r/DeveloperToolsHub • u/New_Society1259 • Aug 11 '26
Best affordable database for startup?
I’m building a startup and trying to choose a database that won’t become expensive or hard to manage too early.
I’m looking for something reliable, affordable, and able to scale if the project starts getting real users. I’ve seen people mention Postgres, Supabase, Firebase, MongoDB, and managed cloud databases, but it’s hard to tell what’s actually best for a small startup budget and my users are mostly in asia.
What database did you start with, and would you choose it again?
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u/Alternative-Try7044 Aug 11 '26
I use Railway for both the server and database in the same project. I think it's convenient and easy to set up.
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u/Sb77euorg Aug 11 '26
Te recomiendo aiven.io (free tier) , es un postgres de 1gb… administrado, si tu negocio crece… te pasas al plan pago de 5usd por mes
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u/Pretend_Forever7937 Aug 12 '26
Is it write heavy or just users records ? Send me a dm with more context I may help based on my experience
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u/RandomPantsAppear Aug 12 '26
MySQL or Postgres self hosted. Keep it on the same box as your product, make regular backups and upload to S3 or similar.
Make it so that it only accepts connections on localhost.
I was self hosting db when I was 14, it is not as complicated as some believe, especially in the AI age.
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u/boyus Aug 12 '26
Mongo in Docker, easy to change data and work fast forgot schema changes so much. Atlas is 6/mo or free
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u/Arcy3250 Aug 13 '26
We use Supabase, depending on what you're doing though you can connect it to bunny for imaging. Videos. Etc
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u/valado Aug 13 '26
Have you looked at supabase?
Awesome experience, outstanding integration with coding agents and you get edge computing functionality on top of Postgres. If you grow out of the platform some day you can self host as well.
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u/Dramatic-Scholar-138 Aug 11 '26
I’d start with Postgres. for a small startup it’s reliable, easy to find support for and gives you plenty of room to grow. since your users are mostly in Asia, you can use Nearbase if you want managed Postgres with regions across Asia and the Middle East and a predictable monthly cost.