Turso vs Novu
Edge SQLite — libSQL at the speed of light
vs. Open-source notification infrastructure — workflows across email, SMS, push, chat, in-app
Pricing tiers
Turso
Free
100 DBs, 5 GB storage, 500M row reads/mo, 10M row writes/mo. No credit card.
Free
Developer
Unlimited DBs, 9 GB storage, 2.5B reads, 25M writes.
$5/mo
Scaler
24 GB storage, 100B reads, 100M writes. Teams + DPA support. Price is annual-billed.
$25/mo
Pro
50 GB storage, 250B reads, 250M writes. Teams, DPA, SSO, BYOK, HIPAA, SOC2, priority support. Annual billed.
$417/mo
Enterprise
White-glove support + unlimited usage + dedicated infra.
Custom
Novu
Free
10K workflow runs/mo. All channels. 20 workflows, 2 environments, 3 team members, 24h retention.
Free
Self-hosted (OSS)
Open source (MIT). Run locally or on own infrastructure. No usage limits.
$0 base (usage-based)
Pro
From $30/mo. 30K+ runs, 7-day retention, branding removal, advanced email editor.
$30/mo
Team
From $250/mo. 250K+ runs, 10 envs, 90-day retention, RBAC, 600 RPS.
$250/mo
Enterprise
Custom. 10M+ runs, HIPAA BAA, SSO/OIDC, data residency (SG/UK/AU/JP/KR), self-hosted/VPC.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Turso vs free on Novu.
| Metric | Turso | Novu |
|---|---|---|
| databases | 100 DBs | — |
| retention | — | 1 days |
| row reads month | 500000000 reads/month | — |
| row writes month | 10000000 writes/month | — |
| storage gb | 5 GB | — |
| workflow runs monthly | — | 10000 runs/mo |
| workflows | — | 20 workflows |
Features
Turso · 11 features
- Branching — Create DB branches from a primary for staging/test envs.
- BYOK Encryption — Bring your own encryption key (Pro+).
- Edge Routing — Requests route automatically to the nearest replica group.
- Embedded Replicas — Client-side local SQLite file that syncs from the primary — reads are <1ms local…
- libSQL — Turso's open-source SQLite fork with HTTP, WebSocket, and multi-writer support.
- libSQL Server (sqld) — Self-hostable server component. Runs libSQL as a service.
- Multi-Database — Create thousands of DBs cheaply — perfect for per-tenant / per-customer isolatio…
- Point-in-Time Restore — Rollback DB to any moment within backup window.
- Scheduled Backups — Automated point-in-time backups.
- SQLite Compatibility — Drop-in SQLite — same SQL dialect, same file format.
- Teams & RBAC — Org-level access control for Scaler+ tiers.
Novu · 15 features
- Activity Feed — Message-by-message delivery timeline.
- Chat — Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Mattermost, WhatsApp, WeChat.
- Email — SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, AWS SES, Resend, SMTP, Plunk, Mailjet, Sparkpost, M…
- Inbox — React/Next/Vue/Angular in-app Inbox component.
- Layouts — Reusable email layouts with template nesting.
- Multi-tenancy — Per-tenant branding, templates, preferences.
- Novu Framework — Code-first workflow DSL (TypeScript) colocated with app code.
- Preferences — Per-subscriber + global notification preferences.
- Push — APNs, FCM, Expo, OneSignal, Pushpad, Pusher.
- Self-hosting — Docker Compose / Kubernetes deployment of full stack.
- SMS — Twilio, MessageBird, Plivo, Nexmo, Termii, Sendchamp, Africa's Talking, Kannel, …
- Subscribers — Subscriber profiles with channels, preferences, topics.
- Topics — Pub/sub style subscribe many users to a topic.
- Translations — i18n support for templates.
- Workflows — Code-first or visual notification workflows with steps, branches, delays.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Turso | Novu |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Turso CLI | Novu CLI |
| SDK | go-libsql, @libsql/client, libsql-experimental (Python), libsql-rs, libsql-swift | go-novu, @novu/api, @novu/framework, novu-java, novu-kotlin, novu-php, novu (Python), @novu/react (Inbox), novu-ruby |
| REST | libSQL HTTP, Platform API | Novu REST API |
| MCP | Turso MCP | — |
| OTHER | libSQL WebSocket, SQLite wire protocol | Outbound Webhooks, Self-hosted (Docker) |
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