel fancy without the price tag of Oracle, but still costs more than your rent.

Pros

• Fully managed with automatic scaling, backups, and patching
• Up to 5x MySQL and 3x PostgreSQL performance with cloud-optimized storage
• High availability and durability through multi-AZ replication
• MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility for easy migration

Cons

• Can get expensive quickly with scaling and I/O costs
• Vendor lock-in to AWS ecosystem
• Limited to AWS regions, which might affect latency for global apps

The Verdict

Use PlanetScale if: You want database branching and can live with mysql only.

Use Amazon Aurora if: You prioritize fully managed with automatic scaling, backups, and patching over what PlanetScale offers.

The Bottom Line

PlanetScale wins

Serverless MySQL with branching. DevOps for databases.