Best for — Relational Databases Medium

Who is PlanetScale best for?

Quick fit guide: Who is PlanetScale best for, who should avoid it, and what typically forces a switch.

Sources linked — see verification below.
Open decision brief → Alternatives
Who it fits Who should avoid Upgrade triggers

Freshness & verification

Last updated 2026-02-09 Intel generated 2026-01-14 2 sources linked

Best use cases for PlanetScale

  • Teams that want MySQL compatibility with modern workflows
  • Teams prioritizing serverless operating model for relational workloads
  • Teams already MySQL-oriented that want a platform model

Who should avoid PlanetScale?

  • Your stack is deeply Postgres-centric
  • You need hyperscaler-native ecosystem alignment for enterprise governance
  • You can’t validate production constraints and limits early (and adjust accordingly)

Upgrade triggers for PlanetScale

  • Need MySQL relational core with modern developer workflows
  • Need scaling patterns that outgrow simple managed MySQL assumptions
  • Need a platform workflow that keeps developer iteration fast as schema and environments grow

Sources & verification

Pricing and behavioral information comes from public documentation and structured research. When information is incomplete or volatile, we prefer to say so rather than guess.

  1. https://planetscale.com/ ↗
  2. https://planetscale.com/pricing ↗