Dash0 vs Neon — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Dash0 and Neon both start at Free on their entry tier.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- Dash0 (Per Usage) — Dash0 bills purely on usage — $0.20/M metrics + $0.60/M spans/logs/events (no monthly base). There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
- Neon (Per Usage) — Neon bills purely on usage — Free 100 CU-hr/mo + 0.5GB, then $0.106-$0.222/CU-hour + $0.35/GB-month. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Dash0 is a consumption-based OpenTelemetry-native observability platform with zero monthly base fee — pay only for data ingested. Rates: $0.20 per million metric data points (13-month retention), $0.60 per million spans/log records/web events (30-day retention), $0.20 per thousand synthetic API check runs (13-month retention), $0.60 per Agent0 AI credit, $10/user for AI Coding Insights. 14-day unlimited free trial, no credit card. Recently acquired Polar Signals.
Serverless Postgres, valued $2B private. Positioned as the alternative to AWS RDS for developers who want true scale-to-zero + database branching (like git branches for your data). Launch tier from $19/mo, then usage-based on compute + storage + egress. Free tier includes real production Postgres. Popular with modern JavaScript stacks (Next.js, Vercel, Cloudflare) and Series A-B startups. Acquired by Databricks in 2025 for $1B.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Dash0 monthly | Dash0 annual | Neon monthly | Neon annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Pay-as-you-go / Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Enterprise | — / Enterprise | — | — | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
Dash0 is worth it if… Dash0 is ideal for teams tired of predicting observability spend against per-host commits. Best if telemetry volume is bursty and you want granular per-signal cost visibility instead of tier-based billing.
Neon is worth it if… developers building serverless apps that want Postgres with scale-to-zero pricing — particularly if your workload is bursty and you don't want to pay for idle compute. 5GB storage; Launch is pure usage-based; Scale adds multi-AZ HA; Enterprise custom.
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose Dash0 over Neon if…
Choose Dash0 if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile Dash0 is built for: ideal for teams tired of predicting observability spend against per-host commits.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose Neon if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile Neon is built for: developers building serverless apps that want Postgres with scale-to-zero pricing — particularly if your workload is bursty and you don't want to pay for idle compute.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| Dash0 | Neon | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | Free | Free |
| Enterprise available | No | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 15, 2026 | September 15, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 15, 2026. Tracked daily.