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Neon vs PocketBase
Neon is a serverless Postgres offering; PocketBase is a lightweight all-in-one backend.
Which to pick
Pick Neon if you want…
- Serverless Postgres with full backend suite
- Serverless SQL database
- Integrations with Better Auth, Databricks or pgBouncer (on Neon's list, not PocketBase's)
Pick PocketBase if you want…
- All-in-one single-file backend
- A free, open-source tool
- Integrations with JavaScript or Dart (on PocketBase's list, not Neon's)
Side by side
- What it is
- Neon:Neon provides a serverless Postgres database with built-in auth, object storage, functions and an AI gateway.
- PocketBase:PocketBase is an open-source, single-file backend offering realtime database, authentication, file storage and an admin dashboard.
- Best for
- Neon:Serverless Postgres with full backend suite
- PocketBase:All-in-one single-file backend
- Who it’s for
- Neon:Developers building apps or agents that need instant, branchable backends.
- PocketBase:Developers needing a lightweight backend for web or mobile apps
- Pricing
- Neon:Freemium
- PocketBase:Open source
- Plans
- Neon:Free $0
- PocketBase:—
- Open source
- Neon:—
- PocketBase:Yes, 61,229 GitHub stars
- Works with
- Neon:Better Auth, Databricks, pgBouncer
- PocketBase:JavaScript, Dart
Neon features
- Serverless Postgres. Lakebase Postgres scales compute and storage independently and auto-scales in real time.
- Managed Auth. Fully-managed Better Auth integration provides free user authentication per database.
- Branchable Storage. S3-compatible object storage and database branches copy-on-write for isolated environments.
- Functions. Serverless functions run close to the database without timeouts.
- AI Gateway. Single API to access frontier and open-source models at cost-based rates.
- Autoscaling & Scale-to-Zero. Compute auto-adjusts to demand and scales to zero when idle, billed per CU-hour.
- High Availability & Read Replicas. Multi-AZ storage and read replicas are included on all plans.
- Extensions Library. Supports Postgres extensions such as pg_vector, PostGIS, TimescaleDB, etc.
PocketBase features
- Single-file deployment. Run the entire backend stack from one executable file.
- Realtime database. Subscribe to live changes on collections without extra setup.
- Built-in authentication. User sign-up, login and session management out of the box.
- File storage. Store and serve files directly through the backend.
- Admin dashboard. Web UI to manage collections, records and settings.
- JavaScript & Dart SDKs. Client libraries for easy integration with popular front-end stacks.
Neon vs PocketBase FAQ
Is Neon or PocketBase free?+
Neon has a free plan and paid plans. PocketBase is free and open source.
Is Neon or PocketBase open source?+
PocketBase is open source (pocketbase/pocketbase on GitHub, MIT license). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Neon.
Do Neon and PocketBase integrate with the same tools?+
Their integration lists don't overlap: Neon lists Better Auth, Databricks and pgBouncer; PocketBase lists JavaScript and Dart.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.