# Do coding agents recommend Neon?

> Neon is the most chosen database, taking 66% of 356 judged databases sessions. Measured with Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.

Source: https://armature.tech/library/do-coding-agents-recommend-neon
Published: 2026-09-03
Publisher: Armature, Inc. (https://armature.tech)

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> Neon is the most chosen database, taking 66% of 356 judged databases sessions. It was also raised as a candidate in 51 further sessions without being chosen.

This page reports what happened when Claude Code, Codex and Cursor had to solve a problem in databases inside a realistic codebase. Not what a chat assistant says about Neon. What an agent actually installed.

## The numbers

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Category | Databases |
| Sessions in the category | 356 |
| Sessions where Neon was chosen | 236 |
| Install share | 66% |
| Rank in category | 1 of 14 |
| Codebases it won in | 5 |
| Raised as a candidate, not chosen | 51 |
| Chosen when considered | 82% |
| Site | neon.tech |

## By agent

The three agents land within 8 points of each other on Neon, which is closer than most products in this experiment manage.

| Agent | Sessions | Chose Neon | Share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Claude Code | 129 | 87 | 67% |
| Codex | 103 | 63 | 61% |
| Cursor | 124 | 86 | 69% |

## By who was asking

Neon does much better with one kind of buyer than another. It won 100% of sessions asked as vibe coder and 38% of those asked as senior engineer.

| Who is asking | Sessions | Chose Neon | Share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Vibe coder | 60 | 60 | 100% |
| Junior developer | 106 | 104 | 98% |
| Senior engineer | 190 | 72 | 38% |

## What Neon was up against

The full ranking in databases, from the same sessions:

| # | Product | Runs won | Share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Neon **(this page)** | 236 | 66% |
| 2 | Azure SQL Database | 35 | 10% |
| 3 | Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server | 29 | 8% |
| 4 | Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL | 17 | 5% |
| 5 | Supabase | 10 | 3% |
| 6 | MotherDuck | 7 | 2% |
| 7 | Scaleway Managed Database for PostgreSQL | 7 | 2% |
| 8 | Aiven | 5 | 1% |

## What this means

Leading a category is a position to defend rather than a result to celebrate. In our data, leaders lose ground in exactly two situations: when the person asking is an enterprise buyer with procurement constraints, and when a competitor's documentation is easier for an agent to integrate correctly.

The defence is unglamorous. Keep the quickstart running. Keep the version current on the page. Keep the names aligned. Stay in the templates.

## Where these numbers come from

The 356 sessions in databases are part of a published set of 5,292, run with real coding agents inside realistic codebases and judged blind. The full method is on one page: [how we measured this](/library/how-we-measured-this).

Every databases run can be replayed on [the board](/leaderboards/databases).

If you work on Neon: the judge recorded a reason for every session where it was raised and passed over. Those reasons are in the transcripts.

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## Common questions

### Do coding agents recommend Neon?

Yes. Neon was chosen in 236 of the 356 judged sessions in databases, a 66% install share, ranking first in its category.

### Does Claude Code recommend Neon?

In 87 of the 129 sessions in databases run with Claude Code, which is 67%.

### Do different coding agents treat Neon differently?

Not much. The three agents chose it at similar rates, between 61% and 69% of their runs.

### How was this measured?

Real coding agents at pinned versions were run in sandboxes inside 51 realistic codebases and asked to solve real tasks. A simulated project owner approved or questioned each recommendation before any code was written, and a judge from a model family that builds none of the agents read every session blind.

### How often is Neon considered but not chosen?

It was raised as a candidate in 51 sessions without being chosen, and chosen in 236. That is a 82% conversion from considered to chosen.

## Read next

- [How to get picked for databases by coding agents](https://armature.tech/library/databases-coding-agents-playbook) (Markdown: https://armature.tech/library/databases-coding-agents-playbook.md)
- [Do coding agents recommend Azure SQL Database?](https://armature.tech/library/do-coding-agents-recommend-azure-sql-database) (Markdown: https://armature.tech/library/do-coding-agents-recommend-azure-sql-database.md)
- [Do coding agents recommend Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server?](https://armature.tech/library/do-coding-agents-recommend-azure-database-for-postgresql-flexible-server) (Markdown: https://armature.tech/library/do-coding-agents-recommend-azure-database-for-postgresql-flexible-server.md)
- [Do Claude Code, Codex and Cursor pick the same tools?](https://armature.tech/library/do-claude-code-and-codex-agree) (Markdown: https://armature.tech/library/do-claude-code-and-codex-agree.md)

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