No-code apps and databases decision
Neon
You can self-host Neon: the upstream neon repo is public, so a technical user can stand it up instead of paying, though expect multi-week setup and ongoing ops to reproduce Neon's autoscaling, branching, and managed primitives.
Visit website↗$15/mo
$180/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$20one-off6 h to build
$300/mo30 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 21 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Neon alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Provide a branchable, autoscaling Postgres backend plus bundled backend primitives (auth, S3-compatible object storage, functions runner, and an AI gateway) that developers can create projects against.
What it still won’t have
- Neon's production autoscaling and CU-hour billing plumbing
- Copy-on-write branching and instant restore storage optimizations
- Integrated Managed Better Auth maintained and one-click install
- Multi-AZ storage, HA, and SLA guarantees
- Built-in AI Gateway, Functions, and S3-compatible branching storage as managed services
What remains hard
- Infrastructure at scale
Serverless database that scales and branches with your app.
- Brand trust
Neon was founded by Postgres committers, bringing decades of expertise.
- Brand trust
Neon has been part of the Databricks Platform since May 2025.
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 21 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a self-hosted Neon stack on AWS using Docker/Kubernetes: deploy the neondatabase/neon repo, configure Postgres storage on multi-AZ S3-backed volumes, run compute endpoints behind an autoscaler (Kubernetes HPA or AWS Autoscaling Groups) that can scale to zero, enable copy-on-write branching backed by snapshot storage, deploy an S3-compatible object store (MinIO) configured to branch storage snapshots, deploy a functions runner (Node.js container) that can be deployed per-branch, and provide a small admin web UI (Next.js) and REST API to create projects/branches and to route auth and object storage to the correct branch. In scope: automated deploy scripts (Terraform), CI for builds, Prometheus+Grafana metrics, backup/restore, and integration tests that exercise branching and scale-to-zero. Out of scope: reimplementing the Neon control plane features not present in upstream repo, training models for AI Gateway, and commercial SLA/legal work. Include error handling, health checks, and unit/integration tests for branching, autoscaling, auth integration, and object storage operations.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Self-host verdict base92
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 1/1 assessment runs agreed+4
- Hard moats found in the evidence-3
- Evidence score99
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productNeon — official product
- official pricingNeon pricing
- official docsNeon docs — introduction
- open sourceneondatabase/neon
- open sourcenhost/nhost
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
