A database for side projects
Three half-finished apps should not mean three bills.
The side-project database problem is not the price, it is the shape of the price: a free tier that pauses when you are busy elsewhere, a per-project fee that multiplies with every idea, an egress line that appears the month something works. Lathe is one machine for $15 a month, on all month, with as many databases on it as you like.
One machine, all your projects.
- As many databases as you like
- One instance holds any number of Postgres databases. Create and drop them from the portal; the price is for the machine, not per database or per project.
- Never paused
- An app you have not touched in two months connects first time when you come back to it. Nothing is switched off for inactivity.
- Never metered
- Storage within the disk and 20 TB of traffic a month are part of the plan. The project that suddenly works does not produce a bill you did not plan for.
- A trial that says what it is
- Mini starts with a 3-day trial and no card. Keep it past the trial and the first month is charged then; delete it before and nothing is charged. No free tier that quietly becomes a bill.
- Real backups, even for a hobby
- A daily image, 7 kept, restored in place, and tested monthly. The side project that turns into a product already has the backups a product needs.
- Room to grow, in place
- When one project outgrows the smallest plan, move up; the engines restart once and the address stays. Nothing to migrate.
Good for
- A developer with several small apps and one budget line
- A weekend project that should still work next spring
- A prototype that might become a product
- Learning Postgres on a machine that behaves like production
Questions
How many projects can share one instance?
As many as the machine's disk and memory hold. Each gets its own database with its own credentials; the plan price covers the machine, not the count.
What happens if I forget about it?
Nothing. It keeps running and keeps being backed up. The renewal is the plan price each month until you delete it from the portal, which stops billing that day.
Is ${price} a month worth it for a hobby?
If the alternative is a free tier that pauses and a metered plan above it, $15 buys a machine that is on, backed up and never surprises you. If a paused free tier is fine for you, it is the cheaper choice and this page will say so.
Can I take a project out later?
pg_dump the database and restore it anywhere. The traffic is included and the data is yours.
Read next: Flat-price managed database, No egress fees, Never paused, never metered, Self-hosted VPS or managed, pgvector on your own machine, Supabase alternative, Neon alternative, Moving a Postgres database, Redis beside Postgres, One machine, every engine; all of them on the blog. Every number on this page comes from the pricing page's facts.
All your projects, one machine, from $15 a month.
Live about 90 seconds after checkout. Cancel any time; Mini starts with a 3-day free trial.
Create an instance