Firebase vs PlanetScale Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Firebase | PlanetScale | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Custom | Custom |
| Number of plans | 2 | 2 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | — | |
| Pricing model | usage-based | usage-based |
No-cost (Spark plan)
- Generous no-cost usage limits
- No payment method needed
- A/B Testing
- Analytics
- App Check
- App Distribution
- Other Authentication services
- Monthly active users
- Monthly active users - SAML/OIDC
- Cloud Firestore - Stored data
- Cloud Firestore - Network egress
- Cloud Firestore - Document writes
- Cloud Firestore - Document reads
- Cloud Firestore - Document deletes
- Cloud Messaging (FCM)
- Crashlytics
- SQL Connect - Network egress
- SQL Connect - Operation count
- SQL Connect - Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL
- Hosting - Storage
- Hosting - Data transfer
- Custom domain & SSL
- Multiple sites per project
- In-App Messaging
- Performance Monitoring
- Simultaneous connections
- Realtime Database - GB stored
- Realtime Database - GB downloaded
- Remote Config
- Virtual Device Tests
- Physical Device Tests
- Android Device Streaming
- Firebase AI Logic
- BigQuery
- Gemini in Firebase
- Firebase Studio
Pay as you go (Blaze plan)
- Access more services and higher usage levels
- If eligible, get $300 in free credit
- No-cost usage from Spark plan included*
- A/B Testing
- Analytics
- App Check
- App Distribution
- App Hosting - Outgoing bandwidth
- App Hosting - Storage
- App Hosting - Cloud Run
- App Hosting - Cloud Build
- App Hosting - Artifact Registry
- App Hosting - Cloud Logging
- App Hosting - Cloud Secrets Manager
- Phone Auth - All regions
- Other Authentication services
- Monthly active users
- Monthly active users - SAML/OIDC
- Cloud Firestore - Stored data
- Cloud Firestore - Network egress
- Cloud Firestore - Document writes
- Cloud Firestore - Document reads
- Cloud Firestore - Document deletes
- Cloud Functions - Invocations
- Cloud Functions - GB-seconds
- Cloud Functions - CPU-seconds
- Cloud Functions - Outbound networking
- Cloud Functions - Cloud Build minutes
- Cloud Functions - Container storage in Artifact Registry
- Cloud Messaging (FCM)
- Cloud Storage - GB stored (*.appspot.com)
- Cloud Storage - GB downloaded (*.appspot.com)
- Cloud Storage - Upload operations (*.appspot.com)
- Cloud Storage - Download operations (*.appspot.com)
- Cloud Storage - GB stored (*.firebasestorage.app)
- Cloud Storage - GB downloaded (*.firebasestorage.app)
- Cloud Storage - Upload operations (*.firebasestorage.app)
- Cloud Storage - Download operations (*.firebasestorage.app)
- Multiple buckets per project
- Crashlytics
- SQL Connect - Network egress
- SQL Connect - Operation count
- SQL Connect - Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL
- Hosting - Storage
- Hosting - Data transfer
- Custom domain & SSL
- Multiple sites per project
- In-App Messaging
- Performance Monitoring
- Phone number verification
- Simultaneous connections
- Realtime Database - GB stored
- Realtime Database - GB downloaded
- Multiple databases per project
- Remote Config
- Virtual Device Tests
- Physical Device Tests
- Android Device Streaming
- Firebase AI Logic
- BigQuery
- Other IaaS
- Gemini in Firebase
- Firebase Studio
Base Plan
- Single node — Starting at $5/month for development and low-traffic workloads
- Metal — Starting at $50/month with local NVMe storage for high-performance needs
- High Availability — 1 primary + 2 replicas across 3 availability zones
- MySQL-compatible databases with horizontal sharding (Vitess)
- Instance and VTGate sizes
- Storage amount — First 10 GB included, and then $0.50 per GB per instance
- Add-ons — Additional development branch hours, SSO, upgraded support
Enterprise
- Bring your own cloud
- Upgraded support
- Database expertise
- Migration assistance
- Slack-based support
- More deployment options
- Business support included
- Architecture consultation
- Custom pricing
- Additional regions
Firebase vs PlanetScale FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Firebase has a free plan. PlanetScale doesn't — you'll need to pay from day one.
- How do they charge?
- Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Firebase: Firebase positions as the low-friction, Google-backed alternative to rolling your own backend infra — competing with Supabase, AWS Amplify, and PlanetScale. They're not the cheapest at scale (GCP pricing adds up), but the free tier is generous enough to win early-stage developers before costs become a real conversation. PlanetScale: They're threading the needle between managed Postgres commodities (Neon, Supabase) and premium database-as-a-service players (Aurora, AlloyDB) — not the cheapest option, but positioning on performance and MySQL/Postgres flexibility for teams that have outgrown basic managed DBs. The AWS and GCP Marketplace availability signals they're going after cloud-native teams with existing marketplace spend commitments.
Still deciding? See the best Firebase alternatives or the best PlanetScale alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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We'll monitor pricing changes for Firebase and PlanetScale and let you know when something moves.