A database for side projects
Three half-finished apps should not mean three bills.
For side projects choosing a paid plan, the problem is often the shape of the price: a free tier that pauses when you are busy elsewhere, a per-project fee that multiplies with every idea, an egress line that appears the month something works. Lathe is one machine for $15 a month, on all month, with as many databases on it as you like.
One machine, all your projects.
- As many databases as you like
- One instance holds any number of Postgres databases. Create and drop them from the portal; the price is for the machine, not per database or per project.
- Never paused on paid plans
- On paid plans, an app you have not touched in two months connects first time when you come back to it. Nothing is switched off for inactivity.
- Never metered
- Storage within the disk and 20 TB of traffic a month are part of the plan. The project that suddenly works does not produce a bill you did not plan for.
- A free plan that says what it is
- 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB disk and 1000 GB of traffic a month, nothing to pay now or later, one per person, and no daily backups. It upgrades to Mini on the same machine, keeping everything on it. Nothing on it quietly becomes a bill: a paid plan is one you choose.
- Real backups, even for a hobby
- On paid plans: a daily image, 7 kept, restored in place, and tested monthly. The side project that turns into a product already has the backups a product needs.
- Room to grow, in place
- When one project outgrows the smallest plan, move up; the engines restart once and the address stays. Nothing to migrate.
Good for
- A developer with several small apps and one budget line
- A weekend project that should still work next spring
- A prototype that might become a product
- Learning Postgres on a machine that behaves like production
Questions
How many projects can share one instance?
As many as the machine's disk and memory hold. Each gets its own database with its own credentials; the plan price covers the machine, not the count.
What happens if I forget about it?
On a paid plan it keeps running and keeps being backed up. The renewal is the plan price each month until you delete it from the portal, which stops billing that day.
Is ${price} a month worth it for a hobby?
Start on the free plan and find out: 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB disk and 1000 GB of traffic a month, nothing to pay now or later, one per person, and no daily backups. It upgrades to Mini on the same machine, keeping everything on it. $15 buys a machine that is backed up and never surprises you, when the project needs one.
Can I take a project out later?
pg_dump the database and restore it anywhere. The traffic is included and the data is yours.
Every number on this page comes from the pricing page's facts.
All your projects, one machine, from $15 a month.
Live about 5 minutes on average after creation on Free or checkout on a paid plan. Paid plans: cancel any time.
Start Free - $0