Quick answer
Neon Serverless Postgres - Neon Serverless Postgres wins on breadth, with real Postgres, built-in auth for 60,000 users, and a confirmed no-card signup.
How the free tiers compare
Cloudflare D1 is a SQLite database scoped to the Workers ecosystem, with daily read and write caps and 5 GB of storage. Neon is full Postgres, split into compute and storage, so its free tier is shaped differently: 100 projects, each with 100 CU-hours of compute a month and 0.5 GB of storage, plus a compute ceiling of 2 CU. Neon layers on Neon Auth for up to 60,000 monthly active users and a 6-hour restore window. D1 does not publish row limits beyond its daily reset, and Neon does not publish row limits at all, since it bills compute time rather than query volume.
Cloudflare D1 vs Neon Serverless Postgres free tier, side by side
| Cloudflare D1FTV 46 | Neon Serverless PostgresFTV 60 | |
|---|---|---|
| StorageNeon's cap is per project; D1's is a single flat pool. | 5 GB total | 0.5 GB per project |
| Projects / databases | Not specified | 100 projects |
| ComputeD1 has no separate compute charge. | Not specified | 100 CU-hours per project per month, up to 2 CU |
| Rows readNeon bills by compute time, not row counts. | 5 million per day | Not specified |
| Rows written | 100,000 per day | Not specified |
| Built-in auth | Not specified | Up to 60,000 monthly active users |
| Restore window | Not specified | 6 hours |
| Credit card required | Not specified | No |
After you outgrow the free tier
D1's paid tier is a flat $5 a month that removes the daily caps. Neon's Launch plan has no flat price and bills for compute and storage as you use them.
When to pick each one
Pick Cloudflare D1 when…
- You need a database inside the Cloudflare Workers runtime with no extra network hop.
- 5 GB of flat storage covers your data and you do not need Postgres-specific features.
- Your workload fits comfortably under the daily read and write caps.
Pick Neon Serverless Postgres when…
- You want standard Postgres with extensions, not a SQLite dialect.
- You need built-in auth for tens of thousands of users without adding a separate provider.
- You want to branch or roll back a database inside a short restore window.
Bottom line
Choose D1 for a lightweight database tied to Workers with predictable flat storage. Choose Neon when you need real Postgres, built-in auth, and a no-card guarantee.
Read the full listings: Cloudflare D1 and Neon Serverless Postgres. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.