PlanetScale vs Claude Code
Serverless MySQL (Vitess) and Postgres at scale
vs. Anthropic's terminal-native coding agent — built for deep codebase work
Pricing tiers
PlanetScale
Postgres EBS single-node — PS-5
Single-node EBS, 512 MiB RAM, arm64. Entry point for Postgres.
$5/mo
Postgres EBS HA — PS-5
3-node (primary + 2 replicas), 512 MiB, arm64.
$15/mo
Vitess (non-Metal) — PS-10
Vitess MySQL sharded cluster, 1 GiB RAM.
$39/mo
Postgres Metal — M-10
3-node Metal, 1 GiB RAM + 10 GiB local storage. Much higher IOPS.
$50/mo
Vitess Metal — M-160
Vitess Metal, 16 GiB RAM + 110 GiB storage.
$609/mo
Enterprise
Custom agreements, dedicated regions, 99.99% SLA.
Custom
Claude Code
API (pay-per-token)
Pay-per-token via Anthropic API. Sonnet: $3/$15 per 1M in/out. Opus: $15/$75. Best for heavy/team use.
$0 base (usage-based)
Claude Pro
$20/mo. Includes limited Claude Code usage via subscription (Sonnet). Heaviest users will hit caps.
$20/mo
Claude Team
$30/user/mo. Shared workspace, admin controls, priority support.
$30/mo
Claude Max
$200/mo. Higher Claude Code quotas + priority access to Opus.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SSO, audit logs, SOC 2, dedicated support, HIPAA-eligible.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing pg-ebs-nonha-starter on PlanetScale vs api-pay-per-use on Claude Code.
| Metric | PlanetScale | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| ha | 0 nodes | — |
| ram mib | 512 MiB | — |
Features
PlanetScale · 12 features
- Backups — Automated daily backups with retention.
- Database Branching — Git-like branches of your DB schema (not data). Create, diff, merge via deploy r…
- Deploy Requests — Schema changes in a feature branch get reviewed + auto-applied to main with zero…
- HIPAA — HIPAA-compliant deployments (Enterprise).
- Metal (NVMe) — Dedicated NVMe local storage. 10x IOPS vs EBS, latency-critical workloads.
- PgBouncer Pooler — Managed PgBouncer for Postgres clusters. Optional dedicated pooler.
- PlanetScale Boost — Query result cache with sub-ms reads.
- Point-in-Time Recovery — Restore cluster to any point within retention window.
- Postgres on PlanetScale — PostgreSQL 15+ with the same branching + deploy-request flow. Launched 2024.
- Query Insights — Per-query performance analytics, slow query tracking, explain plans.
- Read-only Regions — Route reads to the nearest region for lower latency.
- Vitess (MySQL at scale) — Horizontally-sharded MySQL (YouTube-scale) — original PlanetScale offering.
Claude Code · 16 features
- Background Tasks — Long-running processes.
- Claude Agent SDK — Build custom agents on same primitives.
- claude CLI — Terminal command.
- Git Worktrees — Isolated worktree per session.
- Hooks — Lifecycle shell commands.
- IDE Extensions — VS Code + JetBrains + Zed.
- MCP Client — Connect any MCP server.
- Memory (CLAUDE.md) — Persistent per-project instructions.
- Native Tools — Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, WebFetch.
- Plan Mode — Dry-run — Claude shows plan without executing.
- Prompt Caching — 90% discount on repeated context.
- Sandbox Modes — Safe execution of risky commands.
- Slash Commands — User-defined workflows.
- Task Tool (subagents) — Spawn parallel Claude subagents.
- TodoWrite Tool — Internal task tracking.
- WebSearch + WebFetch — Live internet access.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | PlanetScale | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | PlanetScale CLI (pscale) | claude CLI |
| SDK | @planetscale/database | Claude Agent SDK |
| REST | Management API | — |
| MCP | PlanetScale MCP | MCP Client (built-in) |
| OTHER | MySQL Wire Protocol, Postgres Wire Protocol | Claude Code Web, GitHub/PR Bridge, Hooks System, JetBrains Plugin, Slash Commands, VS Code Extension |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to PlanetScale and Claude Code may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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