Compare / Managed Postgres
Managed Postgres pricing, normalized
If the database can sleep, Neon Free is $0 (1 GB storage, 100 CU-hours, scale-to-zero after 5 minutes). For a small always-on database, Crunchy Bridge Hobby-0 is $9/month plus $0.10/GB storage, DigitalOcean's 1 GiB / 10 GiB plan is $15.15/month, and AWS db.t4g.micro is $11.68/month of compute in us-east-1 Single-AZ (storage unverified from the HTML page). Self-hosting on a Hetzner CX23 is $6.49/month if you will operate Postgres. Railway has no published Postgres SKU — it uses the same CPU, RAM, and volume rates as apps.
Prices from each provider's official pricing page, checked 17 Oct 2026. USD, excluding tax. Always-on hours use 730 h unless a vendor publishes a 30-day month (Fly MPG storage). "Not published" or "unverified" means the page did not list that number. Estimates, not guarantees. AWS RDS storage (gp3 $/GB-month) was not in the fetched HTML — omitted rather than guessed.
Price for a small database
| Provider | Smallest always-on compute / month | Per GB storage-month | Backups / branching | Free tier / minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Railway Postgres | $21.50 (0.5 vCPU + 1 GB RAM + 10 GB volume at app rates — no published Postgres SKU) | $0.15/GB-month (volumes) | PITR / branching not published on the pricing page | Same as apps: Hobby $5 includes $5 usage; Pro $20 includes $20 |
| Neon | $0 if it can sleep (Free). Always-on 0.25 CU Launch: $19.35 compute (0.25 × $0.106 × 730 h) | $0.35/GB-month (Launch/Scale) | Instant restore $0.20/GB-month; extra branches $1.50/branch-month after 10 included | Free $0; paid is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum |
| Supabase | $0 Free (500 MB, pauses after 1 week). Always-on: Pro $25 including Micro 1 GB compute | $0.125/GB after 8 GB included (Pro, General Purpose) | Daily backups 7 days on Pro; PITR $100 per 7 days; branching $0.01344/branch-hour | Free $0; Pro from $25/month |
| Render Postgres | $0 Free (256 MB). Paid from $6 (0.1c-256mb) or $19 (0.5c-1g) | $0.30/GB extra; 1 GB SSD included | PITR 3 days Hobby / 7 days Pro; logical backups on paid instances | Hobby $0 + compute; Pro $25 workspace + compute |
| Fly.io Managed Postgres | $38.00 Basic (Shared-2x, 1 GB) plus storage | $0.28/GB-month (usage, 30-day month) | Automatic backups included; no published branching product | No platform fee; MPG is a plan SKU from $38/month |
| Crunchy Bridge | $9.00 Hobby-0 (2 cores, 512 MB, AWS only) plus storage | $0.10/GB-month | Backups included in the base price; Hobby has no HA and no SLA | No platform fee; billed per second, quoted per month |
| DigitalOcean Managed Postgres | $15.15 (1 GiB RAM / 1 vCPU / 10 GiB disk) | $0.215/GiB extra (10 GiB included on the smallest plan) | Managed backups included in the plan price; no published branching product | No free managed Postgres; hourly with a monthly cap |
| Amazon RDS | $11.68 (db.t4g.micro Single-AZ us-east-1, $0.016/h × 730 h). New-account free tier may cover it for 12 months | Unverified (gp3 $/GB-month not in the fetched HTML) | Automated backups; extra backup-storage price not verified from the HTML page | 12-month free tier for new accounts (750 h t4g.micro + 20 GB gp2); then on-demand |
| Self-hosted on Hetzner | $6.49 (CX23, 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB — you install Postgres) | 40 GB NVMe included on CX23; extra volume prices not used here | Optional Hetzner backups at 20% of the server price; you handle WAL/PITR | VPS monthly cap; no managed-database fee |
What you actually get
| Provider | Compute of the small SKU | Storage included | PITR / backups | Branching | Regions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Railway Postgres | You pick CPU and RAM; example small is 0.5 vCPU / 1 GB | You provision the volume | Not published as a PITR product | No published branching product | Railway regions |
| Neon | 1 CU ≈ 4 GB RAM; 0.25 CU ≈ 1 GB | 1 GB/project on Free; unlimited on paid | Free 6-hour history; Launch up to 7 days; Scale up to 30 days | Copy-on-write branches (10 per project on Free/Launch) | See neon.com/pricing |
| Supabase | Free: shared CPU, 500 MB RAM. Micro: shared, 1 GB RAM ($10, covered by Pro credits) | 500 MB Free; 8 GB disk included on Pro | No automatic backups on Free; 7-day daily backups on Pro | Branching is a Pro add-on, not included in the $25 | Supabase regions |
| Render Postgres | Free 256 MB / 100 connections; 0.5c-1g is 1 GB RAM | 1 GB included | PITR window 3 days (Hobby) or 7 days (Pro) | No published branching product | Render regions |
| Fly.io Managed Postgres | Basic: Shared-2x, 1 GB RAM | Billed on usage (v2 clusters) | Automatic backups included in the plan | No published branching product | Fly.io MPG regions (see fly platform regions) |
| Crunchy Bridge | Hobby-0: 2 cores, 512 MB, 5% CPU baseline, PG 15–18 | You pick GB; Hobby max 100 GB | Backups included; PITR included in the managed service | No published branching product; Hobby is documented as non-production | AWS, Azure, GCP (Hobby-0/1 AWS only) |
| DigitalOcean Managed Postgres | 1 vCPU / 1 GiB RAM on the smallest plan | 10 GiB included (expandable 10–30 GiB) | Managed daily backups (no separate backup SKU on the pricing table) | No published branching product | DigitalOcean regions |
| Amazon RDS | db.t4g.micro: 2 vCPU burstable, 1 GiB RAM | 20 GB gp2 on the free tier; paid storage unverified here | Automated backups (retention configurable; extra storage unverified) | No published branching product; snapshots/clones are AWS features, not priced here | All AWS regions; prices vary (us-east-1 used) |
| Self-hosted on Hetzner | Whole VM, not a managed Postgres SKU | 40 GB on CX23; 80 GB on CX33; 160 GB on CX43 | Hetzner Cloud backups 20% extra if enabled | No managed branching; you can snapshot the disk | Germany, Finland, US (Ashburn, Hillsboro), Singapore |
Best for
- Railway Postgres
Postgres next to an app that is already on Railway, billed on the same CPU/RAM/volume meter.
- Neon
Dev and preview databases that should scale to zero, plus branching from a parent.
- Supabase
Postgres plus Auth/Storage/Functions on one bill, when the $25 Pro floor is acceptable.
- Render Postgres
Postgres on the same dashboard as a Render web service, with PITR included.
- Fly.io Managed Postgres
A highly available Postgres inside a Fly organization's private network, when $38+ is acceptable.
- Crunchy Bridge
The cheapest always-on managed Postgres with backups included, if Hobby's limits are acceptable — or Standard-4 at $70 for production.
- DigitalOcean Managed Postgres
A boring always-on 1 GiB / 10 GiB production database at a published $15.15/month.
- Amazon RDS
Teams already on AWS who want the smallest on-demand Postgres, or the 12-month free tier.
- Self-hosted on Hetzner
The cheapest always-on Postgres capacity if you will patch, back up, and fail over the VM yourself.
Serverless vs always-on vs Postgres you run yourself
Serverless Postgres (Neon, and Supabase/Render free tiers) can cost $0 if the project sleeps. Neon Free suspends after 5 minutes and cannot turn that off. Supabase Free pauses after one week idle and is capped at 500 MB. That is the right shape for a side project, not for a connection that must stay up.
Always-on managed Postgres bills a compute SKU plus storage. DigitalOcean's smallest is a clean 1 GiB RAM / 10 GiB disk at $15.15/month. Crunchy Hobby-0 is cheaper ($9 + $0.10/GB) but is documented as non-production (5% CPU baseline, no HA, AWS only). Fly Managed Postgres starts at $38/month for Basic (Shared-2x, 1 GB).
Railway Postgres is a service plus a volume at app rates: $20/vCPU-month, $10/GB-month RAM, $0.15/GB-month volume. There is no published database SKU. Self-hosting on Hetzner is the cheapest capacity ($6.49 CX23) if you will handle Postgres upgrades, WAL backups, and failover yourself.
What would a real project cost?
Estimates, not guarantees. Built from the published rates above (checked 17 Oct 2026); check each provider's current pricing before you commit. Tax is not included. Numbers marked unverified or not published were left out rather than guessed.
- Small: side project that can sleep. About 1 GB of data, light traffic, the database may scale to zero overnight. Always-on alternatives are shown too.
- Medium: always-on production, 10 GB. Always-on, 10 GB storage, about 1 GB RAM, daily backups, no paid PITR add-on unless it is included in the plan.
- Large: 100 GB, ~4 GB RAM, backups. Always-on ~2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM, 100 GB storage, daily backups. Paid PITR add-ons included only where the vendor publishes them as a separate line.
| Provider | Small: side project that can sleep | Medium: always-on production, 10 GB | Large: 100 GB, ~4 GB RAM, backups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Railway Postgres | $20.15 | $31.50 | $95.00 |
| Neon | $0 (Free; sleeps after 5 min) | $22.85 (0.25 CU Launch; restore extra) | $132.38 (1 CU Launch + restore) |
| Supabase | $0 Free is 500 MB — too small; Pro $25 always-on | $25.25 (Pro Micro) | $86.50 without PITR / $186.50 with PITR |
| Render Postgres | $0 Free is 256 MB — too small; $19 (0.5c-1g) | $21.70 | $104.70 (Hobby) / $129.70 (Pro workspace) |
| Fly.io Managed Postgres | $38.28 (Basic) | $40.80 (Basic) | $310.00 (Launch) |
| Crunchy Bridge | $9.10 (Hobby-0, non-production) | $19.00 (Hobby-1, non-production) | $80.00 (Standard-4) / $160.00 with HA |
| DigitalOcean Managed Postgres | $15.15 | $15.15 | $69.50 |
| Amazon RDS | $11.68 compute (us-east-1; storage unverified; free tier may apply) | $11.68 compute (storage unverified) | Not priced here (only db.t4g.micro compute was verified) |
| Self-hosted on Hetzner | $6.49 (CX23) | $6.49 / $7.79 with backups | $18.49 (CX43) / $22.19 with backups |
Small: side project that can sleep
Try first: Neon Free at $0 — 1 GB storage and 100 CU-hours, scale-to-zero after 5 minutes. Pick Crunchy Hobby-0 at about $9.10 if it must stay up.
Runner-up: Crunchy Bridge Hobby-0 at $9.10, or AWS db.t4g.micro at $11.68 compute in us-east-1 if you are already on AWS (storage unverified; new-account free tier may make compute $0 for 12 months).
Avoid: Fly.io Managed Postgres Basic at $38.28 for a sleeping 1 GB database, and Supabase/Render free tiers if you actually need 1 GB (they cap at 500 MB and 256 MB).
Medium: always-on production, 10 GB
Try first: DigitalOcean Managed Postgres at $15.15 — 1 GiB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GiB included, always-on, backups in the plan price.
Runner-up: Crunchy Hobby-1 at $19.00 (1 GB RAM + 10 GB × $0.10; Hobby is documented non-production) or Render 0.5c-1g at $21.70. Railway at $31.50 if the app is already on Railway.
Avoid: Fly MPG Basic at $40.80, and Supabase PITR ($100 extra) unless you need Auth/Storage on the same bill. The $25 Pro floor without PITR is $25.25 and is fine if you want that platform.
Large: 100 GB, ~4 GB RAM, backups
Try first: DigitalOcean at about $69.50 — 4 GiB RAM / 2 vCPU with 100 GiB after extra storage, backups included.
Runner-up: Crunchy Standard-4 at $80 (4 GB + 100 GB × $0.10; backups included; double that if you want HA) or Railway at $95 if the app is already there. Hetzner CX43 at $18.49 ($22.19 with backups) if you will run Postgres yourself.
Avoid: Fly MPG Launch at $310, and Supabase with the $100 PITR add-on at about $186 unless you want the rest of the Supabase platform. AWS RDS larger than t4g.micro was not priced here (only the smallest compute was verified).
Show the math
- Project — Small: side project that can sleep
- About 1 GB of data, light traffic, the database may scale to zero overnight. Always-on alternatives are shown too. Neon Free $0 (fits 1 GB). Supabase Free $0 is 500 MB — too small; always-on Pro $25. Render Free 256 MB — too small; 0.5c-1g $19. Railway 0.5 vCPU + 1 GB + 1 GB vol = $20.15. Crunchy Hobby-0 $9 + $0.10 = $9.10. DigitalOcean $15.15. Fly Basic $38 + $0.28 = $38.28. AWS $11.68 compute, storage unverified; free tier may apply. Hetzner CX23 $6.49.
- Project — Medium: always-on production, 10 GB
- Always-on, 10 GB storage, about 1 GB RAM, daily backups, no paid PITR add-on unless it is included in the plan. Railway 1 vCPU + 1 GB + 10 GB = $31.50. Neon Launch 0.25 CU always-on $19.35 + 10×$0.35 = $3.50 → $22.85 (instant restore extra $2 if enabled). Supabase Pro Micro $25 + 2 GB extra disk × $0.125 = $25.25. Render 0.5c-1g $19 + 9 GB extra × $0.30 = $21.70. Fly Basic $38 + 10×$0.28 = $40.80. Crunchy Hobby-1 $18 + $1.00 = $19.00. DigitalOcean $15.15. AWS $11.68 compute, 10 GB storage unverified. Hetzner CX23 $6.49, or $7.79 with 20% backups.
- Project — Large: 100 GB, ~4 GB RAM, backups
- Always-on ~2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM, 100 GB storage, daily backups. Paid PITR add-ons included only where the vendor publishes them as a separate line. Railway 2 vCPU + 4 GB + 100 GB vol = $95. Neon Launch 1 CU always-on $77.38 + 100×$0.35 = $35 + instant restore $20 = $132.38. Supabase Pro + Medium $60 − $10 credits + $25 plan + 92 GB extra disk × $0.125 = $11.50 → $86.50 without PITR, $186.50 with $100 PITR. Render 2c-4g $75 + 99 GB extra × $0.30 = $29.70 → $104.70 (Hobby PITR 3 days; Pro workspace +$25). Fly Launch $282 + 100×$0.28 = $310. Crunchy Standard-4 $70 + $10 = $80 (HA $160). DigitalOcean 4 GiB $60.90 + 40 GiB extra × $0.215 = $8.60 → $69.50. AWS: only t4g.micro compute verified. Hetzner CX43 $18.49, +20% backups $22.19.
- Railway Postgres
- No published Postgres SKU. Apply app rates: RAM $10/GB-month, CPU $20/vCPU-month, volumes $0.15/GB-month. 0.5 vCPU + 1 GB + 10 GB = $10 + $10 + $1.50 = $21.50. 1 vCPU + 1 GB + 10 GB = $31.50. 2 vCPU + 4 GB + 100 GB = $40 + $40 + $15 = $95. Source: https://railway.com/pricing?referralCode=4xHDyE (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Neon
- Launch compute $0.106/CU-hour; Scale $0.222/CU-hour. Always-on 0.25 CU Launch = 0.25 × $0.106 × 730 = $19.345. 1 CU always-on Launch = $77.38. Storage $0.35/GB-month. Instant restore $0.20/GB-month. Free: 100 CU-hours/project, 1 GB storage, scale-to-zero after 5 minutes (cannot disable). Source: https://neon.com/pricing (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Supabase
- Pro $25 includes $10 compute credits (one Micro). Extra disk $0.125/GB after 8 GB. Small (2 GB RAM) $15, Medium (4 GB) $60, Large (8 GB, 2 vCPU) $110. PITR $100/month per 7 days. Branching $0.01344 per branch-hour. Free pauses after 1 week idle; 2 active projects; 500 MB database. Source: https://supabase.com/pricing (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Render Postgres
- Postgres SKUs: free 256 MB; 0.1c-256mb $6; 0.5c-1g $19; 1c-2g $40; 2c-4g $75. Expandable storage $0.30/GB; 1 GB included. PITR included (window depends on workspace). Source: https://render.com/pricing (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Fly.io Managed Postgres
- Plans: Basic $38 (Shared-2x 1 GB), Starter $72 (Shared-2x 2 GB), Launch $282 (Performance-2x 8 GB), Scale $962, Performance $1,922. Storage $0.28/GB for a 30-day month, usage-based on v2 clusters. Source: https://fly.io/docs/mpg/overview/ (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Crunchy Bridge
- AWS East docs: Hobby-0 $9, Hobby-1 $18, Hobby-2 $35, Hobby-4 $70. Standard-4 $70 (1 core / 4 GB). Storage $0.10/GB-month. HA on production plans doubles the cluster price. Example: Standard-8 $140 + 100 GB × $0.10 = $150. Source: https://docs.crunchybridge.com/concepts/plans-pricing (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- DigitalOcean Managed Postgres
- Postgres Standard: 1 GiB / 1 vCPU / 10 GiB $15.15; 2 GiB / 1 vCPU / 30 GiB $30.45; 4 GiB / 2 vCPU / 60 GiB $60.90. Extra storage $0.215/GiB-month in 10 GiB steps. Source: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/managed-databases (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Amazon RDS
- Official RDS Postgres pricing for db.t4g.micro Single-AZ us-east-1 is $0.016/hour. 730 × $0.016 = $11.68. Multi-AZ is $0.032/hour. Free tier: 750 hours/month of db.t3.micro or db.t4g.micro and 20 GB gp2 for 12 months on new accounts. gp3 $/GB-month was not present in the fetched HTML, so storage is omitted from examples rather than guessed. Source: https://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/pricing/ (checked 17 Oct 2026)
- Self-hosted on Hetzner
- Hetzner price table after the 15 Jun 2026 adjustment, EU locations, USD excl. VAT: CX23 $6.49/month, CX33 $9.99, CX43 $18.49. Backups 20% of server price (CX23 → +$1.30 = $7.79). IPv4 extra; USD IPv4 not on that page, omitted. Source: https://docs.hetzner.com/general/infrastructure-and-availability/price-adjustment/ (checked 17 Oct 2026)
FAQ
- What is the cheapest managed Postgres if the database can sleep?
- Neon Free at $0, with 1 GB storage and scale-to-zero after 5 minutes. Supabase Free and Render Free are also $0 but cap storage at 500 MB and 256 MB.
- What is the cheapest always-on managed Postgres?
- Crunchy Bridge Hobby-0 at $9/month plus $0.10/GB, documented as non-production. For a production-shaped 1 GiB / 10 GiB instance, DigitalOcean at $15.15/month. AWS db.t4g.micro is $11.68/month of compute in us-east-1, but storage was not verified from the HTML page.
- Does Railway publish a Postgres SKU?
- No. Railway databases use the same RAM ($10/GB-month), CPU ($20/vCPU-month), and volume ($0.15/GB-month) rates as apps. The numbers on this page apply those rates to example sizes.
- Who includes branching?
- Neon includes copy-on-write branches (10 per project on Free/Launch; extras $1.50/branch-month). Supabase bills $0.01344 per branch-hour on Pro. The other vendors on this page do not publish a branching product on the pricing pages we fetched.
- Who includes point-in-time recovery?
- Neon instant restore is $0.20/GB-month. Supabase PITR is $100/month per 7 days. Render includes PITR (3 days Hobby, 7 days Pro). Crunchy and Fly MPG include backups in the plan. Railway PITR is not on the pricing page. AWS automated backups exist; extra backup-storage cost was not verified here.
- What would a real project cost?
- Estimates from published rates: a sleeping 1 GB side project can be $0 on Neon. An always-on 10 GB / 1 GB RAM database is about $15 on DigitalOcean, $19–$22 on Crunchy Hobby-1 or Render, $31.50 on Railway, $40.80 on Fly Basic. 100 GB / 4 GB RAM is about $70 on DigitalOcean, $80 on Crunchy Standard-4, $95 on Railway, $310 on Fly Launch.
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