PlanetScale API
PlanetScale API
PlanetScale API provides Vitess-based managed MySQL — unlimited horizontal scaling, zero-downtime schema migrations, branches (DB branching like Git).
Vitess technology (same MySQL sharding tech as YouTube)
2024 free tier discontinued (hobby projects affected)
Sign up at planetscale.com and create DB. pscale CLI: pscale connect mydb main --port 3309 then use any MySQL client.
Uptime · 30-day window
About this API
PlanetScale is a serverless MySQL database company founded 2018; founding team is the core Vitess (MySQL sharding framework) developers from YouTube era. Differentiators: (1) Vitess — sharding tech used at YouTube to handle hundreds of millions of users; PlanetScale productized it for regular teams; (2) DB branching — schema branchable like code, dev branch schema changes don't affect prod; (3) Deploy Request — schema changes via PR flow (submit changes, human review, merge to prod), avoiding direct ALTER TABLE incidents; (4) Zero-downtime schema migration — Vitess online DDL backend; even million-row tables adding column without locking. PlanetScale dropped free tier in 2024 causing controversy; hobby projects shifted to Neon (Postgres) or Supabase. But enterprise market still favors PlanetScale as #1 serverless MySQL choice.
What you can build
- 1High-traffic SaaS needing MySQL horizontal scaling
- 2Zero-downtime schema migration (add column to big table without locking)
- 3DB schema branching for testing like code
- 4Alternative to self-hosted Vitess cluster
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Vitess technology (same MySQL sharding tech as YouTube)
- DB branching (dev / staging / prod independent schemas)
- Deploy Request UX (PR-style schema review + merge)
Limitations
- 2024 free tier discontinued (hobby projects affected)
- MySQL only (no Postgres)
- Pricing starts $39/month
Example request
curl https://planetscale.com/<endpoint> \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"
# Some providers use X-Api-Key instead — verify in the docs.Getting started
Sign up at planetscale.com and create DB. pscale CLI: pscale connect mydb main --port 3309 then use any MySQL client.
FAQ
PlanetScale vs. Neon vs. Supabase?+
MySQL + horizontal scale: PlanetScale. Postgres serverless: Neon. Postgres + full BaaS: Supabase.
Why no more free tier?+
2024 PlanetScale refocused on enterprise market, deemed hobby tier low-conversion + high resource overhead; stopped free tier.
Technical details
- Auth type
- api_key
- Pricing
- paid
- Rate limit
- 默认按 plan
- Protocols
- REST, MySQL
- SDKs
- javascript, python, go, php