| name | planetscale |
| description | PlanetScale serverless MySQL with branching. Use for scalable MySQL. |
PlanetScale
PlanetScale is a serverless database platform compatible with MySQL. It is built on Vitess, the technology used by YouTube/Slack to scale massively.
When to Use
- High Traffic MySQL: When you need "sharding" but don't want to build it yourself.
- Schema Management: excellent "Branching" workflow (Development -> Staging -> Production) without downtime (Online DDL).
- Connections: Handles 100,000s of concurrent connections (Vitess architecture).
Quick Start
Uses standard MySQL drivers.
pscale shell my-database main
Core Concepts
Branching
Treat your database schema like Git code.
- Create a
dev branch from main.
- Apply migrations to
dev.
- Open a "Deploy Request" to merge
dev to main.
- PlanetScale runs the schema change online without locking tables.
Vitess
Abstracts the sharding. Your app sees one big DB, but behind scenes it might be 100 shards.
Non-Blocking Schema Changes
Ghost/PT-OSC style schema changes standard. You never lock the table for "ALTER TABLE".
Best Practices (2025)
Do:
- Use Foreign Keys carefully: PlanetScale supports them now (mostly), but conceptually in sharded systems, application-level joins are often safer/faster.
- Use
pscale CLI: Great developer experience for managing branches.
- Safe Migrations: Use the Branching workflow. Never run
ALTER TABLE directly on production main branch.
Don't:
- Don't use stored procedures/triggers: Vitess generally discourages logic in the DB. Move logic to app.
References
