Why I built a managed database platform with flat monthly pricing

I got tired of two things: metered database bills that spike when a side project gets traffic, and free tiers that delete your database after a couple weeks of inactivity.

So I built Layerbase (https://layerbase.com). It's a managed database platform where every plan is a flat monthly price, never metered. One account gives you 18 engines in the cloud (PostgreSQL, MySQL, FerretDB, Valkey, ClickHouse, DuckDB, QuestDB, InfluxDB, and more), each with its own query console, automatic backups, and database branching.

The part I care most about: free tier databases are never deleted for inactivity. They hibernate when idle and wake on the next connection in a few seconds. Your weekend project from last year still works.

Pricing is Free, Solo at $5/month, and Pro at $15/month. Dedicated servers start at $35/month with no database or branch limits. The same team also ships Layerbase Desktop, a macOS app for running and browsing local databases, and the Layerbase CLI on npm, which manages 21 engines locally for development, CI, and AI agents.

I'd love feedback from anyone here who has been burned by metered billing or a disappearing free tier. What would it take for you to trust a smaller database host with real data?