blog: Neon alternatives post, checklist order, ORM note and PITR wording

apps/blog/content/blog/neon-vs-prisma-postgres-app-hosting-in-one-place/index.mdx

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 title: "Neon alternatives with app hosting and Postgres in one place (2026): Prisma Postgres + Prisma Compute, Railway, Render and Supabase compared"
 slug: "neon-vs-prisma-postgres-app-hosting-in-one-place"
 date: "2026-09-24"
-updatedAt: "2026-10-19"
+updatedAt: "2026-10-21"
 authors:
   - "Gregory Boch"
 metaTitle: "Neon alternatives with app hosting and Postgres in one place (2026): Prisma, Railway, Render, Supabase"
@@ -42,28 +42,29 @@ Neon is the better pick when a pull request needs a copy of production data or y
 
 ## What to compare before you leave Neon
 
-1. **Who runs the database**, and which features, such as backups and pooling, are opt-in.
-2. **Previews per branch**, and whether a preview copies production data or starts with a new database.
-3. **Idle cost**: what a project costs when nobody uses it, and how long it takes to wake.
-4. **Same-region networking** between the app and the database.
-5. **Connection pooling**: included, opt-in or a separate endpoint.
-6. **Backups and point-in-time recovery**: how far back you can restore, and on which plans.
-7. **Postgres extensions**: check every extension your schema uses. Prisma Postgres [lists its supported extensions](https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres/database/postgres-extensions), including `vector` (pgvector), `pg_search`, `pg_trgm`, `pgcrypto` and `pg_stat_statements`; PostGIS is not on that list.
-8. **Observability**: how you find slow queries. Prisma Postgres includes [Query Insights](https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres/database/query-insights) at no extra cost: average latency and queries per second over time, queries grouped by statement shape and, for Prisma ORM, the SQL each call generates.
-9. **Pricing shape**: a plan fee, usage meters or both, and which meter your workload drives.
-10. **Exit path**: whether `pg_dump` over a direct connection gets your data out.
+1. **Where the frontend, the API and the database run**: in one project, or on separate hosts.
+2. **Who runs the database**, and which features, such as backups and pooling, are opt-in.
+3. **Previews per branch**, and whether a preview copies production data or starts with a new database.
+4. **Idle cost**: what a project costs when nobody uses it, and how long it takes to wake.
+5. **Same-region networking** between the app and the database.
+6. **Connection pooling**: included, opt-in or a separate endpoint.
+7. **Backups and point-in-time recovery**: how far back you can restore, and on which plans.
+8. **Postgres extensions**: check every extension your schema uses. Prisma Postgres [lists its supported extensions](https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres/database/postgres-extensions), including `vector` (pgvector), `pg_search`, `pg_trgm`, `pgcrypto` and `pg_stat_statements`; PostGIS is not on that list.
+9. **Observability**: how you find slow queries. Prisma Postgres includes [Query Insights](https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres/database/query-insights) at no extra cost: average latency and queries per second over time, queries grouped by statement shape and, for Prisma ORM, the SQL each call generates.
+10. **Pricing shape**: a plan fee, usage meters or both, and which meter your workload drives.
+11. **Exit path**: whether `pg_dump` over a direct connection gets your data out.
 
 :::note[How we compared]
-The [comparison table](#how-the-four-compare-with-neon) uses these ten criteria, in this order, and lists the vendors in alphabetical order. Every cell links to the vendor page it rests on; Prisma's figures come from the [pricing page](https://www.prisma.io/pricing) and the Compute and Prisma Postgres docs. We checked every vendor page on 2026-09-30, the "Who runs the database" row on 2026-10-07, the Railway and Neon facts and the extensions and observability rows on 2026-10-08, Neon pricing on 2026-10-14, and Supabase Compute on 2026-10-19. We make Prisma Compute and Prisma Postgres.
+The [comparison table](#how-the-four-compare-with-neon) uses criteria 2 to 11, in this order; the situation table and the entries cover criterion 1, where the app and the database run. The table and the numbered entries below list the vendors in alphabetical order. Every table cell links to the vendor page it rests on; Prisma's figures come from the [pricing page](https://www.prisma.io/pricing) and the Compute and Prisma Postgres docs. We checked every vendor page on 2026-09-30, the "Who runs the database" row on 2026-10-07, the Railway and Neon facts and the extensions and observability rows on 2026-10-08, Neon pricing on 2026-10-14, and Supabase Compute on 2026-10-19. We make Prisma Compute and Prisma Postgres.
 :::
 
 ## Neon alternatives that include app hosting
 
 1. **Prisma Postgres + Prisma Compute**
    - Best for: a TypeScript app and its managed Postgres database deployed from one GitHub repository in one project, with a preview per pushed branch once deploy on push is set up.
-   - What it does: [Prisma Postgres](https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres) is managed Postgres, run by Prisma: PostgreSQL 17 with PgBouncer pooling included, reached by any Postgres client through a connection string. [Prisma Compute](https://www.prisma.io/docs/compute) runs TypeScript services (Node.js, Bun or Next.js) next to it in the same region, chosen from six, generally available since August 2026. With [Prisma Composer](https://www.prisma.io/docs/composer) you describe your whole app in TypeScript, each service and the database it depends on; `npx prisma dev module.ts` runs it on your laptop, and `npx prisma deploy module.ts` provisions the services on Prisma Compute and the database on Prisma Postgres.
+   - What it does: Prisma ORM is optional for both products; any Postgres client works. [Prisma Postgres](https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres) is managed Postgres, run by Prisma: PostgreSQL 17 with PgBouncer pooling included, reached through a connection string. [Prisma Compute](https://www.prisma.io/docs/compute) runs TypeScript services (Node.js, Bun or Next.js) next to it in the same region, chosen from six, generally available since August 2026. With [Prisma Composer](https://www.prisma.io/docs/composer) you describe your whole app in TypeScript, each service and the database it depends on; `npx prisma dev module.ts` runs it on your laptop, and `npx prisma deploy module.ts` provisions the services on Prisma Compute and the database on Prisma Postgres.
    - Pricing: Free $0, no credit card, no usage billing: 1M Compute requests and 200,000 database operations a month, 50 databases. Starter $10 base plus metered compute: 5M requests and 1M operations included, 10 GB of storage, daily backups kept 7 days and a spend limit; memory, active vCPU and bandwidth metered from the first unit, then $1 per million requests and $8 per million operations beyond the included amounts. [Prisma pricing](https://www.prisma.io/pricing), as of October 2026.
-   - Trade-offs: no point-in-time recovery, no preview that copies production data, one region per service. We make Prisma Compute and Prisma Postgres; the entries are in alphabetical order, and we checked Neon, Railway, Render, Supabase and Vercel against their own docs on 2026-09-30.
+   - Trade-offs: no point-in-time recovery yet, no database branching feature, no preview that copies production data, one region per service. We make Prisma Compute and Prisma Postgres, and we checked Neon, Railway, Render, Supabase and Vercel against their own docs on 2026-09-30.
    - Compare: [Prisma Postgres vs Neon](https://www.prisma.io/compare/neon) and [Prisma Postgres vs Neon pricing](/prisma-postgres-vs-neon-pricing-2026).
 
 2. **Railway**
@@ -117,7 +118,7 @@ Deploy on push takes two more steps: connect the repository with `npx prisma git
 
 ## Where Prisma Postgres + Compute is the wrong choice
 
-Prisma Postgres has no point-in-time recovery: paid plans keep daily snapshots, taken only on days with activity, for 7 days on Starter and Pro and 30 on Business, so changes after the last snapshot may not be restorable. It has no preview that copies production data: a preview database starts with none. And each Compute service runs in one region, chosen from six. Neon covers the first two and Fly.io the third. The Compute FAQ keeps the full list under [Where it has trade-offs](https://www.prisma.io/docs/compute/faq#where-it-has-trade-offs).
+Prisma Postgres has no point-in-time recovery yet: paid plans keep daily snapshots, taken only on days with activity, for 7 days on Starter and Pro and 30 on Business, so changes after the last snapshot may not be restorable. It has no preview that copies production data: a preview database starts with none. And each Compute service runs in one region, chosen from six. Neon covers the first two and Fly.io the third. The Compute FAQ keeps the full list under [Where it has trade-offs](https://www.prisma.io/docs/compute/faq#where-it-has-trade-offs).
 
 ## How to move from Neon
 
@@ -155,8 +156,9 @@ It depends on whether your bill should follow queries or uptime. Neon bills CU-h
 - Vercel: [pricing](https://vercel.com/pricing) and [Marketplace storage](https://vercel.com/docs/marketplace-storage). Fly.io: [regions](https://docs.fly.io/reference/regions/).
 
 ## Update history
-- 2026-10-19: the Railway entry and the previews row now say PR environments must be turned on in project settings, and the idle-cost row says Railway's Serverless setting sleeps a service 5 to 10 minutes after its last outbound traffic, not between requests, checked against Railway's docs on 2026-10-19.
 
+- 2026-10-21: the checklist starts with where the frontend, the API and the database run; the Prisma entry opens with the note that Prisma ORM is optional, and its trade-offs add that there is no database branching feature and that point-in-time recovery is not available yet; the entry-order sentence moved from the Prisma entry to the "How we compared" note, which now says the table and the entries both list vendors in alphabetical order; and the "wrong choice" section now says there is no point-in-time recovery yet.
+- 2026-10-19: the Railway entry and the previews row now say PR environments must be turned on in project settings, and the idle-cost row says Railway's Serverless setting sleeps a service 5 to 10 minutes after its last outbound traffic, not between requests, checked against Railway's docs on 2026-10-19.
 - 2026-10-19: the situation table, the Supabase entry's description and trade-offs, and the FAQ on whether Supabase hosts the app now say Supabase Compute, which runs backend services, is a private alpha (us-west-2 only, not for production), checked against supabase.com/compute on 2026-10-19.
 - 2026-10-14: added a first situation-table row for a frontend, API and Postgres in one project and an FAQ on whether Supabase hosts the app; the idle-cost row now says the Free plan has no usage billing, that on paid plans Prisma Postgres bills per operation on top of the plan fee and any storage beyond the included amount, which still bill while idle, and that Neon's paid plans bill compute by the CU-hour and still bill storage and restore history while compute is suspended.
 - 2026-10-08: moved Prisma's recovery and preview-data trade-off from the opening to the line under the situation table, rechecked the Railway and Neon entries against their docs, added a checklist of what to compare before leaving Neon with matching extensions and observability rows, put the comparison table's vendors in alphabetical order, and added the compared vendors to the page title.