Pricing Units, Proprietary Limits & Migration Complexity
The operational fine print U.S. SaaS founders and small business owners check before committing.
| Evaluation Dimension | Kiln | Neon |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price & Billing Unit How your monthly bill scales | Free / $15/mo Indie Pro Plan Flat Workspace Plan | Free / $19/mo Launch Serverless Compute CU-hrs + Storage |
| Free Tier & Included Quotas Sandbox vs production allowance | Kiln Free / Starter Tier tier (core forms, surveys & lead capture capabilities); Indie Pro Plan upgrades start at $15/mo | Free tier: 0.5 GB Postgres storage, 190 compute hours/mo, instant DB branching |
| Proprietary Limits & Gotchas Caps, lock-in & overage cliffs | Kiln tier notes — Flat-Rate Small Business Pricing: Founder-friendly transparent pricing; Full API & Webhooks: Modern web & API access | Scales to zero after 5m idle (~300ms cold wake); Launch includes 10 GB storage & 300 compute hrs |
| Migration Complexity Engineering & ops switching effort | Low (< 30 mins) Configure Kiln (Flat-Rate Small Business Pricing, Full API & Webhooks) and import existing forms, surveys & lead capture records | Low (< 30 mins) 100% wire-compatible Postgres — run pg_dump/pg_restore or Neon Import Assistant |
| Target Company Stage Best operational fit | Solo Founders & Forms, Surveys & Lead Capture SMBs | Solo to Series B Engineering |
| Data Privacy & Compliance U.S. & enterprise governance | GDPR / CCPA ReadyFlat-Rate Small BusinessTransparent USD Pricing | SOC 2 Type IIHIPAA (Scale)ISO 27001AWS US Regions |
Interactive Workload & Infrastructure Cost Simulator
Compare realistic monthly & annual platform spend by production workload stage (not fake per-seat math).
Kiln: Flat Workspace Plan
Neon: Serverless Compute CU-hrs + Storage
Estimated Annual Savings with Kiln: $48/yr
Saves ~21% annually at this workload tier based on published USD rates.
Technical Capability Matrix
Side-by-side feature, API, and data-ownership checklist.
| Feature Specification | Kiln | Neon |
|---|---|---|
| Flat-Rate Small Business Pricing pricing | Supported Founder-friendly transparent pricing | Supported Transparent usage/tier pricing |
| Full API & Webhooks developer | Supported Modern web & API access | Supported Developer-first SDK & REST API |
| Built-In AI Automation ai | Not Included | Supported Modern SaaS workflow integration |
Official Published USD Pricing Tiers
Verified plan structure for Kiln and Neon.
Kiln Plans USD Verified
Free / Starter Tier
monthly
Indie Pro Plan
monthly
Neon Plans USD Verified
Developer Free Tier
monthly
Team / Pro Plan
monthly
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Frequently Asked Questions
Key pricing, quota, migration, and security answers for Kiln vs Neon.
What is the main difference between Kiln and Neon in 2026?
Kiln (Free / $15/mo Indie Pro Plan, billed by flat workspace plan) is best suited for: A WebGPU alternative to transformers.js, 2.2× faster (median) By contrast, Neon (Free / $19/mo Launch, billed by serverless compute cu-hrs + storage) is best for: Closest serverless branching experience to PlanetScale, built natively on standard PostgreSQL.
How do Kiln and Neon compare on free tiers and USD pricing?
Kiln: Kiln Free / Starter Tier tier (core forms, surveys & lead capture capabilities); Indie Pro Plan upgrades start at $15/mo. Neon: Free tier: 0.5 GB Postgres storage, 190 compute hours/mo, instant DB branching. Always compare based on your real workload metric (Flat Workspace Plan vs Serverless Compute CU-hrs + Storage) rather than headline base tier alone.
What proprietary feature limits or overages should founders watch out for?
On Kiln: Kiln tier notes — Flat-Rate Small Business Pricing: Founder-friendly transparent pricing; Full API & Webhooks: Modern web & API access. On Neon: Scales to zero after 5m idle (~300ms cold wake); Launch includes 10 GB storage & 300 compute hrs.
How difficult is migrating from Neon to Kiln, and what compliance is supported?
Estimated migration effort to Kiln is Low (< 30 mins) (Configure Kiln (Flat-Rate Small Business Pricing, Full API & Webhooks) and import existing forms, surveys & lead capture records). Security & data governance signals for Kiln include GDPR / CCPA Ready, Flat-Rate Small Business, Transparent USD Pricing, while Neon offers SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA (Scale), ISO 27001, AWS US Regions.
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