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Amazon Aurora vs Amazon RDS

Amazon Aurora: AWS's MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible engine on a shared, six-way replicated storage layer. Amazon RDS: AWS's managed service for six relational engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2.

key differences

  • Amazon Aurora is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Amazon RDS (≤ 10 TB).
  • Horizontal scaling is addon in Amazon Aurora and none in Amazon RDS.
  • Only Amazon Aurora has pub/sub, time travel, branching.
  • Amazon Aurora has a serverless option; Amazon RDS does not.

choose amazon-aurora for

  • +Production MySQL or PostgreSQL backends on AWS
  • +Read-heavy web and SaaS applications
  • +Spiky or dev/test workloads on Serverless v2
  • +Cross-region disaster recovery with Global Database

best at · OLTP, Content, Metadata

choose amazon-rds 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

best at · OLTP, Content, Metadata

Amazon AuroraAWS's MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible engine on a shared, six-way replicated storage layer.
Amazon RDSAWS's managed service for six relational engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Document, Spatial, Vector
Document, Spatial
Type
Managed service
Managed service
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services
First release
2015
2009
Latest version
–
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary (AWS service)
ProprietaryProprietary (AWS service; engine licenses vary)
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
24.9
27.1
Rank
#123
#107
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
1.6K
7K
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Addon
None
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong, Eventual
Strong, Eventual
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Shared storage, Primary replica, Serverless
Primary replica, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
—
—
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS
AWS
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
✓
✓
Full-text search
✓
✓
Vector search
✓
✓
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
✓
✓
Triggers
✓
✓
Stored procedures
✓
✓
Materialized views
✓
✓
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
✓
—
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
—
—
Encryption at rest
✓
✓
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
✓
—
Branching
✓
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL, PL/pgSQL
SQL, PL/pgSQL, T-SQL, PL/SQL
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, C#, PHP, Ruby
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, C#, PHP, Ruby
Best for
OLTP, Content, Metadata, Vector search
OLTP, Content, Metadata, Geo
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Amazon Aurora vs Amazon RDS: FAQ

What is the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS?

Amazon Aurora: AWS's MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible engine on a shared, six-way replicated storage layer. Amazon RDS: AWS's managed service for six relational engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2. Amazon Aurora is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Amazon RDS (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is addon in Amazon Aurora and none in Amazon RDS. Only Amazon Aurora has pub/sub, time travel, branching.

When should I choose Amazon Aurora over Amazon RDS?

Choose Amazon Aurora for production MySQL or PostgreSQL backends on AWS; read-heavy web and SaaS applications; and spiky or dev/test workloads on Serverless v2. Choose Amazon RDS 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.

Is Amazon Aurora or Amazon RDS more popular?

Amazon RDS ranks #107 on the WhichDB Score (27.1/100) and Amazon Aurora ranks #123 (24.9/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS open source?

No. Amazon Aurora is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Amazon RDS is proprietary, closed-source software.