Expert Guide

The Best Free Database Hosting in 2026

Ten free database tiers compared on storage, compute, pause and expiry rules, backups and the first paid step.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 930,000+ readers · Updated Oct 2026

Product links may be affiliate links. How we rate 10 tools compared

TL;DR

Short answer: Neon is the best free Postgres for a side project. Its free plan is permanent, needs no credit card and gives 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project. Supabase is the pick if you also need auth and file storage, but its free projects pause after one week of inactivity. For MySQL, TiDB Cloud Starter is free up to 25 GiB of row storage. MongoDB Atlas M0 is free forever at 512 MB, and Redis Cloud and Upstash cover Redis at 30 MB and 250 MB.

Key facts10 tools compared: Neon, Supabase, Aiven, Prisma Postgres, TiDB Cloud Starter, MongoDB Atlas…

Updated: October 11, 2026
Top pick: Neon (best for: Side projects and preview databases that need Postgres and no credit card)
Top pick price as of October 11, 2026: Neon: Free plan: 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project. Launch: $0.106 per CU-hour, $0.35 per GB-month

10 tools compared: Neon, Supabase, Aiven, Prisma Postgres, TiDB Cloud Starter, MongoDB Atlas (M0), Upstash Redis, Redis Cloud, Turso, Render Postgres
Supabase (best for: Prototypes that want Postgres with auth and file storage in one project): Free plan: 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 2 active projects. Pro: from $25 a month
Aiven (best for: Teams that want managed Postgres with no time limit and can live with 1 GB): PostgreSQL free plan: 1 GB RAM and 1 GB storage on one node. Hobbyist from $12 a month
Prisma Postgres (best for: Prototypes and serverless apps that want Postgres without entering a card): Free plan: 200,000 operations a month, up to 50 databases. Starter: $10 a month with backups

Free database tiers differ in the parts that break a project: how much you can store, what pauses or deletes an idle database, and whether a backup exists. Toolradar data: among the 23 managed database tools we rank, 14 have a free plan.

A free tier is the norm in this category, not the exception (managed databases ranking, October 2026).

Methodology: we checked each free plan and the cheapest paid step on the vendor's own pricing page and docs in October 2026.

Vendors print prices with a dollar sign, and we read them as US dollars. Items are ranked on three things: how long the free tier runs without a deadline, how much data it holds, and what the first paid step costs. Where a vendor does not print a limit, the table says so rather than estimating one.

If you already pay for a database, our Postgres hosting comparison covers billing models instead. If you would rather run the database yourself, see our self-hosting tools roundup.

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

Best Free Database Hosting in 2026: Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis: 10 tools compared, updated Oct 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Neon	Free plan: 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project. Launch: $0.106 per CU-hour, $0.35 per GB-month	Side projects and preview databases that need Postgres and no credit card.
Supabase	Free plan: 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 2 active projects. Pro: from $25 a month	Prototypes that want Postgres with auth and file storage in one project.
Aiven	PostgreSQL free plan: 1 GB RAM and 1 GB storage on one node. Hobbyist from $12 a month	Teams that want managed Postgres with no time limit and can live with 1 GB.
Prisma Postgres	Free plan: 200,000 operations a month, up to 50 databases. Starter: $10 a month with backups	Prototypes and serverless apps that want Postgres without entering a card.
TiDB Cloud Starter	Free per organization: 25 GiB row and 25 GiB columnar storage, 250M request units a month	MySQL-style apps that need a large free allowance and can accept usage-based billing later.
MongoDB Atlas (M0)	M0 free forever: 512 MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU. M10 from $56.94 a month	MongoDB prototypes and small apps that can live without backups and tolerate idle pauses.
Upstash Redis	Free plan: 250 MB per database and 500K commands a month. Fixed 250 MB: $10 a month	Small apps that need Redis for caching, sessions or rate limits, with a monthly command budget.
Redis Cloud	Always free: 30 MB single database. Essentials: from $5 a month	Tiny caches and session stores that fit in 30 MB and grow slowly.
Turso	Free plan: 5 GB storage, 100 databases, 500M rows read a month. Developer: $4.99 a month	Apps that run many small databases, such as one per customer, on a SQLite-style engine.
Render Postgres	Free: 1 GB storage, expires 30 days after creation. Basic: $6 a month, 256 MB RAM	A 30-day demo or hackathon database, with a plan to upgrade or export before it expires.

Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Oct 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.

Neon

Top Pick

Best for: Side projects and preview databases that need Postgres and no credit card.

PricingFree plan: 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project. Launch: $0.106 per CU-hour, $0.35 per GB-month

+The free plan is permanent and needs no credit card, according to the pricing page

+Compute suspends after five minutes of inactivity, so a quiet database burns no CU-hours

+Launch has no monthly minimum, with storage at $0.35 per GB-month

−One gigabyte per project is small for anything beyond a prototype

−Free backups keep six hours of history and one manual snapshot

Visit Neon →

Supabase

Best for: Prototypes that want Postgres with auth and file storage in one project.

PricingFree plan: 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 2 active projects. Pro: from $25 a month

+The free plan covers 50,000 monthly active users, far more than a prototype needs

+Two active free projects per organization, so a staging copy can run beside production

+Pro includes 8 GB of disk per project, then $0.125 per GB

−Free projects pause after one week of inactivity, so a quiet demo can be down when a visitor arrives

−The free plan includes no backups and caps egress at 5 GB

Visit Supabase →

Aiven

Best for: Teams that want managed Postgres with no time limit and can live with 1 GB.

PricingPostgreSQL free plan: 1 GB RAM and 1 GB storage on one node. Hobbyist from $12 a month

+Free plans have no time limitation, according to the pricing page FAQ

+One account can cover Postgres, MySQL and Valkey, which suits a side project that uses more than one engine

+The paid PostgreSQL Hobbyist plan starts at $12 a month, or $0.02 an hour

−The free plan prints no limits for its MySQL or Valkey plans

−Aiven may shut down services it judges unused, so a quiet free service is at risk

Visit Aiven →

Prisma Postgres

Best for: Prototypes and serverless apps that want Postgres without entering a card.

PricingFree plan: 200,000 operations a month, up to 50 databases. Starter: $10 a month with backups

+Up to 50 databases in one workspace on the free plan

+Idle databases cost nothing on the free plan

+Starter at $10 a month adds daily backups kept for seven days

−The free plan has no backups at all, so a free database needs its own export routine

−No storage cap is printed for the free plan, so check the limit before you load real data

Visit Prisma Postgres →

TiDB Cloud Starter

Best for: MySQL-style apps that need a large free allowance and can accept usage-based billing later.

PricingFree per organization: 25 GiB row and 25 GiB columnar storage, 250M request units a month

+Overage is $0.20 per additional GiB of storage and $0.10 per additional million request units

+The pricing page says the Starter tier scales down to zero

+The allowance is per organization, so a team can share one quota across its projects

−New connections are refused once the free quota is used up, and the page gives no connection number

−Essential, the usage-based step up, has no starting price on the pricing page

Visit TiDB Cloud Starter →

MongoDB Atlas (M0)

Best for: MongoDB prototypes and small apps that can live without backups and tolerate idle pauses.

PricingM0 free forever: 512 MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU. M10 from $56.94 a month

+Free forever on the pricing page, with 512 MB of storage that includes indexes

+M0 allows 500 connections per the docs, enough for a small app's connection pool

+The first dedicated tier, M10, is $0.08 an hour on the pricing page

−No backups on the free cluster, so you need your own mongodump routine

−Operations are capped at 100 per second, and a free cluster allows only one per project

Visit MongoDB Atlas (M0) →

Upstash Redis

Best for: Small apps that need Redis for caching, sessions or rate limits, with a monthly command budget.

PricingFree plan: 250 MB per database and 500K commands a month. Fixed 250 MB: $10 a month

+Pay-as-you-go is $0.20 per 100K commands once you pass the free 500K

+Fixed plans make the bill flat: 1 GB for $20 a month, 5 GB for $100

+The free plan allows requests up to 10 MB

−The free plan caps each database at 250 MB, so a cache with long-lived data outgrows it quickly

−Per-command billing grows with traffic, so a busy cache can cost more than a fixed plan

Visit Upstash Redis →

Redis Cloud

Best for: Tiny caches and session stores that fit in 30 MB and grow slowly.

PricingAlways free: 30 MB single database. Essentials: from $5 a month

+Essentials at $5 a month adds SAML SSO, role-based access control and encryption at rest

+Essentials lists uptime of up to 99.99% on its shared deployment

+The free database is listed as always free on the pricing page

−30 MB is small enough that most production caches outgrow it quickly

−Free support is community only, with a best-effort SLA

Visit Redis Cloud →

Turso

Best for: Apps that run many small databases, such as one per customer, on a SQLite-style engine.

PricingFree plan: 5 GB storage, 100 databases, 500M rows read a month. Developer: $4.99 a month

+The free plan allows 100 databases and 500 million rows read a month

+Developer at $4.99 a month adds 9 GB of storage and unlimited databases

+The free plan allows 10 million rows written and 3 GB of syncs each month

−The free plan keeps only one day of point-in-time restore, against 10 days on Developer

−It is a SQLite-family engine, so a Postgres or MySQL app needs porting before it runs here

Visit Turso →

Render Postgres

Best for: A 30-day demo or hackathon database, with a plan to upgrade or export before it expires.

PricingFree: 1 GB storage, expires 30 days after creation. Basic: $6 a month, 256 MB RAM

+Until it expires, the free instance has the same RAM and connection limits as the $6 plan

+The Basic plan at $6 a month is the cheapest paid step, with expandable storage at $0.30 per GB

+The free instance gives 1 GB of storage at no cost

−A free database expires 30 days after creation, and Render deletes it after a 14-day grace period

−Free databases have no backups and no connection pooling, according to Render's docs

Visit Render Postgres →

What it is

A free database tier is a managed database with no monthly fee and fixed limits on storage, compute or requests. Most vendors cap usage rather than time, but some pause or expire idle projects, and that matters more than the cap for anything that does not run all day.

Four engines dominate the list: Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB and Redis. Turso is included for its storage allowance, although it describes itself as the next evolution of SQLite rather than as one of the four.

For the managed platforms that wrap a database in auth and APIs, see our backend-as-a-service roundup.

Why it matters

The free tier decides what a project costs at its first real size, not at zero users. Three numbers do most of the work. The storage cap usually ends the free tier first: the Postgres allowances start at 500 MB on Supabase and 1 GB on Neon, Aiven and Render.

The pause or expiry rule decides whether a staging or demo database is still there on demo day. The first paid step sets the real bill: Neon charges $0.106 per CU-hour, Supabase Pro starts at $25 a month and MongoDB M10 starts at $56.94 a month.

Our Supabase review walks through the full paid ladder.

Key features to look for

Storage capEssential

The limit that usually ends a free tier first. Supabase gives 500 MB of database, Neon, Aiven and Render give 1 GB, and TiDB Cloud Starter gives 25 GiB of row storage. Measure your dump size before you pick.

Compute or request allowanceEssential

Neon meters 100 CU-hours per project, Prisma Postgres counts 200,000 operations, TiDB Cloud Starter gives 250M request units and Upstash gives 500K commands. The units differ, so compare each one against your own query volume rather than against each other.

Pause and expiry ruleEssential

What happens when the project sits idle. Supabase pauses a free project after one week, MongoDB Atlas pauses an M0 after 30 days with zero connections, and Render expires a free database after 30 days. Neon's five-minute suspension stops compute, not storage.

Backups

Most free tiers have none. Supabase, Prisma Postgres, MongoDB Atlas M0 and Render include no backups on the free plan. Neon keeps a six-hour history with one manual snapshot, and Turso keeps one day of point-in-time restore.

Connection limits

Only a few vendors print a number: Render allows 100 connections and MongoDB Atlas M0 allows 500. Neon and TiDB Cloud Starter do not publish a cap, and TiDB refuses new connections once its usage quota is used up.

First paid step

Compare the cheapest paid plan that keeps your data, not the free one. Turso Developer is $4.99 a month, Render Basic is $6, Prisma Postgres Starter is $10, and Atlas M10 is $56.94.

Pricing

Every plan in the table is priced on the vendor's own pricing page as read in October 2026. Two well-known names have no free tier to rank. PlanetScale lists no free plan, with its cheapest PS-5 at $5 a month in USD, and CockroachDB lists a 30-day trial with $400 in credit instead of a free plan.

Neither appears in the ranking.

Keeping a 5 GB database costs very different amounts. Turso's free plan holds 5 GB, so it costs nothing at that size. TiDB Cloud Starter holds 25 GiB free per organization while request units stay under 250M a month.

Neon's Launch plan adds $1.75 a month for 5 GB of storage at $0.35 per GB-month, plus compute. Supabase Pro costs $25 a month with 8 GB of disk included, and Upstash's fixed 5 GB plan costs $100 a month. Our Supabase pricing breakdown covers the paid tiers in more depth.

For the platform behind Render Postgres, see our Render review.

Plan	Price	Best for
Neon Free	Free	100 CU-hours and 1 GB storage per project, permanent plan
Neon Launch	$0.106/CU-hour	Plus $0.35 per GB-month storage and no monthly minimum
Supabase Free	Free	500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 50,000 monthly active users
Supabase Pro	From $25/month	8 GB disk per project, then $0.125 per GB
Aiven PostgreSQL Free	Free	1 GB RAM, 1 GB storage, one node, no time limit
Aiven PostgreSQL Hobbyist	From $12/month	Entry paid PostgreSQL plan, or $0.02 an hour
Prisma Postgres Free	Free	200,000 operations a month, up to 50 databases, no backups
Prisma Postgres Starter	$10/month	Daily backups kept seven days
Render Free	Free	1 GB storage and 256 MB RAM, expires 30 days after creation
Render Basic	From $6/month	256 MB RAM and 100 connections, storage at $0.30 per GB
TiDB Cloud Starter	Free	25 GiB row and 25 GiB columnar storage, 250M request units a month per organization
TiDB Cloud Essential	Usage-based	Billed on storage and request capacity units, no starting price printed
MongoDB Atlas M0	Free	512 MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU, 500 connections, no backups
MongoDB Atlas M10	From $56.94/month	Dedicated cluster, billed at $0.08 an hour
Upstash Redis Free	Free	250 MB per database and 500K commands a month
Upstash Fixed 250 MB	$10/month	Flat fee, while pay-as-you-go is $0.20 per 100K commands
Redis Cloud Free	Free	30 MB single database on a shared deployment
Redis Cloud Essentials	From $5/month	SAML SSO, role-based access, encryption at rest, up to 99.99% uptime
Turso Free	Free	5 GB storage, 100 databases, 500M rows read a month
Turso Developer	$4.99/month	9 GB storage, unlimited databases, 10-day point-in-time restore

Mistakes to avoid

×Treating a 30-day expiry as a footnote. Render's free Postgres expires 30 days after creation, and Render deletes it after a 14-day grace period.

×Building on a free database with no backup. Supabase Free, Prisma Postgres Free, MongoDB M0 and Render Free all include no backups, so a manual export is your only restore point.

×Ignoring idle pauses before a demo. Supabase pauses free projects after one week of inactivity, and Atlas pauses a free cluster after 30 days with zero connections. Check the project the day before the meeting, not during it.

Expert tips

→Size against the storage cap first. Neon, Aiven and Render give 1 GB and Supabase gives 500 MB, so measure your real dump size before you pick, then leave room for indexes.

→Pick by the rule, not the price. A free database with a 30-day clock can cost more in migration time than the $6 Basic plan saves, so decide now when you will upgrade.

→Keep an export on a schedule. Run pg_dump for Postgres or mongodump for Atlas M0 on a cron, so a free tier is never your only copy.

The bottom line

There is no single best free database, only the one whose limit you hit last. For Postgres that is Neon, because its free plan is permanent and its limits are the easiest to plan around. For MySQL, TiDB Cloud Starter's 25 GiB is the largest printed free allowance on this list.

For MongoDB, M0 is free forever, provided you can live without backups and with a 30-day idle pause. Render is the cheapest way to trial Postgres for a month and the easiest way to lose a database you forgot about.

Full profiles on Toolradar: Neon, MongoDB Atlas and Redis Cloud.

For the paid side, read our Neon review, and once you have picked a host, our database clients roundup covers the tools for querying it.

Cite this: Devshot, "Best Free Database Hosting in 2026", October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free Postgres hosting in 2026?

Neon, for most side projects. Its free plan is permanent, needs no credit card and gives 100 CU-hours and 1 GB per project, as printed on the Neon pricing page in October 2026. Choose Supabase instead if you need auth and file storage, and accept that its free projects pause after one week of inactivity.

Is there a free MySQL hosting option?

Yes. TiDB Cloud Starter is free each month with 25 GiB of row storage, 25 GiB of columnar storage and 250M request units per organization. That comes from its pricing page, checked in October 2026. Aiven lists a free MySQL plan, but its pricing page does not print the limits. PlanetScale lists no free plan at all.

Does MongoDB Atlas have a free tier?

Yes, the M0 cluster, which the pricing page lists as free forever. It has 512 MB of storage, 500 connections and one free cluster per project. It has no backups, and Atlas pauses it after 30 days with zero connections. The first dedicated tier, M10, costs $0.08 an hour, and the pricing page lists it from $56.94 a month.

Is there a free Redis?

Two options. Redis Cloud's free database is always free at 30 MB, and Upstash gives 250 MB and 500K commands a month. After the free allowance, Upstash's pay-as-you-go rate is $0.20 per 100K commands, and Redis Cloud's Essentials plan starts at $5 a month.

Do free database tiers delete your data?

Some do. Render deletes a free Postgres database after its 30-day life and a 14-day grace period, and it offers no backups on the free instance. Supabase and MongoDB Atlas pause idle projects instead.

How much does it cost to keep a 5 GB database?

Between nothing and $100 a month, depending on the vendor. Turso's free plan holds 5 GB, and TiDB Cloud Starter holds 25 GiB free. Neon's Launch plan adds $1.75 a month for storage, plus compute. Supabase Pro costs $25 a month with 8 GB of disk, and Upstash's fixed 5 GB plan costs $100 a month.

Sources

Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.