ElephantSQL alternative
ElephantSQL is gone.Here is a Postgres that stays on.
ElephantSQL was one of the first hosted PostgreSQL services when it launched in 2013, and it has since been discontinued. If an app, a tutorial or a course project of yours still points at an ElephantSQL connection string, it needs a new home. Lathe runs PostgreSQL 17 for you on a dedicated machine of your own, from $15 a month with the storage and 20 TB of traffic included.
What moving here looks like.
- Standard Postgres, a newer version
- PostgreSQL 17, the upstream build. Any driver, ORM or tool that connected to ElephantSQL connects here once it has the new connection string.
- One connection string to change
- A URL for the direct port 5432 and one for the pooled port 6432, TLS required on both. Put it where DATABASE_URL was and deploy.
- Pooling included
- PgBouncer on port 6432 serves many short connections from serverless functions and small web apps without running out of server connections.
- Backups that are tested
- On paid plans: a daily backup, 7 kept, restored in place with the same address, and the latest one restored and checked every month. pg_dump works against your instance whenever you want a copy of your own as well.
- A flat price
- For a paid machine, from $15 a month with storage and 20 TB of traffic a month included. Nothing is metered, so the bill is the number on the pricing page.
- What it is not
- Daily backups. Free has none, so a database you cannot lose belongs on a paid plan, from $15 a month, with daily backups kept 7 days.
Good for
- An app that ran on ElephantSQL and needs a new Postgres
- A tutorial or course project whose instructions still name ElephantSQL
- A small production database that should not depend on a free plan
- Moving to a newer Postgres version while you are moving anyway
Questions
I have a dump from ElephantSQL. How do I restore it?
Create an instance, then run pg_restore --no-owner --no-privileges against the direct port with the connection string from the portal. A plain SQL dump restores with psql instead. Ownership moves to your owner role, which is what those two flags are for.
My dump is from an older Postgres version. Will it restore?
Yes. Restoring into a newer major version is the normal direction. If the old database used an extension that is not on the allowed list, the restore reports that one and carries on with the rest.
What do I change in my app?
The connection string, usually one DATABASE_URL. Keep sslmode=require: the instance accepts TLS connections only.
Is there a free plan?
Yes: 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB disk and 100 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.
Every number on this page comes from the pricing page's facts.
Postgres that stays on, 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