Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.

The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.

# Tool comparison — Neon vs Drizzle ORM vs PocketBase

Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects.
Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code.

## Neon (neon)
- URL: https://neon.com
- Category: Databases & backend
- Cost: mixed — Free: 0.5GB storage and 100 CU-hours per project, up to 100 projects, 10 branches each. Launch is usage-based: $0.35/GB-mo storage, $0.106/CU-hour, $1.50 per extra branch-month.
- What it is: Serverless Postgres that separates storage from compute, so databases scale to zero after five minutes idle and Git-style branches copy a database instantly. The free tier covers up to 100 projects at 0.5GB storage and 100 compute-hours each, with 10 branches per project. Acquired by Databricks in 2025.
- Why builders pick it: Instant branching means an agent can spin up a throwaway database per pull request or per experiment. Its remote MCP server at mcp.neon.tech lets Claude create projects, branch and run SQL without leaving the chat.
- Trap: Scale-to-zero means cold starts of roughly a second on the first query after idle, and it cannot be disabled on the Free plan. Billing meters compute-hours, not requests.
- Wiring: claude mcp add --transport http neon https://mcp.neon.tech/mcp
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/neon

## Drizzle ORM (drizzle-orm)
- URL: https://orm.drizzle.team
- Category: Databases & backend
- Cost: free — Free and open source under Apache 2.0. Drizzle Studio and Drizzle Kit are free; Drizzle Gateway is in closed alpha.
- What it is: A headless TypeScript ORM whose query API deliberately mirrors SQL, so a Drizzle query reads like the statement it compiles to. Supports Postgres, MySQL, SQLite, SingleStore, MSSQL and CockroachDB, with dedicated drivers for Neon, Supabase, Turso, PlanetScale and Cloudflare D1. Drizzle Kit handles migrations.
- Why builders pick it: No code generation step and no separate engine binary, so it runs inside edge runtimes and whatever sandbox an agent is building in. Being close to SQL, models translate a schema idea into working queries with fewer invented helpers.
- Trap: Relational query ergonomics are thinner than Prisma's, and drizzle-kit push against production can drop columns without much ceremony. Migration tooling has churned across versions.
- Wiring: npm i drizzle-orm && npm i -D drizzle-kit
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/drizzle-orm

## PocketBase (pocketbase)
- URL: https://pocketbase.io
- Category: Databases & backend
- Cost: free — Free and MIT-licensed. You pay only for a host — roughly $4-6/mo on Hetzner, Fly.io or a small VPS.
- What it is: One executable containing an embedded SQLite database, REST API, realtime subscriptions, email and OAuth2 authentication, file storage and an admin dashboard. Extensible through Go or JavaScript hooks. Still pre-1.0 at the v0.39 series, but widely run in production on a single small server.
- Why builders pick it: Zero cloud bill, zero vendor account, and the entire backend is one file you can copy onto a $5 VPS. Ideal when you want the code and the data to be genuinely yours with no pausing rules.
- Trap: Single node only — no horizontal scaling and no managed backups, so you own uptime, patching and disk. Pre-1.0 means occasional breaking changes between minor releases.
- Wiring: Download the binary, then run ./pocketbase serve
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/pocketbase

## Quick read

- Free with no card: Drizzle ORM, PocketBase.

## Rules
1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is.
2. Read the full dossier before integrating.
3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.

Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=neon,drizzle-orm,pocketbase