Amazon RDS
activeby Amazon Web Services · since 2009 · also known as RDS, Amazon Relational Database Service
AWS's managed service for six relational engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2.
Overview
Amazon RDS is AWS's long-running managed service for standard relational engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and IBM Db2. AWS handles provisioning, patching, automated backups with point-in-time restore, Multi-AZ failover (including the two-readable-standby cluster option) and read replicas, while you keep the stock engine behavior and choose instance and storage types. RDS Custom allows OS-level access for Oracle and SQL Server, and RDS Proxy pools connections. It is the safe default when you want a familiar engine on AWS without Aurora's proprietary storage layer or pricing, though you get vertical scaling only and must plan major-version upgrades.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Stock engines with predictable behavior and easy migration in or out
- +Six engines, including licensed Oracle, SQL Server and Db2
- +Automated backups, point-in-time restore and Multi-AZ failover
- +Blue/green deployments for safer upgrades
- +RDS Proxy for connection pooling from Lambda and microservices
Trade-offs
- −Vertical scaling only; no built-in write sharding
- −Failover is slower than Aurora's shared-storage design
- −Storage and IOPS tuning (gp3/io2) adds operational decisions
- −AWS-only and no superuser access to the instance
Great for
- +Lift-and-shift of existing PostgreSQL, MySQL or Oracle apps to AWS
- +Standard web and line-of-business application backends
- +Licensed commercial databases without managing servers
- +Cost-sensitive workloads where Aurora is overkill
Think twice for
- −Horizontal write scaling
- −Multi-cloud or on-premises deployments
- −Workloads needing scale-to-zero
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 14 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Medium · ≤ 10 TB
- Horizontal scaling
- None
- Multi-region
- Read replicas
- Transactions
- Full ACID
- Consistency
- Strong, Eventual
- Schema
- Strict
- Architecture
- Primary replica, Client server
- Query languages
- SQL, PL/pgSQL, T-SQL, PL/SQL
Vertical scaling up to 64 TiB storage per instance; up to 15 read replicas (engine-dependent), including cross-region.
Deployment
available on · AWS
Ecosystem
Alternatives to Amazon RDS
AWS's MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible engine on a shared, six-way replicated storage layer.
amazon-rds vs amazon-aurora →Google Cloud's managed MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server, with an Enterprise Plus tier for fast failover.
amazon-rds vs google-cloud-sql →Microsoft's managed community PostgreSQL, with zone-redundant HA, DiskANN vectors and Citus elastic clusters.
amazon-rds vs azure-database-for-postgresql →Microsoft's always-current managed SQL Server engine, from free serverless databases to 128 TB Hyperscale.
amazon-rds vs azure-sql-database →The extensible, standards-first open-source relational database.
amazon-rds vs postgresql →The web's default open-source SQL database, now on calendar versioning with 9.7 as the LTS line.
amazon-rds vs mysql →Amazon RDS FAQ
What is Amazon RDS?
Amazon RDS is a relational database by Amazon Web Services, first released in 2009. Amazon RDS is AWS's long-running managed service for standard relational engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and IBM Db2. AWS handles provisioning, patching, automated backups with point-in-time restore, Multi-AZ failover (including the two-readable-standby cluster option) and read replicas, while you keep the stock engine behavior and choose instance and storage types. RDS Custom allows OS-level access for Oracle and SQL Server, and RDS Proxy pools connections. It is the safe default when you want a familiar engine on AWS without Aurora's proprietary storage layer or pricing, though you get vertical scaling only and must plan major-version upgrades.
Is Amazon RDS open source?
No. Amazon RDS is proprietary, closed-source software.
Does Amazon RDS support ACID transactions?
Yes. Amazon RDS supports full ACID transactions, with strong, eventual consistency.
Does Amazon RDS scale horizontally?
Amazon RDS does not scale horizontally; it runs on a single node, so you scale it up rather than out. It is comfortable at medium scale (≤ 10 TB). It supports cross-region read replicas.
How can I run Amazon RDS?
You can use the vendor's managed cloud. It is available on AWS.
What is Amazon RDS best for?
Amazon RDS is a strong fit for lift-and-shift of existing PostgreSQL, MySQL or Oracle apps to AWS; standard web and line-of-business application backends; and licensed commercial databases without managing servers. Think twice for horizontal write scaling.
What are the best alternatives to Amazon RDS?
Common alternatives to Amazon RDS include Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud SQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database and PostgreSQL. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is Amazon RDS?
Amazon RDS ranks #107 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (27.1/100), and #36 among relational databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.