Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon Aurora vs Amazon RDS on Outposts comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (7th)
Amazon RDS on Outposts
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora is 3.0%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon RDS on Outposts is 0.8%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon Aurora3.0%
Amazon RDS on Outposts0.8%
Other96.2%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

SP
Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA
High availability and operational efficiency achieved with reliable managed services
We have primarily used Amazon Aurora for handling our databases. We migrated from PostgreSQL to Amazon Aurora about a year ago. It serves as a customized PostgreSQL database that we utilize Amazon Aurora offers a 99.9% SLA compared to PostgreSQL. This ensures a high level of availability for our…
Junilson Souza - PeerSpot reviewer
Membro Do Conselho Consultivo at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has reduced database management efforts and supported student learning through smooth deployment
The most important feature of Amazon RDS on Outposts for me is the self-managed aspect. The user doesn't have to worry about putting the service online, scaling the solution, and they don't have to worry about backups and other administrative tasks. The self-managed feature by AWS is very interesting. I use the automated backups in Amazon RDS on Outposts, and I recommend it. I work as a consultant for AWS products, and I have recommended Amazon RDS on Outposts and the automatic backup. Automated backups are helpful because the technical team doesn't have to worry about backups, making it much easier. It frees the technical team to deal with other kinds of questions within their projects. Amazon RDS on Outposts positively impacted my organization by being very useful to migrate, freeing the technical team to think about other matters instead of focusing just on backups and provisioning the database.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"Amazon Aurora stands out for its ease of use in a managed environment, inbuilt security, continuous backups, numerous read replicas, multi-region automated replication, and seamless integration with other AWS services."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to do multiple-read and single-write. These are the kinds of features that we were interested in, and Aurora takes care of that natively."
"The most valuable features of Amazon Aurora include the global instance with the global writer endpoint, which allows failovers and instance switches without requiring changes in my code, thanks to the default global Route 53 endpoint."
"The product's initial setup phase is simple and straightforward."
"Amazon RDS on Outposts positively impacted my organization by being very useful to migrate, freeing the technical team to think about other matters instead of focusing just on backups and provisioning the database."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"The scalability and cost-effectiveness of AWS were beneficial during spikes in database usage, as it allowed our platform to adjust and remain operational."
"The solution reduces the configuration and maintenance of the database."
 

Cons

"There are tuning challenges."
"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."
"I would like to see more AI-related features in future releases."
"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."
"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."
"Room for improvement might be in the UI, integrations, or data working capabilities for better user experience."
"The product's distributed query process for MySQL needs improvement."
"I find the pricing to be expensive."
"Areas that could be improved with Amazon RDS on Outposts for Brazilians include the cost because it remains a very important consideration."
"If our database is too big, we sometimes face glitches in it."
"The tool should include features to clone the RDS instances and have more central management for a lot of RDSs, not just every instance."
"I would like to see some improvements in its version upgrades because its upgrade from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8 was not straightforward."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is quite expensive."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The tool’s pricing depends on the instance type. For cost optimization purposes, we use the result instance category."
"The price could be lower compared to its competitors."
"There is no need to buy a license for the product. We can pay as per the use case."
"It is an expensive solution."
"Amazon RDS on Outposts is expensive compared to other solutions."
"The solution can get expensive fast."
"The licenses are included with the subscription my company purchases from Amazon."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise13
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Aurora?
The pricing for Amazon Aurora is different from DocumentDB because DocumentDB is cheaper. However, when you manage the administration more closely, you can control costs better with Amazon Aurora. ...
What needs improvement with Amazon Aurora?
I would like to see some tutorials from Amazon for Aurora because I'm too new to it. I believe Amazon can make more tutorials for the product since there's a lot of reading required, and a short tu...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS on Outposts?
Regarding price, using Amazon RDS on Outposts was a little bit more expensive than using EC2.
What needs improvement with Amazon RDS on Outposts?
Areas that could be improved with Amazon RDS on Outposts for Brazilians include the cost because it remains a very important consideration. The general self-managing service is a concern as well be...
What is your primary use case for Amazon RDS on Outposts?
I have experience with AWS. I have about five years of experience with AWS products. The AWS products I deal with include virtual machines, EC2, database, basic storage, S3, and basic usage. I have...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dow Jones, Arizona State University, Verizon, Capital One, United Nations, Nielsen, Autodesk, Fanduel
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Aurora vs. Amazon RDS on Outposts and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.