# Cohesivity vs PlanetScale

PlanetScale: “The world's fastest and most scalable cloud databases.”

You go looking for PlanetScale's free tier and it is gone. They retired the Hobby plan in 2024, so the meter starts on day one and you make an account to turn it on. That is the first thing worth knowing if you are weighing the two for a new project.

PlanetScale is a serious database. Vitess-based MySQL with horizontal sharding, Postgres too, tuned for the point where one instance stops coping. If the database is your hard problem, it is built for exactly that. Cohesivity is not a database company. It provisions a managed Postgres database as one piece of a whole backend, called into existence by your agent over one HTTP API, with no signup. So the comparison is lopsided by design: a paid, specialized scale database you sign up for, next to a database that arrives with the rest of the backend and no account.

side by side

## Cohesivity and PlanetScale, on the points that differ

__Comparison of Cohesivity and PlanetScale__
|                   | Cohesivity                                                                                            | PlanetScale                                                                            |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| cost to start     | The Free plan is $0, no card. A project runs 72 hours, then you claim it.                             | No free tier since 2024\. A paid plan and an account are required from day one.        |
| scope             | A managed Postgres database, plus Redis, a vector store, storage, hosting, auth and AI, from one API. | A database platform: Vitess/MySQL and Postgres, built for scale and branching.         |
| who provisions it | Your coding agent, over one HTTP call.                                                                | You, via the dashboard or CLI. An MCP server exists for agent access to your database. |
| the database      | Managed Postgres, reached over HTTP.                                                                  | MySQL via Vitess, plus Postgres, tuned for sharding and high throughput.               |
| paid tiers        | Plus $20, Pro $100, one shared balance. Failed calls cost nothing.                                    | Paid plans that scale with database size and performance.                              |

where Cohesivity fits

- You want a database now, free, without signing up. The agent provisions managed Postgres on the first API call. No account, no card, no paid plan to start.
- The database rarely ships alone. The same API also gives you storage, a vector store, auth, hosting and AI, so the agent is not stitching four vendors together.
- You are still prototyping. The 72-hour window lets you build and test before paying for anything, which is the opposite of standing up a production database before the idea is proven.

when PlanetScale is the better call

Pick PlanetScale if the database is the hard part. Vitess-grade sharding, branching, deploy requests, and the headroom of a company that does databases and nothing else. When you are past the prototype and scale is the question, that focus is the point.

Pick PlanetScale if you are assembling your own stack and want a best-in-class database inside it. It slots in as the data layer while you choose the rest yourself.

It comes down to specialization. PlanetScale is the scale database. Cohesivity is the whole backend where the database is one part. If your center of gravity is data at scale, the specialist wins.

questions

### Does Cohesivity have a free tier like PlanetScale used to?

Cohesivity's Free plan is $0, and a new project runs 72 hours with no card and no signup before you claim it. PlanetScale retired its free Hobby plan in 2024, so it is paid from day one. For someone just starting out, that is the clearest practical difference.

### Is Cohesivity a database like PlanetScale?

It provisions a managed Postgres database, but it is not only a database. The same API also provisions storage, a vector store, auth, hosting and an AI gateway. PlanetScale is a specialized, scale-focused database platform.

### Can my agent create the database automatically?

Yes. The agent creates a project and provisions the database with an HTTP call, no dashboard step. PlanetScale has an MCP server for agent access, but you sign up and set the account up first.

### What database engine does Cohesivity use?

Managed Postgres, over HTTP. PlanetScale is MySQL via Vitess and, more recently, Postgres, tuned for horizontal scale and sharding.

related comparisons

PlanetScale details verified 2026-07-22 from planetscale.com and its 2024 free-tier-removal announcement. Cohesivity details from its own docs. Pricing changes, so check current terms with each provider.

Try it against PlanetScale.

Copy the onboarding prompt and your agent stands up the backend in seconds.