Pick Gel if
app teams who will stay on Cloud Free at $0 / month (1/4 compute unit, 1 GB disk) while they open a first instance dashboard, then buy Pro at $19.50 / month when they need 1 GiB RAM, 10 GiB storage, and email support.
Read the Gel pageGel vs PlanetScale
Our take
Pick Gel if app teams who will stay on Cloud Free at $0 / month (1/4 compute unit, 1 GB disk) while they open a first instance dashboard, then buy Pro at $19.50 / month when they need 1 GiB RAM, 10 GiB storage, and email support. Pick PlanetScale if app teams who will start Base at $5/month (single-node Postgres) or $30/month (PS-10 arm64 HA in us-east-1) while they open a first Cluster configuration screen, then
PlanetScale
branching database desk
Best for
Gel A schema-plus-query instance you start at $0
PlanetScale A cluster you start at $5 / $30
Free plan
Gel $0 · / month. 1/4 compute unit (1/2 GiB RAM, 1/16 vCPU). Up to 1 GB disk. Encryption at rest. Community support
PlanetScale No free plan
Lowest paid
Gel Pro $19.50
PlanetScale Storage overage $0.50
Next step up
Gel
PlanetScale Postgres single-node $5/mo
Runs where
Gel Hosted
PlanetScale
Watch out
Gel Free is 1/4 compute unit and 1 GB disk
PlanetScale There is no $0 Hobby card
Last checked
Gel 2026-10-23 · geldata.com/pricing
PlanetScale 2026-10-23 · planetscale.com/pricing.md
Which one, then?
Pick PlanetScale if
app teams who will start Base at $5/month (single-node Postgres) or $30/month (PS-10 arm64 HA in us-east-1) while they open a first Cluster configuration screen, then add $5 PS-DEV branches or extra production SKUs when they need a deploy-request workflow.
Read the PlanetScale page