Supabase vs PlanetScale vs Neon: The Best Serverless Database for SaaS in 2025

In 2025, no solo founder should be managing a VPS database. Serverless databases are the standard.

But which one? The "Big Three" of the modern web are Supabase, PlanetScale, and Neon.

They are all incredible pieces of engineering. But for a SaaS founder who wants to ship fast, there is only one correct choice.

Here is the breakdown.

1. PlanetScale (The Scalability King)

PlanetScale is built on Vitess (what runs YouTube). It is famous for its branching feature—you can branch your database like Git code.

Pros:

• Infinite scale (sharding is built-in).
• Non-blocking schema changes.
• Git-like workflow for schema updates.

Cons:

• No Foreign Keys: Vitess historically didn't support foreign key constraints (though this is changing, it's still a different mental model).
• Just a Database: You still need Auth (Clerk/Auth0) and Storage (AWS S3).

Verdict: Great for massive scale enterprise apps, but overkill for an MVP.

2. Neon (Serverless Postgres)

Neon separates storage from compute. It is "true" serverless Postgres.

Pros:

• Branching: Like PlanetScale, but for Postgres.
• Autoscaling: Scales to zero when not in use.
• 100% Postgres: It's just standard Postgres, so all extensions work.

Cons:

• Just a Database: Like PlanetScale, you still need to wire up separate services for Auth and Storage.

Verdict: Fantastic technology, but requires more "glue code" to build a full app.

3. Supabase (The Firebase Alternative)

Supabase calls itself "The Open Source Firebase Alternative," but it is built on standard PostgreSQL.

Pros:

• All-in-One: It's not just a DB. It's Auth + Database + Storage + Realtime + Edge Functions.
• Row Level Security (RLS): Security is handled at the database layer (a superpower for SaaS).
• Postgres: It's just Postgres. No weird limitations.

Cons:

• Branching workflow is newer and less mature than Neon/PlanetScale.

Why Sabo Chose Supabase

For a Solo SaaS Founder, context switching is the enemy.

If you choose PlanetScale or Neon, you have to manage:

1. Database (PlanetScale)
2. Auth (Clerk)
3. Storage (AWS S3)
4. Backend API (Next.js)

You are juggling 4 different bills, 4 different SDKs, and 4 different docs.

With Supabase, you have one platform.

• Users sign up (Supabase Auth).
• Their data is stored (Supabase DB).
• Their profile picture is uploaded (Supabase Storage).
• Their status updates live (Supabase Realtime).

It is a unified, cohesive experience. That is why we built Sabo on Supabase.

We configured the Auth, the Database Types, and the Storage buckets so you don't have to. You get the power of Postgres with the ease of Firebase.

Conclusion

• Choose PlanetScale if: You are YouTube.
• Choose Neon if: You love Postgres but want to bring your own Auth.
• Choose Supabase if: You want to build a product, not manage infrastructure.

Start building with the unified Supabase stack in Sabo.