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Amazon DynamoDB vs Google Cloud Bigtable

Amazon DynamoDB: AWS's serverless key-value and document store with single-digit-millisecond reads at any scale. Google Cloud Bigtable: Google's managed wide-column store, the original Bigtable, with HBase API and SQL access.

key differences

  • Amazon DynamoDB is primarily a key-value database; Google Cloud Bigtable is wide-column.
  • Only Amazon DynamoDB has transactions, secondary indexes, json, triggers.
  • Only Google Cloud Bigtable has compression.
  • Amazon DynamoDB has a serverless option; Google Cloud Bigtable does not.

choose amazon-dynamodb for

  • +Serverless application backends on Lambda
  • +User profiles, sessions and shopping carts
  • +High-traffic e-commerce and gaming state
  • +IoT device state and metadata

best at · OLTP, Sessions, Cache

choose google-cloud-bigtable for

  • +Time-series and IoT telemetry
  • +Ad-tech user profiles and bidding data
  • +ML feature serving
  • +Financial market data

best at · OLTP, Time-series, IoT

Amazon DynamoDBAWS's serverless key-value and document store with single-digit-millisecond reads at any scale.
Google Cloud BigtableGoogle's managed wide-column store, the original Bigtable, with HBase API and SQL access.
overview
Primary model
Key-Value
Wide-Column
Also supports
Document
Key-Value
Type
Managed service
Managed service
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Amazon Web Services
Google
First release
2012
2015
Latest version
–
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary (AWS service)
ProprietaryProprietary (Google Cloud service)
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
63.3
33.3
Rank
#14
#66
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
14.3K
648
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Active active
Active active
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Strong, Eventual
Strong, Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Serverless
Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
—
—
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS
Google Cloud
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
DynamoDB API, PartiQL
Bigtable API, GoogleSQL
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, C#, .NET, Rust, Ruby
Java, Go, Python, JavaScript, C++, C#, Ruby, PHP
Best for
OLTP, Sessions, Cache, Metadata
OLTP, Time-series, IoT, Feature store
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Amazon DynamoDB vs Google Cloud Bigtable: FAQ

What is the difference between Amazon DynamoDB and Google Cloud Bigtable?

Amazon DynamoDB: AWS's serverless key-value and document store with single-digit-millisecond reads at any scale. Google Cloud Bigtable: Google's managed wide-column store, the original Bigtable, with HBase API and SQL access. Amazon DynamoDB is primarily a key-value database; Google Cloud Bigtable is wide-column. Only Amazon DynamoDB has transactions, secondary indexes, json, triggers. Only Google Cloud Bigtable has compression.

When should I choose Amazon DynamoDB over Google Cloud Bigtable?

Choose Amazon DynamoDB for serverless application backends on Lambda; user profiles, sessions and shopping carts; and high-traffic e-commerce and gaming state. Choose Google Cloud Bigtable for time-series and IoT telemetry; ad-tech user profiles and bidding data; and ML feature serving.

Is Amazon DynamoDB or Google Cloud Bigtable more popular?

Amazon DynamoDB ranks #14 on the WhichDB Score (63.3/100) and Google Cloud Bigtable ranks #66 (33.3/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Amazon DynamoDB and Google Cloud Bigtable open source?

No. Amazon DynamoDB is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Google Cloud Bigtable is proprietary, closed-source software.