#122122nd of 173 in Backends, databases and hosting
neon
Serverless Postgres with separated storage and compute, plus branching
Documentation ↗
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- Stars
- 23.3k
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Last commit
- Aug 2026
- Last release
- Jul 2025
- Language
- Rust
Missed the latest GitHub check; these facts may be older.
Overview
Neon replaces the PostgreSQL storage layer with a distributed storage engine made of a pageserver and safekeepers, a redundant WAL service. Compute nodes are stateless Postgres instances on top of it, and timelines can be branched so a branch sees the parent's data while its writes stay isolated. Written in Rust, it can be built and run locally with `cargo neon`; the README points to the hosted free tier as the quick start.
Who it is for: Engineers needing serverless Postgres or studying its storage internals
Strengths
- Branches a timeline; the branch sees parent data and its writes stay isolated
- Stateless Postgres compute on a pageserver plus redundant safekeeper storage
- Local environment via `cargo neon` starts pageserver, safekeeper, broker and endpoints
- Integration tests run across supported Postgres versions, including 17
Weaknesses
- Self-hosting means building from source with a patched Postgres; no package or compose file
- README covers local development only, with no production deployment guide
- Build needs Rust, protoc 3.15+ and many system packages
- Last tagged release is 2025-07-29, well behind recent commits
What it needs
- no GPU
- Docker
- Needs Rust toolchain, protoc 3.15+, PostgreSQL client, Python 3.11+ and poetry (tests only)
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