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CrateDB vs PlanetScale comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

CrateDB
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (17th)
PlanetScale
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Databases solutions, they serve different purposes. CrateDB is designed for Open Source Databases and holds a mindshare of 1.0%, up 0.2% compared to last year.
PlanetScale, on the other hand, focuses on Relational Databases Tools, holds 1.1% mindshare, up 0.1% since last year.
Open Source Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CrateDB1.0%
PostgreSQL14.4%
Firebird SQL11.9%
Other72.7%
Open Source Databases
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PlanetScale1.1%
SQL Server11.9%
Oracle Database11.5%
Other75.5%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

FC
product owner at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Data platform has delivered real-time casino gameplay insights but still needs broader expertise
The best features CrateDB offers in my experience include many functionalities that allow you to purge data, maintain data, keep the database clean and essentially updated. CrateDB also allows us to store many records, and I think the performance is very strong compared to other databases or technologies. CrateDB's performance stood out for me as it allowed me to query results in less than seconds, which was optimal and enabled real-time analytics. I found it to be a very distributed SQL engine, which was beneficial considering our specific requirements. It supports multi-model and flexible schemas for structured and semi-structured data, JSON, time series for loads, and BLOBs, along with integrated performance improvements and faster ingestion than what I recall from other databases, plus better query optimizations. CrateDB has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to store several years of gameplay from our Asian customers, which involves millions and millions of records generated every day. Positively, we did not experience significant downtimes or outages, meaning the gameplay was not affected at all during these two years.
Neeraj Sameer Allu - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at Tuft
Manages databases in serverless environments and easy to get started with
The main thing I didn't like about PlanetScale was that we couldn't run analytical queries on it. They bill based on the number of rows read, so even a simple count query could easily use up our allocated resources. Apart from that, I actually loved it. It's based on MySQL, so it doesn't have foreign key constraints or cascades. We have to delete manually or use an ORM. As it's based on MySQL, we can use log posters for complex queries, but it only supports MySQL. I feel like Postgres is more useful for custom or complex queries.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"CrateDB fit into my project very well as it was an excellent database that allowed me to query analyses I did not think I would be able to perform."
"CrateDB has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to store several years of gameplay from our Asian customers, which involves millions and millions of records generated every day, and we did not experience significant downtimes or outages, meaning the gameplay was not affected at all during these two years."
"CrateDB positively impacted my organization by reducing the time needed for processes, and its impressive scalability made it easy to start with one server and then horizontally scale to multiple nodes to retrieve data, which helped my company gain more customers."
"One feature I appreciate about PlanetScale is its ability to handle migrations and commands without the need to run them manually in the database."
"The solution is beginner-friendly. Like any new platform, it can be a bit confusing at first. But after spending about an hour with it, you can get a clear idea of what everything is for. It's not very confusing; I think they've improved it recently."
"I like the solution's developer experience. When you deploy changes to the database in the portal, you can use different deployment strategies and see how things work. You can put changes into different branches, like deployment and staging. This is built into the product, allowing you to navigate changes through different branches."
"I did not face any downtime when using the product."
"The database is accessible 24/7, ensuring my project runs smoothly without interruptions."
"I recommend using PlanetScale as it provides ease of access and control over database changes using commands from the local terminal."
"The branching feature is also good for developer experience."
 

Cons

"CrateDB can be improved as it is not very popular, which means there are not many people dedicated or experienced with this particular technology, making it less usable or suitable for many companies."
"One area for improvement in CrateDB could be the command line interface, as sometimes it was not very easy to understand."
"CrateDB was good regarding scalability, though not excellent."
"The main thing I didn't like about PlanetScale was that we couldn't run analytical queries on it."
"I used PlanetScale for hobby projects, so my perspective differs from someone using it commercially. Unfortunately, they've removed the free tier in recent months and pivoted to a business-to-business model. This is sad for hobby developers like me because it's a great product, but I understand they have costs to cover."
"I would like PlanetScale to have a feature where the database can be accessed in the cloud with a link, allowing for a more user-friendly interface compared to the terminal."
"When I tried to integrate the solution with Firebase for authentication, I faced some interruptions. Also, when using it with Next.js and NextAuth.js for Google and social logins, I had some troubles."
"We encountered some initial issues during the product deployment, which required me to search for solutions on forums."
"I am not sure, but I think recently, the tool removed the free version."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Last time, when I wanted to use the tool in a project, I could see it was only paid, so I didn't use the service."
"I am currently using the product's free version, which has been sufficient for my portfolio project."
"The solution is expensive for beginners. That's why I wasn't motivated to use it more. But they were already providing many features for free for beginners, which was great."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
24%
Computer Software Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Wholesaler/Distributor
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CrateDB?
CrateDB was free when I used it, so there was no pricing associated with it, as we used the free version.
What needs improvement with CrateDB?
I wanted to use CrateDB for visualization as well, but it did not provide what I needed, so we had to opt for Grafana for the visualization instead. Regarding needed improvements, I was quite able ...
What is your primary use case for CrateDB?
I used CrateDB for a one-off project from April to August in 2025. My main use case was a digital twin project designed to create a FIWARE-based application with a focus on optimizing the data mana...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PlanetScale?
I am currently using the product's free version, which has been sufficient for my portfolio project. The paid version ranges from $39 to $1,000, depending on the features and scale required.
What needs improvement with PlanetScale?
I would like PlanetScale to have a feature where the database can be accessed in the cloud with a link, allowing for a more user-friendly interface compared to the terminal. This would make it easi...
What is your primary use case for PlanetScale?
I have used PlanetScale as it is an advanced version of MySQL. It functions as a platform where MySQL is live, similar to AWS. I use PlanetScale to store data in a live environment where queries ca...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Block, Intercom, Convex, MyFitnessPal
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse and others in Open Source Databases. Updated: March 2026.
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