---
title: Built to scale
subtitle: Neon supports you from prototype to scale-up
summary: >-
  Covers the stages of growth for using Neon, from free plans for side projects
  to scalable solutions for startups, emphasizing ease of use, performance, and
  reliability throughout the development lifecycle.
enableTableOfContents: true
redirectFrom:
  - /docs/get-started-with-neon/production-readiness
  - /docs/get-started/production-readiness
updatedOn: '2026-02-06T22:07:32.886Z'
---

Neon fits into every stage of growth, from the first side project to operating large fleets of production databases - without forcing you to rethink your database architecture along the way.

## Stage 1: Side projects

**Real hosted Postgres with zero costs**

When you’re looking for a free plan to run Postgres, what you want is simplicity and enough room to build. Neon’s Free plan abstracts most configuration work, delivers real-world performance, and gives you access to core Neon features like branching and autoscaling.

- You get a [Free Plan with real resources](https://neon.com/blog/why-so-many-projects-in-the-neon-free-plan), including up to 100 projects, compute endpoints with up to 2 CPUs, and 0.5 GB of storage per project - enough to build and test real applications
- You get a Postgres connection string in a second so you can start building right away
- [Scale to zero](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/scale-to-zero) ensures idle databases don’t eat up your compute limits: only active time counts
- Standard Postgres compatibility means you can plug Neon into [any framework, ORM, or tool that speaks Postgres](https://neon.com/docs/get-started/frameworks)
- A [broad catalog of Postgres extensions](https://neon.com/docs/extensions/pg-extensions) unlocks a Postgres-for-everything workflow

## Stage 2: Startups

**Build an iterate fast**

As a project becomes a product, small teams need to ship quickly and support real users. Neon gives these teams a frictionless building experience without compromising on performance and reliability.

<CTA title="Production checklist" description="Before launching your product, go through this checklist to make sure your DB has the right configuration to support your end users." buttonText="View checklist" buttonUrl="/docs/get-started/production-checklist" />

- [Autoscaling](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/autoscaling) adapts automatically to unpredictable workloads: you don’t have to plan capacity in advance
- [Branching](https://neon.com/branching) lets you spin up development, preview, and test environments instantly, matching the latest production state, without manual work
- [Out-of-the-box integrations](https://neon.com/docs/guides/integrations) with platforms like Vercel further simplify previews and deployments
- [API-first workflows](https://neon.com/docs/reference/api-reference) make it easy to automate almost all database operations
- AI-coding support via [MCP](https://neon.com/docs/ai/neon-mcp-server) and [AI rules](https://neon.com/docs/ai/ai-rules) allows tools like Cursor and Claude to fully interact with Neon
- [Instant restores](https://neon.com/docs/guides/backup-restore) lower the stakes for mistakes and accidents
- [Built-in connection pooling](https://neon.com/docs/connect/connection-pooling) takes care of growing connections in your serverless apps
- You get access to [compliance and security features](https://neon.com/blog/why-we-no-longer-lock-premium-features) without enterprise-only contracts

## Stage 3: Scale-ups and large fleets

**Frictionless operations at scale**

At this stage, teams need performance, reliability, isolation, and automation without ballooning costs or operational complexity. Neon’s architecture is built to address their different requirements directly.

### Operational efficiency

- [On-demand storage](https://neon.com/storage#unique-benefits-derived-from-neons-implementation) grows as data demands it, without planning for capacity in advance and without the risk of full-disk errors
- [Built-in high availability](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/high-availability) is provided by default through storage redundancy, with data replicated across availability zones and cloud object storage
- [Backup and restore via snapshots](https://neon.com/docs/guides/backup-restore) allows you to recover multi-terabyte databases in seconds, without full data copies
- You can use [time travel and snapshot inspections](https://neon.com/blog/three-ways-to-use-your-snapshots) to review past database states for auditing, debugging, and incident analysis
- By [creating environments as copy-on-write branches](https://neon.com/blog/how-mindvalley-minimizes-time-to-launch-with-neon-branches), you avoid the management work and costs associated with running separate instances for development, staging, testing, or recovery
- [Programmatic lifecycle management](https://neon.com/blog/how-dispatch-speeds-up-development-with-neon-while-keeping-workloads-on-aurora) lets you create, reset, and delete large numbers of environments without eating up engineering time

### Multi-tenancy

- Neon’s [database-per-tenant setup](https://neon.com/use-cases/database-per-tenant) gives each customer a dedicated Neon project, providing strong isolation, eliminating noisy neighbors, and ensuring consistent performance
- [API-first tenant management](https://neon.com/blog/provision-postgres-neon-api) enables programmatic provisioning, configuration, scaling, recovery, and deletion of tenant databases, making it practical for small teams to manage thousands of tenants

### Fleet management for platforms and agents

- Instant, API-driven database provisioning allows to deploy a full serverless Postgres backend as part of your [platform](https://neon.com/docs/guides/embedded-postgres) or [agent](https://neon.com/docs/guides/ai-agent-integration)
- The fully embedded database experience keeps Neon invisible to your end users, with no third-party logins or external configuration required as part of your product workflow
- [Scale to zero](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/scale-to-zero) keeps unit costs low when large numbers of generated apps are never used or only accessed sporadically
- A mature API exposes [fleet management and cost-control capabilities](https://neon.com/docs/guides/consumption-limits) including quotas, usage limits, and lifecycle operations
- You can build versioning, checkpoints, rollbacks, and time-travel workflows with minimal engineering effort via [snapshots](https://neon.com/blog/promoting-postgres-changes-safely-production)
- Built-in app platform services such as [Neon Auth](https://neon.com/docs/auth/overview) and our PostgREST-compatible [Data API](https://neon.com/docs/data-api/get-started) make it easy to to hook full-stack applications out of the box

<CTA title="Agent Plan" description="If you’re building a full-stack agent platform, apply to our Agent Plan for special pricing, resource limits, and assistance. " buttonText="Check it out" buttonUrl="/programs/agents" />
