PlanetScale has introduced a more affordable entry point for its high-performance Metal databases, now offering plans starting at $50 per month, making them more accessible to budget-conscious startups. This new pricing model is available on both AWS and GCP platforms and allows customers to independently allocate CPU and memory from storage size, providing flexibility in meeting specific needs. The Metal databases have demonstrated significant performance enhancements, including reduced latency and increased queries per second, benefiting major clients like Cash App and Intercom. Previously, the $600 per month entry cost was prohibitive for some smaller businesses, but the new M-class clusters, which offer unlimited I/O and a range of configurations, aim to democratize access to these performance advantages. While smaller sizes for Postgres are already available, similar offerings for the Vitess system are pending due to the larger size of its fleet.