Neon

Neon is a serverless Postgres platform founded in 2021 by Heikki Linnakangas, Stas Kelvich, and Nikita Shamgunov (former MemSQL/SingleStore CEO). The company provides a fully managed PostgreSQL database with unique features like instant branching, autoscaling, and a generous free tier that has made it extremely popular with AI application developers.

Neon's architecture separates compute from storage, enabling instant database provisioning, scale-to-zero (no charges when inactive), and database branching for development and testing workflows. The platform supports pgvector for vector embeddings, making it a popular choice for AI applications that need both relational data and vector search capabilities in a single database. Neon's integration with Vercel (as their recommended Postgres provider) has driven significant adoption among Next.js and AI application developers.

Neon competes with Supabase, PlanetScale, and traditional managed Postgres providers. Its developer-friendly experience, generous free tier, and serverless architecture have made it particularly popular for AI prototypes, startups, and applications that need to scale efficiently from zero to production workloads.