Neon Has a Free Serverless PostgreSQL — Scale to Zero, Branch Like Git

RDS costs $15/month even when sleeping. Neon's serverless PostgreSQL scales to zero — and you only pay when queries run. What is Neon? Neon is serverless PostgreSQL that separates storage and compute. Your database scales to zero when idle, branches like git for testing, and wakes up in milliseconds when a query arrives. Why Neon 1. Scale to Zero Traditional PostgreSQL: Midnight: 0 queries → still paying $15/month 3 AM: 0 queries → still paying 6 AM: 1 query → compute wakes up → serves query → back to zero Neon: Midnight: 0 queries → $0 3 AM: 0 queries → $0 6 AM: 1 query → compute activates in ~500ms → serves query → scales to zero 2. Database Branching # Create a branch from production neonctl branches create --name feature-auth --parent main # Test schema changes on the branch psql $BRANCH_URL -c "ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN avatar_url TEXT;" # Branch has production data but changes don't affect main # Delete when done neonctl branches delete feature-auth 3. Serverless Driver (HTTP)