As startups scale and face increasing database costs, particularly with Postgres, compute expenses can become a significant burden despite decreasing storage prices. Neon addresses this challenge by offering autoscaling and scale-to-zero features that adjust compute resources dynamically, ensuring payment only for the resources used without compromising performance or requiring manual intervention. In contrast, Amazon RDS, a popular managed Postgres service, ties compute costs to instance size and usage type, often leading to overprovisioning. To optimize RDS compute costs, strategies include choosing the right database strategy, rightsizing instances, and optimizing queries, though these approaches are time-consuming and error-prone. Neon simplifies this process by using a combination of autoscaling, autosuspend, and a re-architected serverless Postgres solution, allowing for efficient management of isolated databases and reducing unnecessary compute expenses.