As developers and teams look for scalable, flexible database infrastructure, Neon emerges as a modern serverless PostgreSQL platform. It offers features like autoscaling, branching, and separation of storage and compute—making it ideal for cloud-native apps.

While Neon's official documentation suggests using pgloader for migration from MySQL, that approach requires scripting and command-line tools.

For those looking for a no-code, streamlined experience, DBConvert Streams provides a powerful, real-time migration solution with a friendly web interface.

Why Neon?

Neon provides a cloud-native PostgreSQL environment with:

• Autoscaling — scales compute resources automatically based on demand.
• Branching — spin up isolated database branches instantly for dev/test.
• Separation of compute and storage — optimized for elasticity and performance.
• Pay-as-you-go pricing — ideal for startups and scaling workloads.

🔄 What Is DBConvert Streams?

DBConvert Streams is a no-code, real-time database migration and replication tool. It supports migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL - perfect for transferring data to Neon from any MySQL source, whether it's hosted locally, self-hosted on your own servers, running on cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), or on managed database services like Amazon RDS or Google Cloud SQL.

Key Features

• ✅ Web UI — no CLI or code needed.
• ✅ Real-time CDC (Change Data Capture) sync.
• ✅ Automated schema mapping and transformation.
• ✅ Deployable locally or to the cloud (DigitalOcean, AWS, etc.).

🛠️ Prerequisites

Before starting the migration, make sure you have:

1. Local MySQL database:
   • Host: localhost
   • Port: 3306 (default)
   • Credentials (user, password)
   • Database name
2. Neon PostgreSQL instance:
   • Sign up at neon.tech
   • Create a database project
   • Copy the PostgreSQL connection string from the Neon Console
3. Deployment of DBConvert Streams:
   • Go to: https://streams.dbconvert.com/deploy
   • Choose your preferred deployment (Docker, local binary, or cloud)

🔧 Step-by-Step Migration Process

1. Launch DBConvert Streams

After deployment:

• Open the web interface at:
  http://localhost (for local)
  or
  http://<your_server_ip> (for cloud-hosted)

2. Set Up Source and Target

• Source:
  Choose MySQL, and enter your local database details:
  host=localhost, port=3306, username=root, password=yourpassword, database=mydb
• Target:
  Choose PostgreSQL, and paste your Neon connection string.

For detailed instructions on connecting to Neon, refer to our Neon Connection Guide.

3. Create a Migration Stream

• Select the tables you want to migrate.
• Choose "One-time migration" for transferring data to Neon.
• Start the stream.

4. Monitor Progress

• Use the dashboard to track row-level sync.
• Logs and statistics are available in real time.

5. Verify in Neon

• Connect to your Neon database using psql, or Neon's Viewer.
• Verify schema, data, and constraints.

📊 Real-World Example: Migrating the Sakila Database

To demonstrate the power and simplicity of DBConvert Streams, let's look at migrating the standard Sakila sample database (a widely-used sample database that models a DVD rental store).

The pgloader Approach (Command Line)

Using pgloader requires creating a configuration file like this:

LOAD DATABASE
    FROM mysql://root:password@mysql-source/sakila?useSSL=false
    INTO pgsql://neondb_owner:endpoint=endpoint;[email protected]/neondb?sslmode=allow
WITH include drop, 
     create tables, 
     create indexes, 
     reset sequences,
     workers = 4, 
     concurrency = 1,
     multiple readers per thread, 
     rows per range = 50000,
     drop indexes
SET MySQL PARAMETERS
    net_read_timeout  = '120',
    net_write_timeout = '120'
CAST
    type datetime to timestamptz drop default using zero-dates-to-null,
    type timestamp to timestamptz drop default using zero-dates-to-null,
    type date to date drop default using zero-dates-to-null,
    type tinyint to smallint drop typemod,
    /* and many more type mappings... */

This requires understanding data type mappings, SQL specifics, and executing commands via CLI.

The DBConvert Streams Approach (No-Code)

With DBConvert Streams, the process is dramatically simplified:

1. Select MySQL source and enter connection details for Sakila database
2. Select PostgreSQL target and enter Neon connection string
3. Click to select all tables
4. Start the migration

While both tools successfully migrated the data, DBConvert Streams did it:

• Without requiring coding knowledge
• Without manual type mapping configuration
• With less setup
• Through an intuitive web interface

On this dataset — 3.8 MB, ~47,000 rows — the run took ~1 s against pgloader's ~13 s with hand-written configuration. That is a small database, and most of the gap is setup rather than throughput: read it as how much work each approach asks of you, not as bulk speed on a large migration.

🧩 Where pgloader fits — and where it doesn't

Neon's docs recommend pgloader, and for a one-off bulk load it is a solid choice: mature, scriptable, and good at what it does. The differences that matter here are about what happens after that first load.

• pgloader is CLI-driven; this is a visual, no-code path.
• pgloader ships default casting rules and takes custom CAST rules for the exceptions; here the mapping is handled for you.
• pgloader performs a one-time migration — it has no CDC, so it cannot keep the target in sync afterwards.
• No visual monitoring of an ongoing pipeline.

If you need a single migration and are comfortable on the command line, pgloader will serve you well. If you need the target to keep receiving changes, that is a different job.

DBConvert Streams provides a visual, no-code, production-friendly alternative with CDC and web-based control.

💡 Note: The Sakila database migration in our example transferred approximately 3.8 MB of data containing around 47,000 records. DBConvert Streams offers a free trial with a generous 5 GB data transfer limit - enough to migrate most small to medium-sized databases without any cost.

Need to migrate from AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL, or DigitalOcean? Stay tuned — support’s just as easy.
🌐 Visit https://streams.dbconvert.com/deploy to get started.

Experience the simplicity of no-code database migration and the power of Neon's serverless PostgreSQL platform – together, they represent the modern approach to database management.