PlanetScale vs CockroachDB for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

PlanetScale Overview

PlanetScale is a serverless MySQL platform built on Vitess, the same technology YouTube uses to manage its massive database infrastructure. The standout feature is database branching. You create a branch of your database, test schema changes against it, then merge when you're confident. No more sweating through production migrations.

I've looked into PlanetScale for projects where MySQL was a requirement. The developer experience is genuinely polished. The CLI is well-designed, the dashboard is clean, and the deploy request workflow for schema changes feels like git for your database. Non-blocking schema changes mean you never lock your tables during a migration.

The big downside: PlanetScale killed their free tier. The cheapest plan is now $39/mo, which is a tough sell when Neon and Turso offer free Postgres and SQLite alternatives. And by default, PlanetScale disables foreign keys because Vitess doesn't handle them well. For solo developers who rely on database-level constraints to catch bugs, that's a real sacrifice.

CockroachDB Overview

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database that's PostgreSQL-compatible. The pitch is compelling: your data is automatically replicated across multiple nodes and regions, you get strong consistency guarantees, and it handles automatic sharding without you touching anything. It's built for applications that absolutely cannot go down.

The serverless tier is free, which is nice. You get a Postgres-compatible database without paying anything to start. The SQL syntax is familiar if you know Postgres, and they've built tooling to make the setup straightforward.

But here's the reality check. CockroachDB is engineered for problems that solo developers almost never have. Multi-region replication, automatic failover, distributed transactions across geographic zones. These are enterprise concerns. If you're one person building a SaaS, you don't need a database that can survive a data center going offline. A single Postgres instance on Railway or Neon will serve you just fine for years.

Key Differences

Database philosophy is fundamentally different. PlanetScale optimizes for the developer workflow around schema changes and scaling MySQL. CockroachDB optimizes for distributed consistency and survival. Both solve scaling problems, but from completely different angles.

Foreign key support is a real issue with PlanetScale. Vitess doesn't handle foreign keys well, so PlanetScale disables them by default. CockroachDB supports foreign keys fully since it's Postgres-compatible. If database-level referential integrity matters to you (it should), CockroachDB has the edge here.

Pricing hits differently. PlanetScale starts at $39/mo with no free tier. CockroachDB offers a serverless free tier that's genuinely usable for small projects. For a solo developer watching costs, CockroachDB is cheaper to start with. But if you need more, CockroachDB's dedicated tier jumps to $295/mo, which is painful.

SQL compatibility matters. PlanetScale is MySQL. CockroachDB is Postgres-compatible. Most modern ORMs and frameworks default to Postgres these days. If you're using Prisma, Drizzle, Django, or Rails, Postgres compatibility means less friction.

Developer experience favors PlanetScale. The branching workflow, the deploy requests, the clean dashboard. PlanetScale nailed the DX. CockroachDB's tooling is fine, but it's built for infrastructure teams, not solo developers. The complexity leaks through.

When to Choose PlanetScale

• You're committed to MySQL and need zero-downtime migrations
• Schema changes are frequent and risky in your workflow
• You can budget $39/mo for your database
• You don't need foreign key constraints
• You value developer experience over raw features

When to Choose CockroachDB

• You need Postgres compatibility without managing Postgres yourself
• You want a free tier to start experimenting
• Multi-region data distribution is a real requirement (not a theoretical one)
• Your application demands strong consistency across distributed nodes
• You're building something that genuinely needs to scale globally

The Verdict

Neither of these is the right choice for most solo developers. That's the honest answer. PlanetScale charges $39/mo for MySQL without foreign keys. CockroachDB's free tier is fine but you're carrying complexity you don't need.

If you're forced to choose between these two, CockroachDB's free tier and Postgres compatibility make it the more practical starting point. But my actual recommendation? Skip both. Use Neon for free serverless Postgres or Supabase for a full backend-as-a-service. You'll get a better experience, better pricing, and features that actually matter at solo developer scale. Save distributed databases for when you actually have distributed problems.