Build without breaking the bank.
Leverage the power of industry-leading open-source data technologies while keeping your budget under control.
developer tier
Affordable PostgreSQL, MySQL & Kafka hosting
Fully managed services with the same infrastructure as our production plans, sized for development, side projects, and MVPs. From $5/month for PostgreSQL and MySQL, $35/month for Apache Kafka®.
Get building
$300 in free credits for new accounts · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
Integrations in minutes.
Launch multiple services and link them together instantly.
Zero self-hosting hassle.
Get all the benefits of open-source tools without the burden of maintaining servers, patching software, or managing complex infrastructure yourself.
Scale on your terms.
Stop services to immediately halt billing when you're done, or transition to an enterprise-ready deployment with a single click.
Affordable services, fully managed.
What are Aiven Developer Tier Services?
Developer Tier Services bridge the gap between our Free Tier and Startup Tiers: real, dedicated, open-source managed infrastructure for the price of a coffee, all without forcing you to think about ops.
Each Developer Tier service is:
Fully managed
Aiven handles provisioning, patching, backups, and monitoring
Hosted on the same platform as paid plans
Same APIs, same console, same SLAs apply when you upgrade
Always on
No idle shutdowns, no expired trials
Predictably priced
Flat monthly fee, network and backup costs included
One-click upgrade
Move to a Business or Premium plan without changing connection strings or migrating data
Ready to build?
Get started in three steps
Pick your service
PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Apache Kafka®. Provisions in minutes.
Start building
Connect with your preferred tools. Upgrade to a production plan in one click when you outgrow it.
Compare Dev Tier Services
Every Developer Tier service runs always-on, on dedicated infrastructure, encrypted, with real-time backups and one-click upgrades to production plans.
| Best for | Specs | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PostgreSQL | App backends, APIs, MVPs | 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage, networking included | From $5/month | → View Dev Tier PostgreSQL |
MySQL | Web apps & CMS | 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage, networking included | From $5/month | → View Dev Tier MySQL |
Apache Kafka | Event streaming & microservices | 1 MB/s throughput, 20 topics, 100 partitions, up to 3-day retention, Schema Registry + REST proxy, Kafka Connect compatible | From $35/month | → View Dev Tier Kafka |
What we built on Free Tier Kafka
When we ran our Free Tier Kafka competition, the community shipped projects we couldn't have predicted - from weekend arcade games to systems protecting undersea cables. A few favourites:
Why Aiven
Same platform as paid plans
Identical infrastructure, tooling, and APIs
Transparent pricing when scaling
No hidden fees - see exactly what you'll pay before you upgrade
No vendor lock-in
All our services are open-source, and if you want to leave we’ll help you move
Compliance
SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR & CCPA.
FAQ
Developer Tier Services are paid plans starting at $5/month for PostgreSQL and MySQL, and $35/month for Apache Kafka®. They are intended to bridge the gap between our free and enterprise plans.
Aiven for PostgreSQL®, Aiven for MySQL, and Aiven for Apache Kafka®. We're actively evaluating more services for this tier,watch this page for announcements!
Free Tier services are great for quick experiments and learning, but they shut down after periods of inactivity and have tighter resource caps. Developer Tier services run 24/7 on dedicated VMs (or dedicated Kafka resources), give you more storage and throughput, and include Basic Support.
We don't recommend it for mission-critical production. The Developer Tier services still have limitations compared to our enterprise services but may be good enough for some use cases, for everything else you can For live customer-facing workloads, upgrade to a Business or Premium plan.
Yes. Upgrade to a Business, Premium, or Enterprise plan with one click from the Aiven Console. Your connection string and data are preserved.
No. New accounts include $300 in free credits and no payment details are required to sign up.
You can choose a general geographical area (e.g., North America, Europe, Asia Pacific). To choose a specific cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure) or specific region, upgrade to a Business or Enterprise plan.
Basic Support — ticketed help from the Aiven Support Team, typically with next-business-day response.
Stop managing, start building