PlanetScale

Overview

PlanetScale is a serverless MySQL-compatible database platform built on Vitess (the technology that scaled YouTube). It is designed for modern cloud applications, offering database branching, horizontal sharding, and massive connection scalability without downtime.

Pricing & Free Tier

Free Tier (Hobby): Yes. Includes 1 production branch, 1 development branch, and 5GB storage, ideal for side projects.
Scaler Plan: Starts at $29/month. Unlocks multiple production branches and higher connection limits.
Enterprise: Custom pricing for advanced compliance and multi-region deployments.

How to Use

1. Sign up at planetscale.com and connect your GitHub account.
2. Create a new database.
3. Generate a connection string (username, password, host).
4. Use this string in your application (Laravel, Prisma, Rails, etc.) just like a standard MySQL database.

Important Notes

• No Foreign Keys: PlanetScale strongly discourages the use of foreign key constraints to allow for easier sharding and schema changes. You must handle referential integrity at the application level.
• Idle Connections: The free tier aggressively closes idle database connections. Ensure your app uses connection pooling.