Amazon Aurora vs Amazon Aurora Serverless comparison

Amazon Aurora and Amazon Aurora Serverless are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. Amazon Aurora is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5, while Amazon Aurora Serverless is ranked #22 with an average rating of 9.0. Amazon Aurora holds a 3.0% mindshare in SQL, compared to Amazon Aurora Serverless’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Aurora users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Amazon Aurora Serverless users who would recommend it.

Amazon Aurora

Read 18 Amazon Aurora reviews

2,410 Views
1,575 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon Aurora Serverless

Read 3 Amazon Aurora Serverless reviews

115 Views
47 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora Serverless

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Amazon Aurora and Amazon Aurora Serverless compete in the cloud database services category. Amazon Aurora Serverless seems to have the upper hand due to its flexible scaling and cost-efficiency which cater to variable workloads.

Features: Amazon Aurora offers high availability, automated backups, and traditional scaling capabilities. Amazon Aurora Serverless provides automatic scaling based on demand, a pay-as-you-go model, and flexibility for variable workloads.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Aurora Serverless features on-demand deployment, simplifying setup and reducing time requirements. Amazon Aurora requires more initial planning. Both provide comprehensive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon Aurora involves higher setup costs but delivers strong ROI for steady workloads with its performance and durability. Amazon Aurora Serverless minimizes upfront costs with flexible pricing, offering cost efficiency for varying usage patterns.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Aurora vs. Amazon Aurora Serverless Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Aurora vs. Amazon Aurora Serverless

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Aurora

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Amazon Aurora Serverless

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

22nd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora is 3.0%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon Aurora Serverless is 0.3%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Adnan Shafiq

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

High availability and geographical redundancy ensure reliable performance and cost efficiency

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.

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MohitGupta3

Cloud Infrastructure Architect - AWS at Infopro Digital

Seamless growth management through serverless efficiency and reasonable pricing

The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora Serverless is its serverless nature, which means I do not have to maintain the underlying infrastructure. Additionally, it is highly scalable, and its pricing model is favorable. Aurora's automatic scaling greatly enhances our operational efficiency by eliminating the need to set specific thresholds and preventing client data access issues due to uneven growth. Its serverless setup allows us to manage costs effectively. Other notable features include direct integration with tools like SFTP Go for media file uploads, automatic backups ensuring data recovery, and its scalability in terms of handling growing database demands.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The provision of custom read and write endpoints eliminates the need for managing a separate proxy load balancer."

"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."

"One of the most valuable features is storage scaling."

"Aurora's compatibility with MySQL or PostgreSQL benefited our database management. The migration from on-premise MySQL to Aurora was similar, so we didn't need to change our source code."

"Aurora's features that I find the most beneficial include its database backup strategy, performance options, and input-output operations."

"The solution’s scalability is good since we don’t need to take a maintenance window during unpredictable workloads. I like the solution’s behind-the-scenes happenings. It is a great feature."

"One of the standout features of Amazon Aurora is that we do not need to maintain disaster recovery or manage availability zones."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora is SQL standardization, it doesn't have its own syntax which is good. It has a lot of hands-off self-management type of activities, such as log rolling and auto-scaling."

More Amazon Aurora pros

"Aurora could improve its affordability, even though its price is very completive compared to DBs as SLQ Server."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora Serverless is its serverless nature, which means I do not have to maintain the underlying infrastructure."

"Amazon Aurora Serverless is easy to scale, offering a cluster-based shared scaling model with options for Autoscale."

Cons

"There is improvement needed to have more developer focus. Additionally, it would be helpful to have a stand-alone solution outside of Amazon. Amazon has a tendency to favor developing web-based clients, which may not always provide the fastest or most responsive solution as desired."

"In Oracle, tools like Veridata allow for comparing databases and certifying data accuracy, even offering repair capabilities, which are missing in Aurora. There should be a similar comparison tool in Aurora."

"The pricing could improve. It should be reduced."

"One of the most valuable features is storage scaling."

"I would like to see more AI-related features in future releases."

"While Amazon Aurora meets your current scaling and storage needs, there is room for improvement in cryptography and scalability compared to other databases."

"It is a bit costly. The features are quite good, and I wouldn't say it requires any technical improvements. But from a cost perspective, some clients wouldn't go for Aurora because of that."

"It would have been helpful if they had provided some benchmarking numbers."

More Amazon Aurora cons

"Aurora could improve its affordability, as it is currently considered a bit expensive."

"Amazon Aurora could improve its detailed monitoring, especially in CloudWatch, to provide more precise query level insights."

"Amazon Aurora Serverless could benefit from a few more security features, particularly in terms of its accessibility."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution."

"The tool’s pricing depends on the instance type. For cost optimization purposes, we use the result instance category."

"It is quite expensive."

"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."

"The price could be lower compared to its competitors."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Aurora?

Aurora's compatibility with MySQL or PostgreSQL benefited our database management. The migration from on-premise MySQL to Aurora was similar, so we didn't need to change our source code.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Aurora?

Amazon Aurora is not very expensive as other solutions with similar features from other vendors come at almost the same cost. I rated it as two to three on a scale where ten is very expensive.

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What needs improvement with Amazon Aurora?

Amazon Aurora should upgrade its base PostgreSQL ( /products/postgresql-reviews ) versions more frequently and offer all PostgreSQL extensions. Keeping extensions up-to-date with PostgreSQL release...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Aurora Serverless?

In my experience, Aurora is a bit expensive. The costs depend on the size of the database.

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What needs improvement with Amazon Aurora Serverless?

Aurora could improve its affordability, as it is currently considered a bit expensive. There is room to make it more cost-effective for users even though its price is very completive compared to DB...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Amazon Aurora Serverless?

I use Aurora mainly for creating and maintaining databases, such as Aurora (MySQL version) databases, within the system. I value it for its network security and quicker recovery options.

See all answers

Comparisons

SQL Server vs Amazon Aurora

Compared 32% of the time

Oracle Database vs Amazon Aurora

Compared 21% of the time

MariaDB vs Amazon Aurora

Compared 8% of the time

Citus Data vs Amazon Aurora

Compared 7% of the time

YugabyteDB vs Amazon Aurora

Compared 7% of the time

More Amazon Aurora Competitors

Citus Data vs Amazon Aurora Serverless

Compared 100% of the time

More Amazon Aurora Serverless Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Aurora

June 2025

Download Amazon Aurora product report

Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

June 2025

Download Amazon Aurora Serverless product report

Overview

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.

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.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Aurora Serverless is a flexible, on-demand database service that automatically scales based on application needs. It removes the need for database management, allowing businesses to focus on innovation and efficiency.

This database service provides automatic rescaling of compute capacity, which makes it uniquely suited to unpredictable workloads and applications with variable demand. It integrates seamlessly with existing AWS services and supports both MySQL and PostgreSQL, ensuring high availability and durability while reducing costs associated with over-provisioning of resources. Aurora Serverless dynamically adjusts capacity, providing a cost-effective and reliable solution for cloud-native applications and serverless architectures.

What are the key features of Amazon Aurora Serverless?

Automatic Scaling: Instantly adjusts capacity in response to demand.
Managed Infrastructure: Offloads database maintenance and management tasks.
High Availability: Provides multi-AZ support to ensure uptime and reliability.
MySQL and PostgreSQL Compatibility: Supports migrations and existing applications.
Pay-Per-Use: Charges are based on the exact resources utilized.

What benefits can be found in reviews of Amazon Aurora Serverless?

Cost Savings: Helps significantly reduce infrastructure expenses.
Operational Efficiency: Frees up time for the IT team for strategic projects.
Scalability: Easily accommodates fluctuating application demands.
Integration: Works seamlessly with AWS services, enhancing service reach.
Resiliency: Robust data protection features contribute to data security.

Amazon Aurora Serverless has been widely adopted across industries such as ecommerce and online media, where demand can vary greatly and unpredictably. For instance, ecommerce platforms benefit from auto-scaling during peak shopping seasons, ensuring uninterrupted service without incurring unnecessary costs during off-peak periods. Similarly, media companies leverage its auto-scaling capabilities to manage traffic spikes during events or breaking news.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Dow Jones, Arizona State University, Verizon, Capital One, United Nations, Nielsen, Autodesk, Fanduel

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Aurora vs. Amazon Aurora Serverless

June 2025

Free Report: Amazon Aurora vs. Amazon Aurora Serverless

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