Pick Neon if
builders who will stay on Free $0 (100 CU-hours/project, 1 GB, 10 branches), then move to Launch (pay-as-you-go, $0.106/CU-hour, $0.35/GB-month) when writes or idle-always-on matter.
Read the Neon pageNeon vs SurrealDB
Our take
Pick Neon if builders who will stay on Free $0 (100 CU-hours/project, 1 GB, 10 branches), then move to Launch (pay-as-you-go, $0.106/CU-hour, $0.35/GB-month) when writes or idle-always-on matter. Pick SurrealDB if app teams who will stay on Cloud Start at $0/hour (first instance, 1 GB storage, daily backups) while they open a first Instances list, then add a burstable small at $0.021/hour ($15.33/month if it ran 730
SurrealDB
multi-model database desk
Best for
Neon Postgres metered in CU-hours and GB
SurrealDB An instance you start at $0
Free plan
Neon $0 · 100 projects. 10 branches/project. 100 CU-hours/project. Autoscaling up to 2 CU. Scale-to-zero after 5 min (cannot disable). 1 GB/project Postgres, 20 GB account. 5 GB egress/project. 6-hour history. 1 snapshot. Auth 60k MAU. 5 GB object storage. Functions: 10 active / 400 waiting Capacity-Hours, 1M invocations. Hitting CU or egress suspends compute until next cycle; storage cap blocks writes
SurrealDB $0 · /hour (Free · 0.25 vCPU · 1 GB). 1 GB storage free forever. Further instances from $0.021/hour. Daily automated backups. Vertical scale. Cloud RBAC/ABAC
Lowest paid
Neon Launch $0.106
SurrealDB Scale $0.192
Next step up
Neon Scale $0.222
SurrealDB Start storage $0.239
Coding agent
Neon Branching
SurrealDB Self-host / Cloud
Runs where
Neon
SurrealDB Hosted
Watch out
Neon Free suspends when CU-hours or 5 GB egress are gone
SurrealDB $0 is the first Start instance only
Last checked
Neon 2026-10-22 · neon.com/pricing
SurrealDB 2026-10-23 · surrealdb.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick SurrealDB if
app teams who will stay on Cloud Start at $0/hour (first instance, 1 GB storage, daily backups) while they open a first Instances list, then add a burstable small at $0.021/hour ($15.33/month if it ran 730 hours) when they need a second instance or more CPU.
Read the SurrealDB page