PlanetScale development at ZeroPixel
PlanetScale is a managed database platform built by people who ran databases at very large scale, and it brings two things most managed Postgres offerings don't. The first is branching: your schema gets branches like your code does, so a migration is proposed, reviewed and deployed rather than typed into production and hoped over. The second is dedicated hardware with predictable performance instead of shared instances that slow down when a neighbour gets busy.
For a growing product, the practical benefit is that the scary parts of database work stop being scary. Adding a column to a table with millions of rows, changing an index, splitting a table — these are the changes that traditionally mean a maintenance window and a nervous evening. On PlanetScale they're a deploy request that applies without locking the table.
We use it where the data matters and the load is real: products with meaningful traffic, applications with reporting queries that mustn't slow the app down, and businesses moving off a database that has quietly become the bottleneck. Postgres or MySQL — we'll design the schema, write the migrations, tune the indexes and set up the connection handling that serverless applications need.
What we build on PlanetScale
Database work is mostly invisible until it isn't — these are the four pieces that decide whether your product is fast at ten users or ten thousand.
Schema design & modelling
The data model your product actually needs — normalised where it helps, denormalised where it pays, indexed for the queries you really run.
Branching & safe migrations
Schema changes proposed on a branch, reviewed, and deployed without downtime — including the large-table changes everyone else schedules for a Sunday.
Query & index tuning
Finding the queries costing you seconds and pounds, then fixing them with the right indexes — with before-and-after numbers, not assurances.
Migrating off your current database
Moving from a struggling RDS, shared-host MySQL or overloaded Postgres instance, with the data checked row for row before the switch.
Why hire ZeroPixel for PlanetScale work
- Database engineering, not just connection strings
- Any developer can point an app at a database. Schema design, indexing and query planning are what keep it fast under load, and that skill predates every platform — including this one.
- Migrations that don't need a Sunday
- We use branching the way it's meant to be used: every schema change reviewed and deployed like code, with a rollback path. Your product keeps serving traffic while the structure underneath it changes.
- Straight talk about whether you need it
- Plenty of products are perfectly served by Supabase or a modest managed Postgres instance, and we build on those constantly. PlanetScale earns its cost at real scale or where migration risk is genuinely expensive — we'll tell you which one you are.
PlanetScale — common questions
What does PlanetScale give me that a standard Postgres host doesn't?
Two things mainly. Schema branching, which turns database changes from a risky manual step into a reviewed deploy with a rollback path. And dedicated hardware with predictable performance rather than a shared instance whose speed depends on who else is busy. If your product's growth makes database downtime expensive, both are worth paying for.
Postgres or MySQL — which should we use?
Postgres is our default: richer data types, better JSON handling, stronger extension ecosystem, and it's what most modern tooling assumes. MySQL still wins when you're migrating an existing MySQL application or running on Vitess-style horizontal sharding. PlanetScale supports both, so the choice is about your application rather than about the platform.
Can you migrate our existing database without downtime?
In most cases yes — we replicate the existing database, let it catch up, verify row counts and checksums, then cut over in a short window measured in minutes. Where a fully live migration isn't possible, we tell you the honest downtime figure in advance and schedule it for your quietest hour rather than discovering it mid-move.
Does it work with serverless hosting like Vercel?
Yes, and this is one of the places it shines. Traditional Postgres struggles with serverless because every function invocation wants its own connection and the pool runs dry under traffic. PlanetScale's connection handling is designed for exactly that pattern, which removes a whole category of intermittent production errors.
What does database work cost?
A schema design and setup for a new product is usually folded into the build. A standalone performance audit — finding and fixing the queries that are slowing you down — is a small fixed-price piece of work, and typically pays for itself in hosting costs alone. Migrations are quoted on the size and shape of your data after we've looked at it.
Beyond PlanetScale
A stack is a set of choices that have to work together — these are the pieces we most often pair with PlanetScale, and where we do it.
Building with PlanetScale?
Tell us what you're making — we'll reply within one working day with an honest take and a fixed quote.