Pricing and Deployment Tradeoffs: PlanetScale’s $5 Databases vs Self-Hosted PostgreSQL Monitoring

PlanetScale's $5 databases are shaking up cloud pricing ^[1]. Postgresus offers self-hosted PostgreSQL monitoring and backups ^[2].

Pricing reality — The $5 database pitch signals cloud-friendly pricing ^[1]. The alternative is Postgresus is self-hosted, so monitoring and backups are your responsibility ^[2].

• Cost model - PlanetScale's $5 offering points to cloud pricing with a potentially lower maintenance footprint ^[1].
• Operational reality - Postgresus is self-hosted, so monitoring and backups are your responsibility ^[2].
• Tradeoffs - These deployment choices shape total cost of ownership, control, and reliability depending on your needs ^[1][2].

Bottom line: cloud pricing versus self-hosted ops comes down to how much ownership you want today and how you balance risk tomorrow.

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