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PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a cloud database hosting platform that provides high-speed, scalable database services based on Vitess, Neki, and Postgres. Vitess is a horizontal sharding solution for MySQL, supporting online schema changes, zero-downtime upgrades, and built-in connection pooling. It was used at YouTube to scale MySQL to 70,000 nodes and petabyte-scale data. Neki is a next-generation sharding architecture for Postgres, designed specifically for large-scale Postgres workloads. PlanetScale Postgres starts at $5/month and provides fully managed PostgreSQL clusters, supports AWS, GCP, and Azure, and automatically fails over highly available clusters across three availability zones. PlanetScale Metal starts at $50/month, uses NVMe storage, provides unlimited IOPS, and has been benchmarked as the fastest Postgres in the cloud. The platform provides shared features such as branching, read-only replicas, automatic backups, query insights, multi-region support, IP restrictions, and PrivateLink. The SLA promises 99.999% for multi-region deployments and 99.99% for single-region. It complies with compliance standards such as SOC 1/2, HIPAA, and PCI DSS 4.0. It supports the PlanetScale MCP server to enable secure database access for AI agents. It is mainly used for database scenarios that require high scalability, high availability, and high performance.

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About this tool

PlanetScale provides cloud database hosting services for Vitess, Neki, and Postgres, focusing on speed, scalability, and reliability.

Uses:

  • Provide horizontal scaling for workloads that exceed the capacity of a single node.
  • Host MySQL (via Vitess) and Postgres (via Neki sharding) databases.
  • Provide fully managed PostgreSQL clusters and PlanetScale Metal high-performance database services.

Key capabilities:

  • Vitess: MySQL horizontal sharding, a shared nothing architecture that can be distributed across thousands of nodes, routed through a single database connection; supports online schema changes, zero-downtime upgrades, and built-in connection pooling. It was used at YouTube to scale to petabyte-scale data, 70,000 nodes, and 20 data centers.
  • Neki: a next-generation Postgres sharding architecture, designed from first principles for large-scale Postgres workloads, with predictable performance and fault tolerance.
  • PlanetScale Postgres: starts at $5/month, fully managed PostgreSQL clusters, supports AWS, GCP, and Azure; highly available clusters automatically fail over across three availability zones.
  • PlanetScale Metal: starts at $50/month, NVMe storage, unlimited IOPS, benchmarked as the fastest Postgres in the cloud; 1 primary and 2 replicas across three availability zones, automatic failover; supports PgBouncer connection pooling (port 6432) and buffered failover; each branch has an independent cluster, billed by the millisecond; supports read replica scaling, branching, and automatic backups; Database Traffic Control™ can set budgets for query traffic to prevent runaway queries and load spikes.
  • Shared features: branching with schema/data isolation; read-only replicas to scale read capacity; highly available architecture (1 primary and 2 replicas across three availability zones, automatic failover); built-in connection pooling and resilient connections; IP restrictions, AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect secure connections; Query Insights observability; automatic and custom backups; multi-region support; AI agent-driven database optimization; PlanetScale MCP server provides secure agent access.
  • Vitess exclusive: deployment requests (reviewable zero-downtime schema changes); roll back schema changes with no downtime and no data loss; Insights comprehensive database observability; explicit sharding workflow automation for horizontal scaling; read-only regions and a global edge network; integrations with Fivetran, Airbyte, Hightouch, Datadog, Vantage, Debezium, and more.
  • Neki exclusive: Postgres horizontal sharding; data topology describes how tables and queries are distributed; online schema changes and branching; built-in Query Insights and backups.
  • Postgres exclusive: $5 single-node database for development, prototyping, and small projects; point-in-time recovery; horizontal scaling via Neki; flexible cluster configurations (CPU architecture, storage profiles, parameter tuning, disk autoscaling); pg_strict safety guardrails prevent large-scale UPDATE/DELETE without a WHERE clause; Prometheus, Datadog, and pganalyze monitoring integrations; curated extensions including pg_cron, pg_hint_plan, pg_partman_bgw, pg_squeeze, pg_stat_statements, pg_strict, pginsights, pg_duckdb, and TimescaleDB; logical CDC integration and zero-downtime import options (dump/restore, WAL streaming), as well as migration paths from Supabase, Neon, Heroku, and Aurora; Database Traffic Control™.

How to use:

  • Register a PlanetScale account to use Neki.
  • Refer to the Neki quick start or documentation, and the Postgres quick start or documentation, to get started.
  • Purchase through AWS Marketplace or GCP Marketplace, or use PlanetScale Managed bring your own cloud (BYOC).
  • For a custom quote, contact the official team.

Use cases:

  • Tier 0 critical databases (used by customers such as Cursor, Cash App, MyFitnessPal, and others).
  • Large-scale workloads requiring high availability, multiple regions, and high IOPS.
  • Enterprise environments requiring security compliance (SOC 1/2, HIPAA, PCI DSS 4.0).

Limits and commitments:

  • SLA: 99.999% for multi-region deployments, 99.99% for single-region.
  • Compliance: SOC 1 Type 2 & SOC 2 Type 2+, HIPAA, PCI DSS 4.0 Level 1 service provider; HIPAA BAAs can be signed on all plans.
  • Pricing: Postgres starts at $5/month, Metal starts at $50/month; actual costs depend on the workload, so obtaining a custom quote is recommended.
  • Specific performance, number of availability zones, extension list, and similar details are subject to the official documentation; features not mentioned are not yet available.

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