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Neon vs Prisma
Neon offers serverless Postgres only, without integrated ORM or hosting.
Which to pick
Pick Neon if you want…
- Serverless Postgres with full backend suite
- Serverless Postgres as a standalone service
- Integrations with Better Auth, Databricks or pgBouncer (on Neon's list, not Prisma's)
Pick Prisma if you want…
- Integrated ORM, DB, and hosting for TypeScript
- Open-source code (prisma/prisma on GitHub)
- Integrations with TypeScript, Node.js or Bun (on Prisma'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.
- Prisma:Prisma provides a type-safe ORM, managed Postgres, and TypeScript-focused app hosting on a single platform.
- Best for
- Neon:Serverless Postgres with full backend suite
- Prisma:Integrated ORM, DB, and hosting for TypeScript
- Who it’s for
- Neon:Developers building apps or agents that need instant, branchable backends.
- Prisma:TypeScript and Node.js developers building full-stack apps.
- Pricing
- Neon:Freemium
- Prisma:Freemium
- Plans
- Neon:Free $0
- Prisma:Free $0 · Starter $10 per month · Pro $49 per month · Business $129 per month
- Open source
- Neon:—
- Prisma:Yes
- Works with
- Neon:Better Auth, Databricks, pgBouncer
- Prisma:TypeScript, Node.js, Bun
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.
Prisma features
- Type-safe ORM. Declarative schema rebuilt in native TypeScript with full type safety and LLM-friendly contracts.
- Managed Postgres. Bare-metal microVM Postgres with per-branch databases, operation-based pricing and query insights.
- Prisma Compute. Bun-runtime app hosting co-located with the database, supporting preview URLs and versioned deployments.
- Prisma Studio. Visual data browser and editor built into the console for inspecting and editing data.
- CLI + Management API. Structured JSON output and parity between CLI and API for programmatic control.
Neon vs Prisma FAQ
Is Neon or Prisma free?+
Neon has a free plan and paid plans. Prisma has a free plan; paid plans start at $10/month (Starter).
Is Neon or Prisma open source?+
Prisma is open source (prisma/prisma on GitHub). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Neon.
Do Neon and Prisma integrate with the same tools?+
Their integration lists don't overlap: Neon lists Better Auth, Databricks and pgBouncer; Prisma lists TypeScript, Node.js and Bun.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.