Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PlanetScale VS Nhost

Compare PlanetScale VS Nhost and see what are their differences

PlanetScale logo PlanetScale

The last database you'll ever need. Go from idea to IPO.

Nhost logo Nhost

Firebase alternative (open-source) with GraphQL
  • PlanetScale Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15
  • Nhost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-20

Nhost

Website
nhost.io
$ Details
Release Date
2019 January
Startup details
Country
Sweden
City
Stockholm
Founder(s)
Johan Eliasson
Employees
1 - 9

PlanetScale features and specs

  • Scalability
    PlanetScale is designed for massive scale, leveraging the Vitess engine that powers YouTube. This makes it suitable for applications requiring high scalability for both read and write operations.
  • Global Distribution
    Offers multi-region deployment, ensuring low-latency access and higher availability, beneficial for globally distributed applications.
  • Serverless Approach
    The platform takes a serverless approach to database management, which means automatic scaling, less infrastructure to manage, and potential cost savings.
  • Branching and Sharding
    Supports database branching for isolated environments like development, testing, and production. It also supports sharding, which helps in distributing data across multiple nodes for better performance and reliability.
  • High Availability
    PlanetScale provides high availability with automated failover mechanisms, ensuring minimal downtime.
  • Strong Data Integrity
    Uses Vitessโ€™s strong consistency models to ensure data integrity across distributed systems.
  • Developer Friendly
    Includes tools and features that make it easier for developers to manage, such as automatic migrations and simplified schema management.
  • Integration
    Can be easily integrated with various cloud service providers, making it flexible for different deployment environments.

Possible disadvantages of PlanetScale

  • Learning Curve
    The platform comes with a learning curve, especially for teams unfamiliar with Vitess or managing distributed databases.
  • Cost
    While it can offer cost savings in some areas, the pricing for large-scale deployments and multi-region setups can be relatively high.
  • Complexity of Advanced Features
    Advanced features like sharding and branching can add complexity to the database management operations.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to more established databases, the ecosystem and community around PlanetScale might be smaller, which can affect the availability of third-party tools and community support.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using a proprietary platform can lead to vendor lock-in, making it harder to switch to other database services if needed.
  • Early-stage Platform
    While promising, PlanetScale is relatively new compared to some other established database services, which means it may lack some maturity or have bugs that older platforms have ironed out.

Nhost features and specs

  • Managed Backend Services
    Nhost provides out-of-the-box managed services that include authentication, databases, and storage, allowing developers to build applications quickly without managing infrastructure.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source platform, Nhost allows developers to access and modify the source code as needed, providing flexibility and transparency.
  • GraphQL API
    Nhost automatically generates a GraphQL API based on the project's database schema, making it easy to interact with data and build complex queries efficiently.
  • Serverless Functions
    Nhost supports serverless functions, enabling developers to run backend code in response to events or on-demand, which simplifies the logic and scaling of applications.
  • Integrated Authentication
    Nhost provides a built-in authentication system supporting various methods like email/password and social logins, which simplifies user management.

Possible disadvantages of Nhost

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to larger, established platforms, Nhost has a smaller ecosystem of plugins and integrations, potentially limiting extensibility.
  • Early Stage Platform
    As a relatively new platform, Nhost may lack some features and robustness found in more mature competitors, which could be a risk for large scale applications.
  • Documentation and Community
    While Nhost offers documentation, it is not as comprehensive as some competitors, and the user community is smaller, which could impact support and knowledge sharing.
  • Performance Overhead
    With the abstraction provided by managed services, there can be some performance overhead, which might not be ideal for extremely performance-sensitive applications.

Analysis of PlanetScale

Overall verdict

  • PlanetScale is a strong choice for developers and companies looking for a scalable, reliable, and developer-friendly database solution. Its foundations on proven technology and modern features make it a good option for various use cases.

Why this product is good

  • PlanetScale is known for its serverless database platform designed to be simple, scalable, and efficient. It is built on Vitess, which powers companies like YouTube and Slack, offering great performance at scale. PlanetScale provides features such as branching, sharding, and horizontal scaling without downtime, appealing to developers who need robust infrastructure. Additionally, it's designed to integrate seamlessly with developer workflows, providing tools like a CLI and a web console for easy database management.

Recommended for

  • Developers building cloud-native applications
  • Teams needing scalable databases with no downtime
  • Organizations requiring seamless integration with existing development workflows
  • Startups and tech companies looking for robust infrastructure

PlanetScale videos

PlanetScale Beta - Release Radar

More videos:

  • Review - Using PlanetScale (MySQL) with Next.js and Vercel!
  • Review - PlanetScale and Prisma: building in the cloud - Nick Van Wiggeren | Prisma Day 2021

Nhost videos

No Nhost videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PlanetScale and Nhost)
Databases
90 90%
10% 10
Developer Tools
59 59%
41% 41
Realtime Backend / API
0 0%
100% 100
Vitess
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using PlanetScale and Nhost. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PlanetScale should be more popular than Nhost. It has been mentiond 105 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PlanetScale mentions (105)

  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)
    PlanetScale | https://planetscale.com/ | Software Engineer - PlanetScale Postgres | Remote (AMER, LATAM & EMEA) | Base range: $120,000 - $290,000 USD I'm the hiring manager for this position. Come build the best Postgres product on the planet with super talented folks, very high autonomy, tier-zero databases for some of the biggest and fastest growing data sets. Apply at... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • PlanetScale announces Postgres is GA
    i'll take the opposite side. I was very impressed with their website. The very first line: > The worldโ€™s fastest and most scalable cloud databases the second line: > PlanetScale brings you the fastest databases available in the cloud. Both our Postgres and Vitess databases deliver exceptional speed and reliability, with Vitess adding ultra scalability through horizontal sharding. I know exactly what they do. Zero... - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Serverless Backend: A New Era for Developers
    Database: It helps storing, managing and retriving data in a structured manner (e.g. NeonDB, PlanetScale, DynamoDB). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What's the best free database provider out there?
    Https://planetscale.com/ would be a good bet. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • List of 45 databases in the world
    PlanetScaleโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠServerless database platform built on MySQL and Vitess. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
View more

Nhost mentions (52)

  • The Ultimate Guide to Self-Hosting n8n for Free using Render and Nhost
    For this tutorial, we will focus on Render and Nhost because they offer a powerful, zero-cost entry point for a fully functional, self-hosted n8n instance. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Nhost.io - Serverless backend for web and mobile apps. The free plan includes PostgreSQL, GraphQL (Hasura), Authentication, Storage, and Serverless Functions. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • the code written during those sudden spurts of inspiration are the backbone of most software development
    Only caveat I say is make sure there's something in it for you; if it's 2 AM it better be mostly for self-benefit. I'm busy constructing a monorepo with the latest technology with NX and pnpm and a half dozen other technologies (I recommend checking out http://nhost.io/); at the end I will build whatever I want and maybe make money. It's not done for the good of someone else exclusively that's for sure. Source: over 3 years ago
  • You're starting development today, which libraries are you going with?
    I'm really digging nhost and apollo-client. Source: over 3 years ago
  • When are we going to become millionaires?
    Backend Frontend Database pick two or even one. Maybe something like this. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PlanetScale and Nhost, you can also consider the following products

Supabase - An open source Firebase alternative

Datomic - The fully transactional, cloud-ready, distributed database

Firebase - Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications for mobile and web.

Vercel - Vercel is the platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration.

AppWrite - Appwrite provides web and mobile developers with a set of easy-to-use and integrate REST APIs to manage their core backend needs.

MarkLogic Server - MarkLogic Server is a multi-model database that has both NoSQL and trusted enterprise data management capabilities.