[narrowingorbits]

This makes sense. But, for many (at least bootstrapping) startups, $1800/mo for the database is not in the realm of the possible. Is not having to deal with (future) sharding headaches "worth" that much? Sure. But that doesn't mean it's possible.

So by pricing us out of the entry level, you will forgo having startups build their platforms on it and get hooked (while it's still at 1-node mysql scale).

When the sharding headache hits and they're scrambling to scale, will they switch to Spanner? Maybe. Probably. They'll want to, anyway. But there is a big market that will be missed.

[matt2000]

I think I agree with you. Most databases these days get adopted by being open source, or pretty inexpensive for hobby projects. That lets engineers experiment with them, get comfortable and then recommend them for a major project. I'm not even going to get started with spanner, so I'm not sure how I would build up the confidence to use it in a major deployment.

[time4tea]

Really?? How much does a person cost per month? You could avoid lots of fiddling for many people just by using appropriate tools. Applies for everything, not just this.

[tdfx]

But that person needs to know the appropriate tool to use, given their experience. They are going to gravitate towards services they're familiar with, and by pricing things on the high end, you'll reduce the number of people who get to play with it.

[narrowingorbits]

As I said, that makes sense, and I agree. That does not mean it's financially possible.