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Databricks Lakebase vs Neon

Databricks Lakebase: Databricks' serverless Postgres built on Neon tech, with branching and sync to Delta tables in Unity Catalog. Neon: Serverless Postgres with copy-on-write branching and scale-to-zero, now part of Databricks.

key differences

  • Licensing: Databricks Lakebase is proprietary (Proprietary (Databricks service)); Neon is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0 (storage engine)).

choose lakebase for

  • +Backends for Databricks Apps and AI agents
  • +Online feature and embedding serving from lakehouse pipelines
  • +Operational stores whose data must land in Delta tables
  • +Reverse-ETL style serving of gold tables to applications

best at · OLTP, Feature store, Vector search

choose neon for

  • +Per-pull-request preview databases
  • +AI app builders and agents provisioning databases on demand
  • +SaaS with many small, mostly idle tenant databases
  • +Serverless and edge apps on Vercel or Cloudflare

best at · OLTP, Vector search, RAG

Databricks LakebaseDatabricks' serverless Postgres built on Neon tech, with branching and sync to Delta tables in Unity Catalog.
NeonServerless Postgres with copy-on-write branching and scale-to-zero, now part of Databricks.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Document, Vector
Document, Vector, Spatial
Type
Managed service
Managed service
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Databricks
Databricks (Neon)
First release
2025
2022
Latest version
–
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary (Databricks service)
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0 (storage engine)
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
0.8
30.4
Rank
#604
#86
GitHub stars
–
23.3K
Stack Overflow questions
–
5
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
None
None
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Serverless, Shared storage, Primary replica
Serverless, Shared storage, Primary replica
deployment
Self-hosted
—
—
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
✓
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure
AWS, Azure, Vercel
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
✓
✓
Full-text search
✓
✓
Vector search
✓
✓
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
✓
✓
Triggers
✓
✓
Stored procedures
✓
✓
Materialized views
✓
✓
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
✓
✓
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
✓
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
✓
✓
Branching
✓
✓
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL, PL/pgSQL
SQL, PL/pgSQL
Client languages
Python, Java, Go, JavaScript, Scala
JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, Rust, Ruby, PHP, C#
Best for
OLTP, Feature store, Vector search, RAG
OLTP, Vector search, RAG, Content
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Databricks Lakebase vs Neon: FAQ

What is the difference between Databricks Lakebase and Neon?

Databricks Lakebase: Databricks' serverless Postgres built on Neon tech, with branching and sync to Delta tables in Unity Catalog. Neon: Serverless Postgres with copy-on-write branching and scale-to-zero, now part of Databricks. Licensing: Databricks Lakebase is proprietary (Proprietary (Databricks service)); Neon is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0 (storage engine)).

When should I choose Databricks Lakebase over Neon?

Choose Databricks Lakebase for backends for Databricks Apps and AI agents; online feature and embedding serving from lakehouse pipelines; and operational stores whose data must land in Delta tables. Choose Neon for per-pull-request preview databases; AI app builders and agents provisioning databases on demand; and SaaS with many small, mostly idle tenant databases.

Is Databricks Lakebase or Neon more popular?

Neon ranks #86 on the WhichDB Score (30.4/100) and Databricks Lakebase ranks #604 (0.8/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Databricks Lakebase and Neon open source?

No. Databricks Lakebase is proprietary, closed-source software. Yes. Neon is open source. License: Apache License 2.0 (storage engine).