Neon promotes its "scale to zero" database feature, which allows databases to shut down and incur no compute costs during periods of inactivity while maintaining data storage separately. This feature is particularly beneficial for developers who frequently spin up temporary databases for testing, prototyping, or analysis, as it aligns costs with actual usage and reduces the overhead of managing idle databases. Critics argue that production databases are always active, thus making scale-to-zero irrelevant for real workloads; however, Neon contends that most non-production databases are ephemeral and have idle periods, making this feature cost-effective and efficient for various development environments. Moreover, the analogy of German subway escalators that conserve energy when not in use is employed to illustrate that scale-to-zero databases do not compromise performance when active. Neon enables users to experiment, iterate, and test applications with minimal cost, allowing for more flexible and innovative database strategies, such as creating customer-specific databases with enhanced data isolation and security. By offering a free tier, Neon aims to lower overall costs while supporting a large number of databases, making it an attractive option for both small projects and large-scale operations.