A local alternative to PlanetScale branches
A PlanetScale development branch copies your schema only. Data branching copies schema and data from a backup, with no way to filter anything out, and is billed at production size. dbplex pulls the data to your Mac with personal columns masked.
For Apple Silicon Macs. 7 days free with every feature. No card and no account.
- Development branch
- Schema only
- Data branch
- Full data, no filtering
- Postgres branch
- $5 a month each
- dbplex
- A Mac app, 7 days free
Which one fits
PlanetScale branches are for shipping schema changes safely. dbplex copies are for working with the data.
Pick PlanetScale if
- You want deploy requests: reviewed schema changes merged into production online.
- Your database is too big for a laptop's disk.
- You want branch passwords limited by IP for a team.
Pick dbplex if
- You want real rows in development, with personal columns masked.
- You do not want a second production sized bill for a data branch.
- You want the migration script, and to rehearse it on a throwaway copy before it ships.
- Your agent should work on localhost.
PlanetScale and dbplex, side by side
PlanetScale's branches and a dbplex copy of the same database.
| PlanetScale | dbplex | |
|---|---|---|
| Development branch | Schema only, no rows. | Schema and rows. |
| Data | Data branching, Vitess only: everything from the latest backup, with no way to filter it. | Masked as the copy is pulled on Postgres, Supabase, MySQL, MariaDB, Turso, SQL Server and Oracle. You confirm each column. |
| Cost | A data branch is billed at production size. Postgres development branches are $5 a month each. | $12.99 a month, or $79.99 for a year of updates, after 7 free days. |
| Where it runs | PlanetScale's cloud. | Your Mac, on localhost. |
| Schema changes | Deploy requests, reviewed and merged online. | The Changes tab writes the script, and you can rehearse it on a throwaway copy. In beta. |
| Credentials | Passwords scoped to a branch, limited by IP if you choose. | Local credentials for the copy. Production's stay in your Keychain. |
Questions about PlanetScale and dbplex
Does dbplex work with PlanetScale?
Yes. Paste the connection string of your PlanetScale MySQL or Postgres database. Production is only read.
Do PlanetScale branches include data?
Development branches copy the schema only. Data branching, on Vitess, copies schema and data from the latest backup and cannot filter anything out.
Does dbplex replace deploy requests?
No. dbplex writes the migration script and rehearses it locally; you still apply it to production yourself, through deploy requests or your own tooling.
Sources
What this page says about PlanetScale comes from its own pages, checked on 7 November 2026. If something has changed, tell us and we will fix it.
The databases it copies, and other comparisons
MySQL
PostgreSQLBreak prod. Locally.
Try it on your own database for 7 days. No card and no account.