Managed Database Free Tiers

Quick Comparison

Platform	Type	Storage	Compute	Always Free?
supabase	Postgres + BaaS	500 MB	Unlimited API	✅
neon	Serverless Postgres	0.5 GB/proj (100 proj)	100 CU-hrs/mo	✅
Turso	Edge SQLite	5 GB	500M rows read/mo	✅
Cloudflare D1	Edge SQLite	5 GB	5M rows read/day	✅
MongoDB Atlas	Document (NoSQL)	512 MB	Shared M0 cluster	✅
CockroachDB	Distributed SQL	10 GB	50M RU/mo	✅
Firebase	Document (NoSQL)	1 GB	50K reads/day	Mostly
Upstash Redis	KV / Redis	256 MB	500K commands/mo	✅
Convex	Reactive backend	0.5 GB	1M calls/mo	✅

Decision Tree

Need a full backend? → supabase (Postgres + auth + storage + real-time) Just a database? → neon (best Postgres DX, branching) Edge latency critical? → Turso or Cloudflare D1 (SQLite at edge) NoSQL preferred? → MongoDB Atlas (512 MB free, familiar) Need scale-to-zero? → neon or CockroachDB

Hybrid Strategy

Many developers pair neon (database) with render (compute backend). The database has scale-to-zero (instant resume), the compute has cheaper-than-Vercel uptime.

For an AI-coded full-stack app: supabase alone covers DB + auth + storage + API, no second service needed.