Amazon Aurora Reviews

Name: Amazon Aurora
Brand: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Rating: 4.2 (20 reviews)

4.2 out of 5

20 reviews
100% willing to recommend

What is Amazon Aurora?

Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud, that combines the performance and availability of traditional enterprise databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases.

Get the Amazon Aurora Buyer's Guide and find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Aurora, SQL Server, Teradata and more!

Amazon Aurora is the #7 ranked solution in top Relational Databases. PeerSpot users give Amazon Aurora an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. Amazon Aurora is most commonly compared to SQL Server: Amazon Aurora vs SQL Server. Amazon Aurora is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 72% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 25% of all views.

Helped 864,155 peers since 2012

Featured Amazon Aurora reviews

Adnan Shafiq

Associate Vice President - Database Management (Principal Solutions Architect) at Northbay

Amazon Aurora ( /products/amazon-aurora-reviews ) provides up to fifteen to sixteen read replicas. It replicates data across multiple Availability Zones, ensuring high availability and geographical redundancy, which can be considered a GR instead of a DR. As a managed service, maintenance tasks like backup and restore are handled by AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ), saving my organization significant time and money. Additionally, its fast cloning feature allows us to create a new clone from a large database swiftly, similar to a zero-copy cloning feature in Snowflake ( /products/snowflake-reviews ). This makes Amazon Aurora a compelling choice for my organization.

Read full review

Rubens Oliveira

Data & Solution Archtect at Enkel

Amazon Aurora's best features are about scaling up and scaling down, which is perfect. This database has many options for tuning, and it's possible to adjust according to the needs of the customers. It's a great database. The automated backup feature is effective. A nice feature is that last week, I made a snapshot of my MySQL database, and I restored this snapshot and migrated it from MySQL to Amazon Aurora MySQL. It's perfect. Amazon Aurora's scaling up and scaling down is helpful for cost efficiency because the cost is more controlled. For example, when I need one cluster for two nodes, if I have a special week, I can scale up. For one hour, I can create a scheduled automatic scale, and when this period finishes, all capacity goes down. With Amazon Aurora, you can have more control over money regarding FinOps.

Read full review

Girish Mukim

AWS Architect at IBM

One of the most valuable features is storage scaling. Depending on storage requirements, AWS enables auto-scaling of storage. In non-AWS environments, adding storage typically requires downtime. Furthermore, AWS provides out-of-the-box monitoring for performance to ensure there are no performance bottlenecks, and offers the option to switch to higher performance storage for improved performance. Another advantage is that with AWS handling administration, responsibilities like database provisioning and maintenance are significantly reduced. Customers can create services and start using them immediately without worrying about managing hardware or creating databases.

Read full review

Amazon Aurora mindshare

As of August 2025, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora in the Relational Databases Tools category stands at 2.9%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools

PeerResearch reports based on Amazon Aurora reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	Relational Databases Tools	Aug 1, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Aug 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	Amazon Aurora vs SQL Server	Aug 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	Amazon Aurora vs Oracle Database	Aug 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	Amazon Aurora vs SAP HANA	Aug 1, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
SQL Server	4.2	16.6%	93%	269 interviews Add to research
Teradata	4.1	5.1%	87%	76 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

Amazon Aurora's most valuable features include automated scalability, seamless maintenance, multi-region redundancy, high availability, and replication capabilities. Additionally, its compatibility with MySQL and PostgreSQL enhances ease of use, while serverless functionality optimizes cost efficiency. Users appreciate its SQL standardization, performance management, automated backups, and integration with AWS services. The reader endpoint supports efficient database connections, and the ability to manage large-scale databases without maintenance windows is highly praised.

"Amazon Aurora's best features are about scaling up and scaling down, which is perfect."
"Amazon Aurora is built on community databases and AWS has added additional features to it, allowing customers to have enterprise-level features at a lower cost."
"My overall experience with Amazon Aurora is very positive. I rate it ten out of ten for its reliability and efficiency."

Room for Improvement

Amazon Aurora faces challenges with cost-effectiveness and a need for broader database engine compatibility. Users seek better developer support, more automated update systems, and robust comparison tools. There's feedback on performance issues, particularly with scalability and tuning. Greater integration with Oracle and enhanced PostgreSQL support is requested. Users also highlight a demand for tutorials, improved migration processes, and options for handling urgent patches. More AI features and flexible memory setups are desired, and queries sometimes face execution inconsistencies.

"I don't use Amazon Aurora's global database feature; I just use the local feature."
"Amazon Aurora should upgrade its base PostgreSQL versions more frequently and offer all PostgreSQL extensions."
"A challenge I noticed is during migration from PostgreSQL RDS to Amazon Aurora. There are technical challenges, such as the inability to provision the database using a PostgreSQL snapshot directly."

ROI

Switching from Amazon RDS to Amazon Aurora reduced costs by nearly thirty percent for larger Oracle instances. Aurora saves time and improves operational costs while enhancing service performance with MySQL and PostgreSQL support. Customers experience nearly $60,000 annual savings and significant manpower cost reductions compared to on-premises setups. Users note higher customer satisfaction and service availability. Return on investment varies, often involving reserved instances, but monetary savings and reliability gains are significant.

Pricing

Amazon Aurora users find pricing variable based on instance types and usage, with no licensing costs involved. While some consider it expensive, others view it as reasonable due to its managed service benefits and performance. Monthly billing and cost-efficient features compared to on-premises databases are noted, with emphasis on effective management of cloud expenses. Aurora's pricing is often compared to RDS, offering additional functionalities and fluctuating based on performance and operational demands.

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"There is no need to buy a license for the product. We can pay as per the use case."
"It is an expensive solution."

Popular Use Cases

Amazon Aurora is primarily used by organizations for scalable, high-availability relational database management, particularly with MySQL and PostgreSQL engines. Businesses utilize it for data storage, payment solutions, and internal applications, benefiting from its auto-scaling and serverless capabilities. It facilitates seamless migration from other database systems, offers enterprise-level features at lower costs, and is favored for its efficiency in handling backend services and comprehensive business intelligence solutions.

Service and Support

Amazon Aurora's customer service is rated highly by users with business profiles, as support is quick and efficient. Enterprise-level and 24/7 plans ensure prompt responsiveness. Free trial users encounter limited service, impacting those conducting evaluations. Issues have been noted with initial support knowledge, while experienced engineers offer valuable assistance. Some users find documentation sufficient. Support quality is seen improving with specialists handling complex cases, though expansion has affected consistency. Aurora support remains less accessible for personal accounts.

Deployment

Users found Amazon Aurora's initial setup straightforward and manageable. Many appreciated its ease, noting minimal time required, especially with the use of AWS Management Console and tools like Terraform. Even though some referenced documentation, it was rated positively. Maintenance is offloaded to Amazon, reducing team requirements. Migration is possible with available features, and infrastructure setup is convenient with the use of AWS resources, allowing for an easy spin-up of the database.

Scalability

Amazon Aurora is reported to be highly scalable, supported by AWS's management, which handles scaling as data grows. Users appreciate its automatic resource scaling without downtime. Many rate scalability positively, especially for handling large data and supporting high-performance needs across industries. Its ability to adapt to increased usage and multiple regions is frequently highlighted. Some mention the importance of scalability in their transition from on-premises systems to the cloud.

Stability

Amazon Aurora is praised for its high stability, scoring between eight and ten. Several users report no downtimes or major issues, while a few encountered minor problems such as force releases and a challenge with log retention. Those using dedicated instances note some hiccups but acknowledge improvements. Aurora is valued for high availability and performance, meeting expectations from AWS services. Migration glitches are mentioned, but post-migration stability remains reliable.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Amazon Aurora Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

25%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Healthcare Company

Retailer

University

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Construction Company

Media Company

Comms Service Provider

Energy/Utilities Company

Hospitality Company

Wholesaler/Distributor

Real Estate/Law Firm

Transportation Company

Legal Firm

Educational Organization

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Sports Company

Non Profit

Outsourcing Company

Performing Arts

Compare Amazon Aurora with alternative products

Learn more about Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora is up to five times faster than standard MySQL databases and three times faster than standard PostgreSQL databases. It provides the security, availability, and reliability of commercial databases at 1/10th the cost. Amazon Aurora is fully managed by Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), which automates time-consuming administration tasks like hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backups.

Amazon Aurora features a distributed, fault-tolerant, self-healing storage system that auto-scales up to 64TB per database instance. It delivers high performance and availability with up to 15 low-latency read replicas, point-in-time recovery, continuous backup to Amazon S3, and replication across three Availability Zones (AZs).

Visit the Amazon RDS Management Console to create your first Aurora database instance and start migrating your MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.