Free PlanetScale alternative

There are roughly 15-25 viable PlanetScale alternatives depending on how you define 'free tier,' but most cluster into three camps: self-hosted (Vitess, Neon for Postgres), lightweight SaaS (Turso, Planetscale competitors like Railway), and open-source forked solutions. The pain points are consistent: founders hate surprise bills, they resent being locked into one vendor's scaling model, and they churn when free tiers disappear or get neutered. The real gap isn't another database—it's a free tier that doesn't feel like a bait-and-switch. Most alternatives either have expensive free tiers disguised as 'generous,' require DevOps overhead, or lack the MySQL ecosystem. A maker entering here should focus on three things: (1) a genuinely free tier with clear upgrade economics, not hidden costs, (2) MySQL compatibility for existing codebases, and (3) transparent pricing that doesn't penalize growth. The opportunity exists because PlanetScale's pricing shift left a trust gap, and indie shippers are hunting for an alternative that feels more like a partner than a landlord.