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Neon vs Upstash
Short answer: Pick Neon if you want Serverless Postgres with full backend suite; pick Upstash if you want Serverless Redis & vector databases. Neon has a free plan; Upstash has a free plan, paid from $10/month.
Which to pick
Pick Neon if you want…
- Serverless Postgres with full backend suite
- Serverless PostgreSQL
- Integrations with Better Auth, Databricks or pgBouncer (on Neon's list, not Upstash's)
Pick Upstash if you want…
- Serverless Redis & vector databases
- Integrations with TypeScript, Python or AWS (on Upstash'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.
- Upstash:Serverless Redis, vector, queue and file storage platform with low-latency, durable storage and pay-as-you-go pricing.
- Best for
- Neon:Serverless Postgres with full backend suite
- Upstash:Serverless Redis & vector databases
- Who it’s for
- Neon:Developers building apps or agents that need instant, branchable backends.
- Upstash:Developers building modern, AI-enabled, serverless applications.
- Pricing
- Neon:Freemium
- Upstash:Freemium
- Starting price
- Neon:—
- Upstash:$10/month (Fixed 250 MB)
- Free plan or trial
- Neon:Free plan (Free)
- Upstash:Free plan (Free)
- Plans
- Neon:Free $0
- Upstash:Free $0 · Pay as You Go $0.2 per 100K commands · Fixed 250 MB $10/month per month
- Works with
- Neon:Better Auth, Databricks, pgBouncer
- Upstash:TypeScript, Python, AWS, GCP, Vercel, React, S3, AWS SDK
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.
Upstash features
- Serverless Redis. In-memory speed with persistent storage, automatic scaling and 99.99% uptime.
- Vector Search. Scalable vector database with SQL metadata filtering and disk-based efficiency.
- QStash Messaging. HTTP-based messaging and CRON scheduling with automatic retries.
- Workflow Orchestration. Durable serverless function orchestration without timeout limits and built-in error recovery.
- Box AI Containers. Secure, persistent cloud containers for AI agents with full shell and git access.
- Blob Storage. Global CDN-backed file storage, S3-compatible SDK and direct browser uploads.
Neon vs Upstash FAQ
What is the difference between Neon and Upstash?+
Serverless Postgres offering relational queries, whereas Upstash focuses on key-value, vector and queue workloads.
Should I use Neon or Upstash?+
Pick Neon if you want Serverless Postgres with full backend suite, Serverless PostgreSQL or integrations with Better Auth, Databricks or pgBouncer (on Neon's list, not Upstash's). Pick Upstash if you want Serverless Redis & vector databases or integrations with TypeScript, Python or AWS (on Upstash's list, not Neon's).
Is Neon or Upstash free?+
Neon has a free plan and paid plans. Upstash has a free plan; paid plans start at $10/month (Fixed 250 MB).
Do Neon and Upstash integrate with the same tools?+
Their integration lists don't overlap: Neon lists Better Auth, Databricks and pgBouncer; Upstash lists TypeScript, Python, AWS, GCP and 6 more.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.