Neon is a hosted PostgreSQL service made by Neon, which joined Databricks in May 2025. PostgreSQL (Postgres) is an open-source relational database that stores data in tables and answers SQL queries. Neon calls its database Lakebase Postgres and says it is real Postgres, compatible with existing ORMs, extensions and frameworks.
Its lakebase architecture separates storage from compute, the servers that run the queries. Because of this split, an inactive database shuts down automatically (scale-to-zero), compute grows and shrinks with traffic (autoscaling), and a whole database, data and schema, can be cloned instantly into a branch for a development environment, a migration test or a preview. Instant restore returns a database to any earlier point in time. Connection pooling is built on PgBouncer. Neon has grown into a backend platform that also offers authentication built on Better Auth, S3-compatible object storage, functions and an AI gateway.
Neon is a hosted service with usage-based pricing: a Free plan with up to 100 projects, and paid plans billed per compute-unit hour and per gigabyte of storage each month.