PlanetScale vs Amazon RDS

Serverless MySQL with branching meets managed databases for people who'd rather not manage databases. 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 RDS

Managed databases for people who'd rather not manage databases. It's like having a DBA on retainer, but cheaper and less opinionated.

Pros

• Automates backups, patching, and scaling, so you can focus on your app instead of babysitting servers
• Supports multiple engines like PostgreSQL and MySQL, making it easy to switch or standardize
• Built-in high availability with Multi-AZ deployments, because downtime is for amateurs

Cons

• Costs can sneak up on you with instance sizes and storage, especially if you forget to turn things off
• Limited control over the underlying OS and some database settings, which can be frustrating for power users

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. PlanetScale is a databases while Amazon RDS is a hosting & deployment. We picked PlanetScale based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

PlanetScale wins

Based on overall popularity. PlanetScale is more widely used, but Amazon RDS excels in its own space.