Neon and Raff solve the same managed PostgreSQL problem with different operating models. Neon treats the database as elastic developer infrastructure: Launch bills active compute at $0.106 per CU-hour, can scale to zero after 5 idle minutes, and paid plans include 500 GB of public transfer each month. Raff instead offers provisioned plans, with the first paid PostgreSQL tier at $7.99/month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 25 GB NVMe. Neon fits branching, previews, and intermittent demand; Raff fits continuously active production databases where published capacity and predictable plan pricing matter.
Neon vs Raff: which is right for you?
Neon and Raff both provide managed PostgreSQL, but the buyer is choosing between serverless elasticity and provisioned capacity.
| Decision factor | Choose Raff | Choose Neon |
|---|
| Production cost model | You want a published monthly plan with listed vCPU, RAM, and storage | You want compute and storage billed by actual usage |
| Development workflow | Conventional dev, staging, and production databases are enough | You need copy-on-write branches for pull requests, previews, or tests |
| Idle databases | The database is expected to stay available continuously | Scale-to-zero after 5 idle minutes can materially reduce compute usage |
| PostgreSQL versions | PostgreSQL 14–16 covers the application | You need PostgreSQL 17 or 18 |
| Availability model | You want an optional HA add-on priced at +70% | You want Neon's Scale/Business compute-endpoint SLA and serverless architecture |
| Geography | us-east fits the application and data-placement requirement | You need a choice across multiple AWS and Azure regions |
| Billing detail | Fewer usage meters are preferable | CU-hours, database storage, history, branches, and transfer are acceptable |
Choose Neon when database environments are frequently created, cloned, suspended, and discarded. Choose Raff when the database is a steady production dependency and the team wants capacity, recovery, and cost decisions to be explicit before deployment.
For the broader operating-model decision, read PostgreSQL for SaaS Apps and Managed vs Self-Hosted Databases.
Neon overview
Neon is a serverless PostgreSQL service built around separated compute and storage. Projects can contain branches, compute endpoints, databases, roles, and read replicas while remaining compatible with PostgreSQL clients and drivers.
Its defining workflow is database branching. A child branch can be created without immediately copying the full parent database, which makes branches useful for pull-request previews, migration tests, CI jobs, developer sandboxes, and other short-lived environments. Neon also supports autoscaling and scale-to-zero. Free and Launch computes suspend after 5 minutes of inactivity by default; paid plans can keep a compute always active.
Current public pricing positions include:
- Free — $0: 100 projects, 100 CU-hours per project each month, 0.5 GB storage per project, compute up to 2 CU, and up to 6 hours of restore history.
- Launch — usage-based: $0.106 per CU-hour, $0.35 per GB-month of database storage, up to 16 CU, and up to 7 days of restore history.
- Scale — usage-based: $0.222 per CU-hour, $0.35 per GB-month, up to 56 CU, up to 30 days of restore history, private networking, IP allow rules, and an SLA for covered compute endpoints.
Paid plans include 500 GB of public transfer each month from June 1, 2026. Neon also charges $0.002 per branch-hour above included allowances and $0.20 per GB-month for restore-history data on paid plans.
Neon supports PostgreSQL 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. Its February 2026 version update listed 14.21, 15.16, 16.12, 17.8, and 18.2. Neon became a Databricks company in May 2025.
Raff overview
Raff Managed PostgreSQL uses provisioned database plans with published vCPU, RAM, and NVMe allocations. Raff currently supports PostgreSQL 14, 15, and 16 with managed backups, point-in-time recovery for supported production workflows, monitoring, built-in connection pooling, private connectivity, storage expansion, and optional high availability.
Raff has both a permanent free tier and paid plans:
- Free — $0/month: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 2 GB storage, up to 60 direct connections and 200 pooled connections.
- Paid entry — $7.99/month: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 25 GB NVMe.
- Production — $45.99/month: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, and 80 GB NVMe.
- Scale — $146.99/month: 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, and 180 GB NVMe.
Additional managed-database storage is $0.12/GB-month. PostgreSQL high availability adds 70% to the selected plan price, and a PostgreSQL read replica is $29.99/month.
A recurring Raff operations rule is to size PostgreSQL in this order: workload → recovery target → connection model → ownership model → capacity. That keeps a larger plan from becoming the default answer to connection storms, poor queries, or an undefined recovery target.
Raff supports 3,000+ customers and 15,000+ production VMs and publishes a 99.9% uptime SLA. On August 16, 2026, Raff's Trustpilot profile showed 4.5/5; G2 is 4.6/5.
Neon pricing vs Raff pricing
The pricing models are different enough that a forced "same-size plan" would be misleading. Raff sells provisioned tiers; Neon bills active compute in CU-hours plus database storage and other usage dimensions. The table therefore compares buying positions rather than claiming equal performance.
| Buying position | Raff Managed PostgreSQL | Neon | What it means |
|---|
| Free development | $0 — 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 2 GB; 60 direct / 200 pooled connections | $0 — 100 CU-hours/project, 0.5 GB/project, up to 2 CU | Both have permanent free tiers with different ceilings |
| Entry paid | $7.99/month — 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB | Launch — $0.106/CU-hour + $0.35/GB-month | Raff fixes the base monthly plan; Neon follows active usage |
| Always-active example | $7.99/month within the paid entry allocation | 0.25 CU for 730 h + 5 GB storage ≈ $21.10/month | Neon example is usage math, not a matched resource tier |
| Production position | $45.99/month — 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB | Launch formula; 1 CU for 730 h + 25 GB storage ≈ $86.13/month | The architectures are not equivalent; test the real workload |
| HA / SLA position | Production +70% HA = $78.18/month | Scale — $0.222/CU-hour + $0.35/GB-month; 99.95% compute-endpoint SLA threshold | Different availability models; compare RTO/RPO, not labels |
The Neon arithmetic uses 730 hours only to show how continuous runtime changes usage-based cost. A database that sleeps for long periods can cost much less on Neon because suspended compute stops consuming CU-hours.
A fair production estimate should include active compute time, database size, restore-history retention, branches, read replicas, public or private transfer, and availability requirements. Raff's paid plan price already includes the listed compute and storage allocation; extra storage, HA, and replicas are explicit modifiers.
Bandwidth and transfer policy
Neon changed its paid-plan public transfer allowance on June 1, 2026. Launch and Scale now include 500 GB of public transfer per month, up from 100 GB. Transfer above the included amount remains $0.10/GB. The Free plan includes 5 GB of public transfer. Scale private-network transfer is priced separately at $0.01/GB in both directions.
That makes Neon's external-data-transfer model straightforward to calculate:
| Public transfer in a paid month | Neon transfer charge above allowance |
|---|
| 100 GB | $0 |
| 500 GB | $0 |
| 1 TB | About $52.40 |
| 5 TB | About $471.60 |
The examples use 1 TB = 1,024 GB and apply $0.10/GB only above the 500 GB included allowance.
Raff private networking is free and private traffic inside Raff's VPC is unmetered. For managed-database traffic that leaves the Raff network over a public path, teams should verify the current product billing for that route instead of assuming the VM-specific 3 Gbps unmetered policy applies to databases.
The architectural preference is the same on both platforms: keep application and database traffic private and geographically close where practical. Neon offers broader AWS/Azure placement; Raff is simpler when the application and database both fit us-east.
Feature comparison: Neon vs Raff
| Feature | Raff Managed PostgreSQL | Neon |
|---|
| Database model | Provisioned managed PostgreSQL | Serverless PostgreSQL with separated compute and storage |
| Supported PostgreSQL majors | 14–16 | 14–18 |
| Free tier | $0, 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 2 GB | $0, 100 CU-hours/project and 0.5 GB/project |
| Paid entry | $7.99/month | Launch at $0.106/CU-hour + $0.35/GB-month |
| Scale to zero | No | Yes; 5 minutes by default on Free and Launch |
| Autoscaling | Plan resize | Automatic compute scaling within configured bounds |
| Database branching | Conventional separate environments | Copy-on-write branches |
| Connection pooling | Built in | Pooled and direct endpoints |
| High availability | Optional +70% | SLA-backed compute endpoints on Scale/Business; different architecture |
| Restore model | Managed backups and PITR on supported production workflows | 6 hours, 7 days, or 30 days by plan |
| Private networking | Raff private connectivity | Private networking on Scale |
| Read replicas | $29.99/month PostgreSQL read replica | Read replicas supported |
| Public region model | us-east | Multiple AWS and Azure regions |
| Support model | Direct Raff support | Community, billing, and plan-based support |
Neon wins on branching, scale-to-zero, newer PostgreSQL major versions, and geographic choice. Raff wins on published provisioned tiers, a simple HA price formula, and fewer compute/storage usage meters for always-on production databases.
Features and reliability: Raff vs Neon
Engine and version coverage
Raff Managed PostgreSQL currently supports PostgreSQL 14, 15, and 16. Neon supports PostgreSQL 14 through 18 and published current minor versions 14.21, 15.16, 16.12, 17.8, and 18.2 in February 2026.
Neon therefore has the version-coverage advantage for applications that already require PostgreSQL 17 or 18. A Neon database on PostgreSQL 17 or 18 must resolve version compatibility before migration to Raff rather than assuming an in-place downgrade is possible.
High availability topology
Raff offers an optional PostgreSQL high-availability configuration priced at +70% of the base plan, using a synchronous standby and automatic failover model. The Production tier therefore moves from $45.99 to $78.18/month with HA.
Neon does not expose a directly equivalent "+70% standby" toggle in its public pricing. Instead, the Scale/Business SLA applies to covered compute endpoints and uses a 99.95% monthly uptime threshold for service-credit eligibility. These models should be compared through recovery time, recovery point, failover behavior, and application requirements rather than by feature name alone.
Backup model
Raff includes managed backups and supports point-in-time recovery for supported production workflows. The team still owns recovery-point selection and application validation after a restore.
Neon provides time-travel and restore history by plan: up to 6 hours on Free, 7 days on Launch, and 30 days on Scale. Paid restore-history data is billed at $0.20/GB-month based on the volume of data changes during the selected window.
Connection and networking
Raff provides built-in pooling, TLS, allowlist controls, and private connectivity for Raff-hosted workloads. Private VPC traffic is unmetered.
Neon provides pooled and direct connection endpoints, supports PgBouncer-based pooling, and offers private networking and IP allow rules on Scale. Paid plans include 500 GB/month of public transfer; Scale private transfer is metered separately.
Upgrade and maintenance behavior
Raff handles host-level and database-service maintenance for supported managed PostgreSQL versions, while the application team remains responsible for schema migrations, query compatibility, extensions, and release validation.
Neon validates PostgreSQL minor releases and applies a new minor version the next time a compute restarts. Neon also uses scheduled update notices for PostgreSQL updates, security patches, and service changes. Teams should test extensions and application behavior before major-version changes on either platform.
Reliability track record
Raff publishes a 99.9% uptime SLA and supports 3,000+ customers and 15,000+ production VMs. Its Trustpilot profile was 4.5/5 on August 16, 2026.
Neon's current SLA applies to Business/Scale compute endpoints and uses a 99.95% monthly uptime threshold; it explicitly does not cover every Neon API or platform component. Neon is a Databricks company, and its current site reports millions of Postgres databases started daily. Trustpilot shows an unclaimed neon.com profile at 3.2/5, which is too small a sample to treat as a broad product-satisfaction measure.
When you should choose Neon over Raff
- Database branching — Neon creates copy-on-write branches for pull requests, previews, CI jobs, and developer sandboxes.
- Intermittent databases — Free and Launch computes can suspend after 5 idle minutes, reducing billed CU-hours when the database is inactive.
- Newer PostgreSQL majors — Neon supports PostgreSQL 14–18, while Raff currently supports 14–16.
- Broader placement — Neon publishes regional status endpoints for at least 11 AWS and Azure regions; Raff exposes 1 public region,
us-east.
- Scale-plan SLA — Neon Scale/Business compute endpoints use a 99.95% monthly uptime threshold for service credits.
- Elastic resource use — Launch and Scale meter compute by CU-hour instead of requiring a continuously provisioned fixed tier.
When you should choose Raff over Neon
- Fixed paid entry — Raff's first paid PostgreSQL plan is $7.99/month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 25 GB NVMe.
- Explicit HA pricing — PostgreSQL HA adds 70% to the selected Raff plan; the $45.99 Production tier becomes $78.18/month.
- Provisioned capacity — Raff keeps the selected plan available rather than relying on a scale-to-zero wake-up path.
- Simple database budgeting — published vCPU, RAM, and storage tiers reduce the number of compute and storage usage meters to forecast.
- Raff-hosted application paths — private VPC traffic is unmetered when the application and database communicate inside Raff.
- Verified platform signals — Raff supports 3,000+ customers and 15,000+ production VMs and was 4.5/5 on August 16, 2026.
Migrating from Neon to Raff
- Inventory the Neon project. Record PostgreSQL major version, extensions, branch hierarchy, roles, databases, pooled/direct endpoints, read replicas, restore window, IP rules, and private-network dependencies.
- Confirm Raff compatibility. Select the Raff PostgreSQL tier, confirm every required extension, and resolve any PostgreSQL 17/18 source before migration because Raff currently supports 14–16.
- Transfer the database. Use
pg_dump/pg_restore for smaller databases or logical replication for an active production database where the source configuration permits it.
- Recreate access and networking. Rotate credentials, replace Neon endpoint URLs, rebuild allowlists/private connections, and update application secrets, monitoring, and scheduled jobs.
- Verify before cutover. Compare row counts, sequences, indexes, extensions, query plans, pooled connections, application writes, backups, restore expectations, and latency from the target application path.
- Cut over with rollback retained. Bring replication lag to zero where used, coordinate final writes, switch the application connection string, verify production traffic, and keep Neon available until the rollback window closes.
Operational gotchas:
- Neon branches do not map one-for-one to Raff environments; choose which branch is the production source of truth before copying data.
- A PostgreSQL 17 or 18 Neon source cannot be treated as a routine downgrade to Raff PostgreSQL 14–16; resolve version compatibility first.
- Neon autoscaling and scale-to-zero assumptions must be replaced with a Raff plan sized for normal and peak demand.
- Extension names can match while supported versions or configuration differ; test each required extension before cutover.
For a stateful production database, plan a short write-coordination window even when logical replication is used. Short-lived preview branches are usually better recreated as development/test environments than migrated individually.
About Neon
Neon is operated by Neon, LLC, a Databricks affiliate headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2021. Neon provides serverless PostgreSQL with separated compute and storage, branching, autoscaling, scale-to-zero, read replicas, and developer automation. Neon joined Databricks in May 2025 while continuing to operate the Neon PostgreSQL service.
Conclusion: Neon or Raff?
The comparison resolves across four decision axes:
- Pricing model — Raff publishes a $7.99/month paid entry tier; Neon Launch meters compute at $0.106/CU-hour plus $0.35/GB-month.
- Developer workflow — Neon leads on copy-on-write branches, autoscaling, and 5-minute scale-to-zero; Raff uses conventional provisioned database environments.
- Availability and placement — Raff offers a +70% HA option in
us-east; Neon offers a 99.95% Scale/Business compute-endpoint SLA threshold across multiple AWS/Azure regions.
- Operational fit — Raff favors explicit capacity and predictable modifiers; Neon favors elastic usage and programmable database environments.
Choose Neon when branching, scale-to-zero, PostgreSQL 17/18, or multi-region developer workflows are required. Choose Raff when an always-on managed PostgreSQL service needs published capacity, a fixed HA formula, private Raff connectivity, and direct support.
Raff supports 3,000+ customers and 15,000+ production VMs and was verified at 4.5/5 on August 16, 2026.
