Neon Has a Free API That Gives You Serverless PostgreSQL With Branching

Neon is serverless PostgreSQL. Scales to zero, branches like git, generous free tier. Your database sleeps when inactive and wakes in <500ms.

Quick Start

import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless'

const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)

const users = await sql\`SELECT * FROM users WHERE active = true\`
const user = await sql\`INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (${'John'}, ${'[e-mail]'}) RETURNING *\`

Database Branching

# Create a branch (instant copy of your database)
neon branches create --name feature/new-auth

# Each branch has its own connection string
# Test migrations without touching production
npx prisma migrate dev  # runs against branch

# Merge back (apply migrations to main)
neon branches merge feature/new-auth

Free Tier

• 0.5 GB storage
• 191 compute hours/month (auto-suspend saves hours)
• Branching included
• Autoscaling included

Neon vs Supabase vs PlanetScale

Feature	Neon	Supabase	PlanetScale
Database	PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL	MySQL
Serverless	Yes (scale to 0)	No	No (deprecated)
Branching	Yes	No	Was yes
Free storage	0.5GB	500MB	Discontinued
Edge	Yes	No	Was yes

The Bottom Line

Neon is PostgreSQL for serverless. Scale to zero, branch like git, works at the edge. Best free tier for PostgreSQL in the serverless space.

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Need to automate data collection or build custom scrapers? Check out my Apify actors for ready-made tools, or email [e-mail] for custom solutions.