If you want a free managed Postgres database for a project with users in India, three options come up most often: Neon, Supabase and WoWSQL. They're all genuinely free to start. They differ in how much storage you get, whether the database sleeps, and whether there's a region in India at all. Below is a straight comparison. We checked each vendor's own pricing and region pages on 19 October 2026.
Key facts
- WoWSQL Free: $0, 1 project on shared Postgres, 256 MB database, 512 MB file storage, 5 GB bandwidth. Includes auth, realtime and REST/MCP APIs. No credit card. Regions: Mumbai (default) and US East 1.
- Supabase Free: $0, 2 active projects, 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 5 GB egress, 50,000 MAU. Projects pause after 1 week of inactivity. Has a Mumbai region (
ap-south-1).- Neon Free: $0, up to 100 projects, 1 GB storage per project (20 GB account total), 100 CU-hours per project. Scales to zero after 5 minutes. No card. No India region; the nearest is Singapore.
- None of the three includes automatic backups on the free plan.
The comparison
| WoWSQL Free | Supabase Free | Neon Free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Projects | 1 | 2 active | 100 |
| Database storage | 256 MB | 500 MB | 1 GB per project, 20 GB total |
| Compute | Shared Postgres | Shared CPU, 500 MB RAM | 100 CU-hours/project, autoscaling up to 2 CU |
| File storage | 512 MB | 1 GB | 5 GB object storage per project |
| Bandwidth / egress | 5 GB | 5 GB (+5 GB cached) | 5 GB per project |
| Auth included | Yes | Yes, 50,000 MAU | Yes, up to 60k MAU |
| Sleeps when idle | Not stated on the pricing page | Paused after 1 week of inactivity | Compute suspends after 5 minutes (can't be turned off on Free) |
| Region in India | Mumbai (default) | Mumbai available | None; nearest is Singapore |
| Automatic backups | No (Pro and up) | No (Pro: 7 days) | Instant-restore history of 6 hours (1 GB limit) |
| Card needed | No | Not stated | No |
| First paid step | Pro $25/month | Pro from $25/month + compute | Launch, pay as you go |
Sources: wowsql.com/pricing, supabase.com/pricing, supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/regions, neon.com/pricing, neon.com/docs/introduction/regions. Free tiers change often, so re-check before you decide.
Reading the table honestly
On raw allowance, Neon is the most generous. It gives you more projects and more storage per project than either of the others, plus branching. If you only need a database and your app servers can sit in Singapore, Neon's free plan is hard to beat.
Supabase gives you the most product for free: database, auth with 50,000 MAU, storage and edge functions, in a Mumbai region. The catch is the pause after a week of inactivity, which suits demos and hackathon projects better than anything you leave running quietly.
WoWSQL gives you the smallest database (256 MB), but it's in Mumbai by default, includes auth, storage, realtime, REST and an MCP server for AI assistants, and needs no card. Its pricing page doesn't mention pausing free projects. We'd rather you confirm the current behaviour than assume it either way.
What "free" doesn't cover
On every free tier above, plan for these:
- No automatic backups. Run
pg_dumpyourself on a schedule if the data matters. - Cold starts or pauses. Neon's compute wakes on the first query after it suspends. A paused Supabase project has to be restored before it serves traffic.
- Community support only.
- Shared resources. Performance can vary, so don't benchmark production on a free plan.
Latency from India
We won't quote latency numbers, because they depend on your ISP, your app host and the time of day. The rule of thumb is simple: put the database in the same region as your application servers. If your API runs in Mumbai, a Mumbai database avoids a cross-border round trip on every query. Test it yourself:
psql "$DATABASE_URL" -c '\timing on' -c 'select 1;'
Run it from the machine that will run your app, not your laptop.
Which free tier to pick
- Learning SQL or prototyping a database-only app: Neon.
- Hackathon or demo with auth and storage, Supabase-style: Supabase in Mumbai, knowing it pauses.
- A small app with Indian users that you want in Mumbai, with auth, storage and realtime from one Indian vendor: WoWSQL Free.
When you outgrow free
WoWSQL Pro is $25/month. It adds a dedicated Postgres instance for your first project, 10 GB database, 100 GB file storage, 100 GB bandwidth, daily backups with 7-day retention, Edge Functions and email support. Scale is $99/month with 500 GB file storage, priority compute, custom domains and priority and SLA support. Yearly billing saves 7%. Prices are in USD. See pricing.
Because every option here is standard Postgres, pg_dump and pg_restore move you between them if your needs change.
Related reading
- Managed PostgreSQL in India (Mumbai)
- Managed PostgreSQL hosting in Mumbai, India
- Data residency in India for Postgres
- Best Supabase alternatives in 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free managed PostgreSQL hosted in India?
Yes. WoWSQL's Free plan defaults to the Mumbai region, and Supabase's free projects can be created in Mumbai (ap-south-1). Neon has no India region; its nearest is Singapore.
How much storage does WoWSQL's free plan include?
256 MB of database storage, 512 MB of file storage and 5 GB of bandwidth, for one project on shared Postgres.
Do free Postgres databases get backed up?
Not automatically on any of these three. WoWSQL and Supabase start daily backups with 7-day retention on Pro. Neon Free keeps a 6-hour restore window.
Does Supabase's free tier pause?
Yes. Supabase says free projects are paused after one week of inactivity, and you can restore them from the dashboard.
Do I need a credit card for WoWSQL Free?
No. The site states the free tier needs no credit card.