However you Postgres, we’ve got you covered

Our aim is to make your use of PostgreSQL® in the cloud as easy as possible, however you’re using it. Whether you are just starting to learn the ropes or you're managing a global-scale enterprise database, the platform should adapt to you, not the other way around.

So how can Aiven help?

That depends on what you're doing!

• If you’re a student, a hobbyist, or just want to prototype a quick idea, then you should start with our Free tier. It’s a completely free-forever way to get a real PostgreSQL instance running in minutes, and it’s often a good place to start regardless of your end goal.

• If you’re a developer experimenting with a side project or building an MVP, then the Developer tier, at just $5/month, is a great place to start. While the price is entry-level, the performance is anything but. As Francesco Tisiot explains in his article "🐘 What can you actually achieve with a 5$/month PostgreSQL?", this tier is more than sufficient for a vast range of real-world applications and professional experiments.

• And finally, if you’re running a business-critical application that requires high availability and enterprise features, then you will want to dive straight into the Professional tier (which includes our Startup, Business, and Premium plans). Find out more on our Plans & Pricing page (don't forget to try changing the cloud provider to see comparable costs).

Wherever you start, Aiven makes it easy to switch to another tier or plan as you need. You can upgrade to a higher tier to get more resources or capabilities, or even move back to a lower tier to save money. All at the click of a button in the Aiven console.

And we also have support for startups which we’ll come to at the end of this article!

What does the Free tier do for me?

The Free tier is designed for learning and exploration. It provides a single-node PostgreSQL instance with 1 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 1GB of storage. It’s perfect for learning SQL, trying out that AI-inspired idea, or testing.

Note: Free services may be powered off after a period of inactivity to save resources, but you can always power them back on.

What does the Developer tier do for me?

At $5/month, the Developer tier is the bridge between "just playing around" and "building something real." You get a dedicated VM that never powers off, 8GB of storage, and Basic Support.

As mentioned above, it is surprisingly capable. You can use it to host a production-ready API for a side project, run data analysis on millions of rows, or even experiment with AI using the pgvector extension. It’s the "Goldilocks" tier for individual developers.

What does the Professional tier do for me?

The Professional tier is where Aiven’s "production-grade" features live. This is for users who need:

• High Availability: Automatic failover with standby nodes.
• Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR): The ability to restore your database to particular times (from 2 days to 30, depending on the plan).
• Cloud Choice: Choose exactly which cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.) and which specific region your data lives in.
• VPC Peering: Securely connect your database to your existing cloud infrastructure.

Note the Hobbyist tier doesn't provide high availability, has limited cloud choice, and only supports backup for disaster recovery. It's a bridge between the developer tier and the Startup plan.

How do I choose?

• Choose Free if 1GB of data is enough, and if losing the connection occasionally or having a 20-connection limit doesn't matter.
• Choose Developer if you need an always-on endpoint for a project but don't need high availability yet.
• Choose Professional if your users depend on the app being up 24/7 on the cloud of your choice and you need the safety net of PITR.

What happens when I change tier (and how do I do it)?

Scaling on Aiven is seamless. When you click "Change Plan" in the console, Aiven provisions new infrastructure in the background, synchronizes your data, and performs an automatic DNS switchover.

• Upgrading: Move from a single node (Free/Developer) to a highly available cluster (Business) without manual migration.
• Downgrading: As long as your data fits within the smaller disk limits, you can move back down to save costs.

Are you a startup? We can help

Our Aiven for Startups program is designed to help you scale fast. Eligible companies can receive up to $100,000 in Aiven credits for 12 months. This allows you to use our most powerful Professional plans for free while you find your product-market fit.

Beyond the credits, you get access to technical experts, community events, and the ability to focus entirely on your product instead of your infrastructure.

Apply for Aiven for Startups here

Find out more

Now that you know which tier you want, find out more about how to get the most out of Aiven for PostgreSQL:

• The documentation on our service pricing for all the details.

• pgvector for AI-powered search in Aiven for PostgreSQL®: Learn how to turn your Postgres instance into a vector database for AI-powered applications (applies to any tier).

• Find out about other extensions available on Aiven for PostgreSQL®.

• Understanding High Availability in Postgres: A technical deep dive into how Aiven manages failovers and keeps your data safe in the Professional tier.

• Already have a database elsewhere? Learn how to migrate to Aiven for PostgreSQL with zero or minimal downtime using the console, aiven-db-migrate or pg_dump and pg_restore

• Need to change a service plan? See the documentation for how to do it using our console, Terraform, or the command line.

And if you're ready to get started, create your free account and deploy your first instance in minutes.