A Thorough Comparison of Completely Free, Always-On Database Services (2026 Edition)

For small-scale services and prototype development, I compared and evaluated completely free database services that can run 24/7/365 while still ensuring security.

Introduction

In personal projects and the early stages of a startup, you need a reliable database while keeping infrastructure costs down. In this article, I’ll thoroughly compare the completely free database services available as of 2026, based on their official documentation.

Selection Criteria

For this article, I targeted services that meet the following conditions:

• 24/7/365 always-on operation: No sleeping or automatic shutdown
• Security: SSL/TLS, authentication, and access control available
• Completely free: No credit card required, free to use indefinitely
• Suitable for small-scale services: Specs sufficient for prototypes and personal projects

Detailed Service Comparison

Supabase

An open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL.

Free Plan Specs

• Database: 500MB PostgreSQL
• Storage: 1GB
• Number of projects: Up to 2
• Monthly active users: 50,000
• Edge Functions: 500,000 invocations/month
• Bandwidth: 5GB/month

Security Features

• SSL/TLS connections
• Row Level Security (RLS)
• Built-in authentication (Email, OAuth, Magic Link)
• API key management

⚠️ Important Limitations

• Projects are automatically paused after 7 days of inactivity
• No backups
• No SLA

Reference: Supabase Pricing

Turso

An edge database service built on SQLite.

Free Plan Specs

• Storage: 9GB (increased from the previous 5GB)
• Number of databases: 500 (substantially increased in 2025)
• Monthly active databases: 100
• Row reads: 500 million rows/month
• Row writes: 10 million rows/month

Security Features

• TLS encryption
• Token-based authentication
• Distributed execution at the edge

Highlights

• Lightweight, SQLite-compatible
• Low latency via global distribution
• Always-on, no automatic shutdown

Reference: Turso Pricing, Database Freedom Day

MongoDB Atlas

A NoSQL document-oriented database service.

M0 Free Plan Specs

• Storage: 512MB
• Memory: 32MB for sorting
• Connections: Up to 500
• Throughput: Up to 100 operations/second
• Per project: Up to 1 cluster

Security Features

• TLS/SSL connections
• IP whitelisting
• User authentication and permission management (RBAC)
• Data encryption

Highlights

• Always-on, no expiration
• Atlas Search available (with limits)
• Triggers and Charts available
• No automatic backups

Reference: MongoDB Pricing, Atlas Free Cluster Limits

Firebase Firestore

Google’s NoSQL document database service.

Free Plan Specs (per day)

• Storage: 1GB
• Document reads: 50,000/day
• Document writes: 20,000/day
• Document deletes: 20,000/day
• Network egress: 10GB/month

Security Features

• Security Rules
• Firebase Authentication integration
• SSL/TLS connections
• Google’s security infrastructure

Highlights

• Always-on (Google infrastructure)
• Real-time synchronization
• Offline support
• Authentication is also free

Reference: Firebase Pricing, Firestore Quotas

CockroachDB Serverless

A distributed SQL database service that is PostgreSQL-compatible.

Free Plan Specs

• Storage: 10GB/month (※ the official information varies slightly)
• Request Units: 50 million RU/month
• SLA: 99.99% uptime guarantee

Security Features

• TLS connections required
• Organization and user management
• Audit logs
• Data encryption

Highlights

• Always-on, auto-scaling
• PostgreSQL-compatible
• High availability
• Can start without a credit card

Reference: CockroachDB Pricing, CockroachDB Serverless: Free. Seriously.

Comparison Table

Service	Type	Storage	Uptime Guarantee	Auto-shutdown	PostgreSQL-compatible	Main Limitation
Turso	SQLite	9GB	○	None	-	500M row reads/month
CockroachDB	Distributed SQL	10GB	○ (99.99%)	None	○	50M RU/month
Firebase	NoSQL	1GB	○	None	-	50K reads/day
MongoDB Atlas	NoSQL	512MB	○	None	-	100 ops/sec
Supabase	PostgreSQL	500MB	△	Pauses after 7 days	○	Requires periodic access

Recommendations by Use Case

Personal Projects / Prototypes (small data volume)

Recommended: Supabase (⚠️ requires periodic access)

• Integrated authentication, storage, and real-time features
• Easy to work with thanks to PostgreSQL
• Since it pauses after 7 days of inactivity, you need periodic health checks via cron or similar

Personal Projects / Prototypes (always-on priority)

Recommended: Turso

• Large capacity at 9GB
• Lightweight, SQLite-compatible
• Fast thanks to edge delivery
• Fully always-on

Development with Global Expansion in Mind

Recommended: Firebase Firestore

• Google’s global infrastructure
• Real-time synchronization
• Offline support
• Integrated authentication

Development with Future Scaling in Mind

Recommended: CockroachDB Serverless

• 99.99% SLA
• PostgreSQL-compatible for easy migration
• High availability via distributed architecture
• Smooth migration to paid plans

Development with NoSQL

Recommended: MongoDB Atlas

• Industry-standard NoSQL
• Flexible, document-oriented
• Rich set of tools and drivers
• Always-on

Security Considerations

SSL/TLS Connections

Supported as standard across all services.

Access Control

Service	Authentication Method	Access Control
Supabase	RLS, API Key	Row-level security
Turso	Token	Per-database
MongoDB Atlas	RBAC	Per-collection
Firebase	Security Rules	Per-document
CockroachDB	User management	Per-table

Data Encryption

Encryption in transit (TLS) is enabled across all services. For encryption at rest, please check each service’s official documentation.

Recommended Ranking (for small-scale services)

1. Turso - Large capacity (9GB), always-on, edge delivery
2. CockroachDB - SLA guarantee, PostgreSQL-compatible, high availability
3. Firebase - Google infrastructure, real-time features
4. MongoDB Atlas - NoSQL standard, rich ecosystem
5. Supabase - Feature-rich, but watch out for the 7-day automatic pause

Conclusion

As of 2026, there are several options for completely free, always-on database services.

Turso is ideal for personal projects thanks to its large 9GB capacity and always-on operation. CockroachDB Serverless offers a 99.99% SLA guarantee, making it suitable when you need production-level reliability. Firebase Firestore lets you leverage Google’s infrastructure and is ideal when you need real-time features.

Supabase is feature-rich, but since it automatically pauses after 7 days of inactivity, you’ll need to set up a mechanism for periodic access if always-on operation is required.

Choose the service that best fits your project’s requirements.

That’s all.

I hope you find this helpful.