Neon vs CockroachDB for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Neon Overview

Neon makes PostgreSQL serverless. Your database scales to zero when it's idle and spins up in milliseconds when traffic arrives. You get full Postgres with all its features, database branching for safe migrations, and a free tier that's genuinely usable for real projects.

What I love about Neon is that it removes the annoying parts of running Postgres (provisioning, scaling, paying for idle time) while keeping everything that makes Postgres great. Your Prisma schema, your Drizzle queries, your Django ORM code, it all just works. No compatibility headaches, no learning a new query language. It's just Postgres, hosted intelligently.

The branching feature is particularly valuable for solo developers. You can create an instant copy of your production database, run migrations against it, test everything, and then apply the changes with confidence. When you're the only one reviewing your own database changes, that safety net matters.

CockroachDB Overview

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database designed to survive literally anything. Data center goes down? Your database keeps running. Need data in three continents? CockroachDB shards and replicates automatically. It's PostgreSQL-compatible, so most Postgres tools work, but under the hood it's a completely different architecture optimized for global distribution.

The serverless free tier is functional. You can build small projects on it without paying. The Postgres compatibility means familiar SQL queries work. And if you genuinely need multi-region data distribution, CockroachDB does things that single-node Postgres simply cannot.

But I'll be direct: the 4/10 solo dev rating exists for a reason. CockroachDB solves enterprise-scale problems. Automatic sharding, distributed transactions, multi-region consistency. These are not problems a solo developer has. And you pay for that complexity with higher latency on simple queries, a steeper learning curve, and an architecture you'll never utilize at small scale.

Key Differences

Simplicity vs resilience defines this comparison. Neon gives you straightforward Postgres that scales with your traffic. CockroachDB gives you distributed Postgres that survives catastrophes. For a solo developer, simplicity wins every time. You don't need your database to survive a nuclear war. You need it to be fast, cheap, and easy to work with.

Latency differences are real. A single-node Neon Postgres database responds in low single-digit milliseconds. CockroachDB's distributed architecture adds latency because it coordinates across nodes. For the typical web application where every millisecond of API response time matters, Neon will feel faster.

The free tiers are both usable but different. Neon's free tier gives you a straightforward Postgres database with compute limits. CockroachDB's serverless free tier gives you request units and storage. Both work for small projects. Neon's feels more predictable because it's just regular Postgres without the distributed overhead.

Scaling paths diverge dramatically. Neon Pro is $19/mo. CockroachDB Dedicated starts at $295/mo. If you outgrow the free tier, Neon's next step is affordable. CockroachDB's next step is enterprise pricing. For a solo developer watching their runway, this matters a lot.

Postgres compatibility varies. Neon is actual PostgreSQL. Every Postgres extension, every tool, every ORM feature works exactly as documented. CockroachDB is Postgres-compatible, which means most things work, but edge cases exist. Some Postgres-specific features or extensions might not be supported. It's usually fine, but "usually" means occasional debugging.

When to Choose Neon

• You want serverless Postgres that just works
• You need a generous free tier for side projects
• Database branching for safe migrations appeals to you
• You want full Postgres compatibility with zero compromises
• You're a solo developer who values simplicity over theoretical scale

When to Choose CockroachDB

• You genuinely need multi-region data distribution
• Your application requires extreme availability guarantees
• You're building for a client or employer that mandates distributed SQL
• You need automatic sharding without manual partition management
• Global consistency across regions is a hard requirement

The Verdict

Neon is the clear winner for solo developers. The 9/10 vs 4/10 rating gap tells the story. Neon gives you full PostgreSQL, a generous free tier, affordable scaling, database branching, and zero unnecessary complexity. CockroachDB gives you distributed SQL for problems you don't have yet.

If you ever actually need CockroachDB's capabilities, you'll know. You'll have millions of users across multiple continents, an SLA that demands 99.999% uptime, and an engineering team to manage the complexity. Until that day (which for most solo developers never comes), Neon is faster, cheaper, simpler, and better suited to what you're actually building.