At a glance — Oct 2026
Updated 2026-10-27 · forward this page: /jtbds/serverless-db#briefScores as of 2026-09-14 (43 days old; Depot marks scores stale after 30 days). The pick is still Depot's current editorial pick; it has not been re-reviewed since. Prices below carry their own dates.
- Depot Pick
- Neon · 8.59/10 for this job (curated estimate, high confidence)
dx + pricePerf + capability branching.
- Runner-up
- Supabase (pgvector) · 8.64/10
Scores higher than the pick on: Price / performance, Maturity / track record.
- When not to use the pick
- Want Auth+Storage+Realtime suite — Supabase.
- Lock-in / migration
- Nothing stored (no_stored_migration_data).
- Sourced price (no comparable unit)
Pick: no sourced price in this job's unit (no_matching_sourced_price).
No cheapest SKU (no_comparable_unit_for_job). No price was invented.
- Free option
- Neon Free plan (free) — source, as of 2026-10-21
- Failure modes to watch
- Schema drift: Validate every tool call and every loaded table against the current schema. Quarantine mismatches instead of coercing them.
Cite: Agent Provider Depot, Depot Pick for serverless-db: neon, scores as of 2026-09-14. Agents: GET /api/decide?jtbd=serverless-db
Free Serverless Postgres for agents options
Neon
dx + pricePerf + capability branching.
Pricing (directional): Serverless Postgres with branching; pgvector supported; usage-based compute/storage.
Lock-in risk: higher = more lock-in (worse). Overall already inverts this dimension.
Excellent serverless Postgres for agent apps that want branching + pgvector without Supabase's full BaaS.
Quote for Serverless Postgres for agents
Depot Pick stays Neon. Prices below are sourced SKU rows only (as of 2026-10-27). Input and output are not blended. GET /api/quote?jtbd=serverless-db
Nothing was compared. no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed pickIsPriceWinner is null.
- Free plan usd_per_month $0 source as of 2026-10-21
- Launch compute usd_per_cu_hour $0.106 source as of 2026-10-21
- Launch storage usd_per_gb_month $0.35 source as of 2026-10-21
- Scale compute usd_per_cu_hour $0.222 source as of 2026-10-21
5 of 7 candidates have no sourced price row. 7 are excluded from the Matching price comparison (none). no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed
Runners-up
Supabase (pgvector)
Depot default for most agent apps under ~25–50M vectors. Don't add Pinecone until Postgres actually hurts.
PlanetScale
Serverless DB peer when branching DX matters. Prefer Neon/Supabase for default Postgres+pgvector agents…
When NOT to use the top pick
Want Auth+Storage+Realtime suite — Supabase.
Full ranking (score table)
Ranked with this JTBD's weights. Scores are curated estimates unless marked otherwise. Agents: prefer /api/decide then this table for tie-breaks.
| # | Provider | Overall | Fit | $/perf | Latency | DX | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supabase (pgvector) | 8.6 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 2026-09-14 |
| 2 | NeonDepot Pick | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 2026-09-14 |
| 3 | MotherDuck | 8.4 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 2026-10-19 |
| 4 | PlanetScale | 8.2 | 8.6 | 7.4 | 8.8 | 9.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 5 | Turso | 8.2 | 7.8 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 2026-09-14 |
| 6 | Convex | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 9.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 7 | DuckDB (vector/extensions) | 8.0 | 6.0 | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 2026-09-14 |
Score methodology for this job
dx + pricePerf + capability branching.
capabilityFit: 25%pricePerformance: 18%latencyReliability: 15%developerDx: 15%privacyPosture: 10%lockInRisk: 7%maturity: 10%