Fauna
PlanetScale
| Feature | Fauna | PlanetScale |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $0.01/mo | From $39/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.1 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | serverless-developers, jamstack-apps, globally-distributed-apps, startups | saas-companies, startups, developer-teams, high-traffic-apps |
| Founded | 2012 | 2018 |
| Acid Transactions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Document Relational | ✓ | ✗ |
| Graphql Native | ✓ | ✗ |
| Global Distribution | ✓ | ✗ |
| Event Streaming | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Tenancy | ✓ | ✗ |
| Temporality | ✓ | ✗ |
| Database Branching | ✗ | ✓ |
| Schema Changes | ✗ | ✓ |
| Auto Scaling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Read Replicas | ✗ | ✓ |
| Insights Dashboard | ✗ | ✓ |
| Cli Tools | ✗ | ✓ |
| Connection Pooling | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Fauna Pros
- Globally distributed with strong consistency
- Combines document and relational models
- Native GraphQL and FQL query support
- Serverless with no infrastructure to manage
✗ Fauna Cons
- Proprietary query language (FQL) has learning curve
- Can be expensive at high read/write volumes
- Smaller community compared to MongoDB or PostgreSQL
✓ PlanetScale Pros
- Git-like branching for database schema changes
- Non-blocking schema changes with no downtime
- Built on Vitess (powers YouTube's database)
- Excellent developer experience and CLI
✗ PlanetScale Cons
- Free tier was removed in 2024
- MySQL-compatible only (no PostgreSQL)
- Foreign key constraints not supported in traditional way
The Verdict
Fauna is built for serverless developers and jamstack apps, with a focus on acid-transactions and document-relational. PlanetScale targets saas companies and startups and leads with database-branching and schema-changes.
On pricing, Fauna is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $0.01/mo compared to $39/mo for PlanetScale. That $38.99/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Fauna has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. PlanetScale requires a paid subscription from day one.
PlanetScale edges out on user ratings (4.5 vs 4.1). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Both tools are a solid fit for startups — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
Bottom line: PlanetScale has a slight overall edge — but if globally distributed with strong consistency matters most to you, Fauna may still be the right call.