Messaging / developer infrastructureSourced

Case Study: DAT cuts compute 75% at 15K QPS migrating from Neon to PlanetScale Postgres

DAT Systems Case StudySourced & dated by Case Study Desk

Key facts · TL;DR

Company

DAT Systems

Industry

Messaging / developer infrastructure

Challenge

A write-heavy Postgres workload faced quadrupling costs after Neon discontinued its startup plan.

Headline result

~15,000 QPS on a write-heavy Postgres workload using about 75% less compute after migrating from Neon

Key results

75%

Less compute

~one quarter of previous usage

15K QPS

Sustained query load

write-heavy Postgres workload

11M

Events per month

processed

The challenge

DAT Systems runs a write-heavy Postgres workload of roughly 11 million events per month at around 15,000 queries per second, originally on Neon. After Neon's acquisition by Databricks, the startup plan DAT relied on was discontinued, forcing it onto Pay-As-You-Go billing with projected costs quadrupling even after downgrading features.

The solution

DAT migrated its live database to PlanetScale Postgres over a single weekend. Right-sizing the workload on PlanetScale reduced compute, added two complimentary replicas, enabled query observability, and gave the team predictable, controllable costs.

“This wasn't a migration for fun. We analyzed our traffic patterns and needed a platform that gave us cost predictability and operational control without sacrificing performance.”
AD
Ahsan Nabi Dar
Co-founder & CTO, DAT Systems

The results, in context

After migrating from Neon, DAT handles about 15,000 queries per second while using roughly 75% less compute — around one quarter of its previous usage. The move gave DAT cost predictability and operational control without sacrificing performance.

Products used

PlanetScale PlanetScale Postgres