“Vercel database” is not one product — it is a marketplace for managed databases plus a few first-party offerings (Vercel KV for Redis, Vercel Postgres for Postgres, Vercel Blob for object storage). The marketplace databases (Neon, Supabase, Upstash, Turso, EdgeDB) are billed through the Vercel dashboard but maintained by the partner. Vercel Postgres is now Neon under the hood (Vercel acquired the Neon team). The right answer depends on the workload, the team’s existing vendor relationships, and whether the team needs the Vercel-specific integration.
This post walks through the marketplace, the first-party products, the workload that picks each, the hidden cost the marketplace glosses over, and the escape-hatch pattern that lets the team leave without rewriting the app.
Table of contents
- The marketplace: partner databases, billed through Vercel
- Vercel KV: the Redis offering
- Vercel Postgres: Neon under the hood
- Vercel Blob: the object storage offering
- The workload that picks each option
- The hidden cost the marketplace glosses over
- The escape-hatch pattern
- How this fits the rest of the stack
- FAQ
The marketplace: partner databases, billed through Vercel
The Vercel marketplace is a list of partner databases the team can provision from the Vercel dashboard. The list includes Neon (serverless Postgres), Supabase (Postgres with a real-time layer), Upstash (serverless Redis), Turso (SQLite at the edge), EdgeDB (Postgres with a graph layer), and a few dozen others. The billing is through Vercel, the maintenance is by the partner.
The benefit: the team gets a single dashboard, a single bill, and a single set of credentials for the project. The team that uses Vercel for the frontend and the database for the backend has one place to look for both.
The gotcha: the marketplace is a wrapper, not an integration. The team’s app uses a standard connection string to the database, not a Vercel-specific API. The team that has a Vercel-specific feature in mind (the marketplace’s “one-click integrate with Vercel Functions”) has to read the partner’s docs to know what is and is not included.
The second gotcha: the partner’s pricing is separate from Vercel’s pricing. The team that uses Neon through the Vercel marketplace pays Neon, billed through Vercel. The team’s Vercel bill is the Vercel plan plus the partner charges. The plan page does not show the partner charges; the marketplace dashboard does.
Vercel KV: the Redis offering
Vercel KV is the first-party Redis offering. It is Upstash under the hood, with a Vercel-specific integration that exposes the Redis API through Vercel’s environment variables and the @vercel/kv SDK.
The use case: the team needs a Redis cache, a session store, a rate limiter, or a queue. The @vercel/kv SDK provides typed access to the standard Redis commands, and Vercel’s edge network makes the latency low.
The gotcha: Vercel KV is not a full Redis. The Upstash offering is the subset of Redis that works in a serverless environment. The team that needs a feature Upstash does not support (e.g., Lua scripts, certain Redis modules) has to use a different provider.
The second gotcha: the pricing is per-request and per-GB. The team that has a hot loop in the app is paying per request. The right answer is to batch the requests, or to use a different cache layer.
Vercel Postgres: Neon under the hood
Vercel Postgres is the first-party Postgres offering. As of 2024, it is Neon under the hood (Vercel acquired the Neon team). The team that uses Vercel Postgres is using Neon, with a Vercel-specific integration.
The use case: the team needs a serverless Postgres. Neon’s serverless model is “compute on demand” — the database is paused when not in use, resumed on the next request. The cost is per-request and per-storage, the right answer for a team that does not have 24/7 traffic.
The gotcha: the cold start is real. The team’s first request after a quiet period sees a 1-5 second delay as Neon resumes the database. The team that needs low latency for the first request has to use Neon’s “always-on” tier, which is more expensive.
The second gotcha: Vercel Postgres is the same product as Neon. The team that has a Neon account already can use Neon directly, with the same features and the same pricing. The Vercel integration is a wrapper, not a different product.
Vercel Blob: the object storage offering
Vercel Blob is the first-party object storage offering. The use case: the team needs to store files (images, videos, PDFs, user uploads). Vercel Blob provides S3-compatible storage with a Vercel-specific integration.
The gotcha: Vercel Blob is more expensive than raw S3. The team that has a high volume of large files should consider S3 directly, with the Vercel integration through the @aws-sdk/client-s3 SDK.
The second gotcha: the egress from Vercel Blob is billed separately from the storage. The team that has a content site with high bandwidth is paying for the egress, which can be a meaningful line item.
The workload that picks each option
The workload that picks each option:
- Serverless Postgres (Neon, Vercel Postgres). The team has a Next.js or similar frontend, low-to-medium traffic, and a Postgres backend. The cold start is acceptable.
- Postgres with real-time (Supabase). The team needs Postgres plus a real-time subscription layer (for live updates, collaborative apps, etc.). Supabase is the only marketplace option with first-class real-time.
- Redis cache (Vercel KV, Upstash). The team needs a Redis cache, a session store, a rate limiter, or a queue. The workload is per-request, low-latency, and small payload.
- SQLite at the edge (Turso). The team needs a database that runs in the edge function, with low latency for the read path. Turso is the only marketplace option that runs SQLite in the edge.
- Graph layer (EdgeDB). The team needs a Postgres with a graph query layer. EdgeDB is the only marketplace option with the graph layer.
- Object storage (Vercel Blob). The team needs to store files. The workload is small files (images, PDFs) with low-to-medium volume.
A team that fits one of these is a team that has a clear answer. A team that does not fit any is a team that should use raw Postgres or raw S3 directly, with the Vercel integration through a standard SDK.
The hidden cost the marketplace glosses over
The hidden cost the marketplace glosses over is the per-partner billing. The team’s Vercel bill is the Vercel plan plus the partner charges. The partner charges are on the partner’s pricing page, not the Vercel plan page.
The pattern:
- The team provisions a Neon database from the Vercel marketplace.
- The team uses the database for a month.
- The Vercel bill at the end of the month includes the Vercel plan plus the Neon charges.
- The team is surprised by the Neon charges.
The right answer is to read the partner’s pricing page before provisioning, not after. The partner’s pricing is on the partner’s site, not the Vercel marketplace.
The second hidden cost: the partner’s egress. The team that uses a marketplace database from a different region than Vercel’s edge network is paying for the cross-region traffic. The right answer is to provision the database in the same region as the Vercel deployment.
The escape-hatch pattern
The escape-hatch pattern is the one the team should have from day one. The pattern is: the team’s app uses a standard connection string to the database, not a Vercel-specific API. The team can move from Vercel Postgres to raw Neon, from Vercel KV to raw Upstash, or from Vercel Blob to raw S3, without rewriting the app.
The escape hatch is the connection string. The team’s process.env.DATABASE_URL is a standard postgresql:// URL, the team’s Redis client is a standard redis:// URL, the team’s blob storage is a standard S3 client. The wrapper is Vercel; the underlying product is the partner.
The gotcha: some Vercel-specific features (e.g., the @vercel/kv SDK, the @vercel/blob SDK) are not the same as the partner’s SDK. The team that uses the Vercel SDK has to refactor when leaving Vercel. The team that uses the partner’s SDK directly can leave without refactoring.
The pattern: use the partner’s SDK (or the standard S3/Redis/Postgres client) for the actual operations. Use the Vercel SDK only for the Vercel-specific features (e.g., the marketplace integration). The escape hatch is in the application’s data layer, not the application itself.
How this fits the rest of the stack
The database pattern is also a cost pattern. The database tier, the storage, the bandwidth, the connection count, the connection pool size, and the egress each show up as a line item on the bill, and the team’s mental model for the project cost is the sum of those numbers. The right answer is to know the line items before the project ships, not after. The RunxBuild hosting calculator is the right place to do that exercise — pick the database tier, the storage, the connection count, the replica count, and the bandwidth, and the calculator shows what the database actually costs at the team’s actual usage.
Useful related references:
FAQ
What is Vercel database?
“Vercel database” is a marketing term for Vercel’s database offerings. The offerings include a marketplace for partner databases (Neon, Supabase, Upstash, Turso, etc.) and a few first-party products (Vercel KV for Redis, Vercel Postgres for Postgres, Vercel Blob for object storage).
Is Vercel Postgres the same as Neon?
Yes. As of 2024, Vercel Postgres is Neon under the hood (Vercel acquired the Neon team). The team that uses Vercel Postgres is using Neon, with a Vercel-specific integration.
What is the difference between Vercel KV and Upstash?
Vercel KV is Upstash under the hood, with a Vercel-specific integration. The team that uses Vercel KV is using Upstash, with the Vercel integration. The pricing is the same; the dashboard is the Vercel dashboard instead of the Upstash dashboard.
When should I use Vercel KV vs raw Upstash?
Vercel KV for the team that wants the Vercel integration. Raw Upstash for the team that wants the Upstash dashboard, the Upstash-specific features, or the escape hatch.
When should I use Vercel Postgres vs raw Neon?
Vercel Postgres for the team that wants the Vercel integration. Raw Neon for the team that wants the Neon dashboard, the Neon-specific features, or the escape hatch.
How much does Vercel database cost?
The Vercel plan plus the partner charges. The partner charges are on the partner’s pricing page, not the Vercel plan page. The team’s bill at the end of the month includes both.
Can I leave Vercel and keep my database?
Yes, if the team used the partner’s SDK (or the standard S3/Redis/Postgres client) for the actual operations. The team’s process.env.DATABASE_URL is a standard URL, and the team can point it at a different host. The team that used the Vercel SDK has to refactor.
What is the best database for a Next.js app on Vercel?
It depends on the workload. Neon or Vercel Postgres for serverless Postgres. Supabase for Postgres with real-time. Vercel KV or Upstash for Redis. Vercel Blob or S3 for object storage. The right answer is the partner that fits the workload, not the Vercel wrapper.