The best Managed databases
Every option ranked — open-source, self-hostable, and commercial — by our transparent Sovereignty Score, with honest trade-offs so you choose what fits you, not us.
Someone else runs your database. The convenience is real and so is the markup — and this is the category where licences changed most in the last five years.
L3Infrastructure — layer 3 of the AI stack- 1
PostgreSQL
Top pickOpen sourceThe default answer, and JSONB means you may not need a document store.
Free and open source. Managed options exist from every cloud, usually cheaper than Atlas. · in our MongoDB Atlas comparison →
What is PostgreSQL? →98sovereignty - 2
Apache CouchDB
Open sourceApache-2.0 documents, built around offline sync.
Free and open source. Managed hosting available from several providers. · in our MongoDB Atlas comparison →
What is Apache CouchDB? →96sovereignty - 3
FerretDB
Open sourceMongoDB's wire protocol, speaking to Postgres underneath.
Free and open source. You run it alongside your own Postgres. · in our MongoDB Atlas comparison →
What is FerretDB? →95sovereignty - 4
MongoDB Community (self-hosted)
CommercialThe same database, on your own servers, for the price of the servers.
Free to download and run. You pay for servers and the people who operate them. · in our MongoDB Atlas comparison →
What is MongoDB Community (self-hosted)? →70sovereignty - 5
SurrealDB
CommercialDocuments, graph and relational in one engine — but check the licence.
Free to self-host under BSL terms. Managed cloud is paid. · in our MongoDB Atlas comparison →
What is SurrealDB? →68sovereignty
Is it free?
The free tier, its real limits and where you start paying — read from each vendor's own pricing page and dated.
Run these yourself
What each one actually needs — real RAM, honest running cost, and the setup time nobody quotes.
- Self-hosting PostgreSQL 4 GB for a real application database
- Self-hosting Apache CouchDB 4 GB
- Self-hosting SurrealDB 4 GB
Replacing a specific tool?
Head-to-head comparisons for each popular managed databases product.
Straight head-to-heads
Two managed databases tools, side by side — verified facts and a plain verdict.