TLRD: “Are you saying that raising $105M and giving free databases to developers for fun projects isn’t a viable business model? – video explanation“
On the 6-th of March PlanetScale wrote a blog post. It was regarding the removal of the free “Hobby” plan for their users. Typical 2024 events. It was normal sh*tshow on Twitter/X/Reddit, most of the Hobby users went wild because of the news. People were asking where to go and what to do (their cheapest plan is 39$) so here are alternatives:
- SuperBase – it has a generous free plan
- Neon DB – It is only for PostgreSQL
- Singlestore – they are new, so check them with a grain of salt
- Coolify – it is the self-host route, but combining it with Hetzner or Raspberry Pi if you are really adventurous
And here it is, what “rubbed” me the wrong way. From the whole blog post there is only one sentence regarding their layoffs. One of the biggest reasons why PlanetScale is what it is now, was the team. Their Youtube channel was even one of the reasons I learned about them. After this kind of announcement I’m not sure I can give my recommendation regarding their services in the future. Layoffs are never easy, but this … yea …
Matt Holt made a great point:
“I get it, companies do layoffs… but this one felt icky… like the people were the problem… after sacrificing their livelihoods, the executives juxtaposed “PlanetScale forever” as if declaring a triumph. Is it though?”