Aiven vs Upstash Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

Aiven Upstash
Starts at $5/mo $10/mo
Number of plans 6 4
Free plan
Free trial
Pricing model usage-based hybrid

Free

$0/mo
  • 1 dedicated VM
  • 1 CPU per VM
  • 1 GB RAM per VM
  • 1 GB total storage
  • Cannot select a specific cloud or region
  • No integrations or connection pooling
  • All networking cost included
  • Seamless upgrade/downgrade to other plans
  • One-click version upgrade
  • Extensions (PostGIS, PL/v8, etc)
  • Performance graphs
  • Data encrypted on disk and network
  • Real-time backups to a remote location
  • Restore to any point in time (PITR)
  • Support

Developer

$5/mo
  • 1 dedicated VM
  • 1 CPU per VM
  • 1 GB RAM per VM
  • 8 GB total storage
  • Cannot select a specific cloud or region
  • No integrations or connection pooling
  • All networking cost included
  • Seamless upgrade/downgrade to other plans
  • One-click version upgrade
  • Extensions (PostGIS, PL/v8, etc)
  • Performance graphs
  • Data encrypted on disk and network
  • Real-time backups to a remote location
  • Restore to any point in time (PITR)
  • Support

Hobbyist

$12/mo
  • 1 dedicated VM
  • 1 CPU per VM
  • 1 GB RAM per VM
  • 8 GB total storage
  • All networking cost included
  • Seamless upgrade/downgrade to other plans
  • One-click version upgrade
  • Extensions (PostGIS, PL/v8, etc)
  • Performance graphs
  • Data encrypted on disk and network
  • Real-time backups to a remote location
  • Restore to any point in time (PITR)
  • VPC peering in AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure
  • Support

Startup

$75/mo
  • 1 dedicated VM
  • 2-32 CPU per VM
  • 4-192 GB RAM per VM
  • 80 GB-11 TB total storage
  • 99.99% uptime SLA
  • All networking cost included
  • Seamless upgrade/downgrade to other plans
  • One-click version upgrade
  • Extensions (PostGIS, PL/v8, etc)
  • Performance graphs
  • Data encrypted on disk and network
  • Real-time backups to a remote location
  • Restore to any point in time (PITR)
  • VPC peering in AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure
  • Multiple logical databases per instance
  • Database forks
  • Connection pooling
  • 99.99% availability
  • Dynamic disk sizing
  • Support

Business

$180/mo
  • 2 dedicated VM
  • 2-32 CPU per VM
  • 4-192 GB RAM per VM
  • 80 GB-11 TB total storage
  • All networking cost included
  • Seamless upgrade/downgrade to other plans
  • One-click version upgrade
  • Extensions (PostGIS, PL/v8, etc)
  • Performance graphs
  • Data encrypted on disk and network
  • Real-time backups to a remote location
  • Restore to any point in time (PITR)
  • VPC peering in AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure
  • Multiple logical databases per instance
  • Database forks
  • Connection pooling
  • 99.99% availability
  • High availability
  • Read-only access to DB replica nodes
  • Dynamic disk sizing
  • Support

Premium

$270/mo
  • 3 dedicated VM
  • 2-32 CPU per VM
  • 4-192 GB RAM per VM
  • 80 GB-11 TB total storage
  • All networking cost included
  • Seamless upgrade/downgrade to other plans
  • One-click version upgrade
  • Extensions (PostGIS, PL/v8, etc)
  • Performance graphs
  • Data encrypted on disk and network
  • Real-time backups to a remote location
  • Restore to any point in time (PITR)
  • VPC peering in AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure
  • Multiple logical databases per instance
  • Database forks
  • Connection pooling
  • 99.99% availability
  • High availability
  • Read-only access to DB replica nodes
  • Dynamic disk sizing
  • Support

Free

$0/mo
  • Data Size
  • Monthly Bandwidth
  • Monthly Commands

Pay as You Go

Popular
Custom
  • Data Size
  • Monthly Bandwidth
  • Monthly Commands

Fixed 250MB

$10/mo
  • Data Size
  • Monthly Bandwidth
  • Monthly Commands

Enterprise

Custom
  • 100K+ commands per second
  • Unlimited bandwidth and database count
  • Professional support with SLA
  • Dedicated resources for isolation
  • HIPAA Compliance

Aiven vs Upstash FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
Aiven starts lower at $5/mo, compared to $10/mo for Upstash.
Can I use either one for free?
Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
How do they charge?
Different approach here. Aiven uses usage-based pricing, while Upstash goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. Aiven: Aiven sits in the mid-to-premium range for managed open-source data services — they're not trying to undercut bare-metal DIY, they're competing with managed offerings from AWS, GCP, and Render by offering multi-cloud flexibility and a broader service catalog (Kafka, OpenSearch, etc.). The BYOC option signals they're actively courting enterprise buyers who can't send data to a third-party cloud.

Keep tabs on both.

We'll monitor pricing changes for Aiven and Upstash and let you know when something moves.

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