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Amazon DynamoDB vs Google Cloud Bigtable vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Amazon DynamoDB is 16.6%, down from 23.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Bigtable is 5.3%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 16.3%, down from 17.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed NoSQL Databases
 

Featured Reviews

MohamedBouzidi - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined data management with robust automation and easy replication
Amazon DynamoDB has been a reliable service that is very performant and meets our expectations. Its automation capacity reduces the need for more personnel, which aligns perfectly with our strategy of focusing on serverless services. The ease of data replication between regions is a significant benefit since it was already integrated into the solution.
Aakash Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Great for streaming data and being a managed service is an advantage
Our primary use case is for analytics, analyzing the data sets and curing Bigtable is very user-friendly where streaming data is required. I think it's relatively easier to use than Ascentra. The fact that it's a managed service is an advantage.   The cost of this product is too expensive.…
MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"DynamoDB is easy to configure, easy to use, and allows for writing data in JSON format."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its performance."
"We switched to DynamoDB from a relational database that would've had scale problems and would've cost a lot of money to run at scale. DynamoDB allows us to match expense to usage. When not many people are using and it's a quiet day, there is a low cost. On a busy day, there is a higher cost. We get good performance along the way and less maintenance on the database."
"AWS technical support is very friendly."
"The fact that Amazon DynamoDB is highly scalable is one of its best features."
"Its scalability is really good. I can go up to a petabyte of data. It is more of an on-demand use case. I can go from 100 MB to 1 PB if I want, which is very good. Most of the other databases would want you to stick to a specific data allocation. Its subscription cost is lower than similar databases offered by other vendors."
"Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database that stores unstructured data and provides high performance."
"We directly pass the JSON value to Amazon DynamoDB, which is why Amazon DynamoDB is faster than relational databases."
"Bigtable is faster than other competitors in the market. It helps us collate all the data, and the security features are great. The latency is low, and the computation speed is fantastic. Bigtable is also a managed service, so you don't have to worry about anything aside from analyzing the data ingested."
"Stability-wise, it is a simple solution. I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"The most valuable feature is the backup and replication service."
"It's very user-friendly where streaming data is required."
"The solution is very convenient."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"The global synchronization feature of Azure Cosmos DB stands out as the most valuable for me."
"Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten with the only significant issue being the partitioning key functionality."
"We doubled our productivity with this small application."
"I would recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB to other users without hesitation."
"What I like about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is that it's easy to do data ingestion and use the data in different applications. If you talk about business intelligence such as the Power BI tool, it's easy to connect because both are Microsoft products. With Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, it's easy to connect and do data ingestion."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is very fast."
"The solution is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate."
"I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a ten out of ten."
 

Cons

"The response time for data queries should be less than a second"
"Currently, there is no option for a scheduled refresh in this solution. We want the data to be populated into DynamoDB on a timely basis. Currently, you have to go to the DynamoDB table and hit the refresh button to populate it with the new data. If you have connected DynamoDB to a BI application for creating visualizations with charts, graphs, or other things, you would want it to get updated as per the schedule so that you have updated visualizations in your BI application."
"As more data comes in, it becomes more expensive."
"I initially faced issues with the solution's stability, performance, and security."
"The solution's interface is the biggest challenge because if you want to access DynamoDB, you need an AWS account."
"I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. We faced some configuration issues."
"Querying data on the solution is quite limited, but this is like any other NoSQL database. It's the most common criticism of the NoSQL database in general."
"Maybe the documentation could be improved a bit. Sometimes, it's a little confusing, and people can easily be mistaken about DynamoDB."
"Improvement should be made as per customer recommended and requirements."
"The cost of this product is too expensive."
"The lagging problem of the product I face is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"This product needs better security and transparency, and the price should be reduced."
"I've used Bigtable for about three or four years."
"When it comes to complex queries, a user can't get any help from a drop-down box and pick columns. It would be great if some improvements could be made in the aforementioned area concerning the solution."
"One area that could be improved is indexing. Some of the developers struggle with the way the indexing works. We are exploring vector indexing, which we haven't examined fully yet. Indexing is an aspect we're looking to improve upon potentially."
"I do not have any specific suggestions for improvements at the moment. However, having more AI capabilities in the future would be beneficial."
"It would be beneficial if Cosmos supported batch and real-time use cases to make the system more seamless."
"A couple features that would help me in architectural solutions would be customizable architecture or customizable documentation, which both Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Teams can provide."
"There were instances where the DB was not responding, and we lost some part of our business due to that."
"Currently, I have no suggestions for enhancement or new implementations in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. However, the cost can sometimes be high, especially during cross-partition queries with large data amounts."
"We had some performance issues with a data segregation query. We worked closely with Microsoft to solve the problem of performance where, for example, one query had a delay of almost two or three minutes for this one use case. Microsoft tried to improve the product, but in the end, the solution was to change to MongoDB. MongoDB had better performance."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's performance could be better. In large volumes of documents, the querying process becomes slow and complicated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is based on Lambda function usage. So, if a Lambda function is invoked with every call, and we receive 5,000 calls daily, that means 5,000 Lambda invocations."
"It is a little expensive."
"The product is expensive"
"It's an expensive solution"
"The solution is cheaper than Cosmos DB."
"Amazon DynamoDB is a cheap solution."
"The solution's pricing is good, and it's not expensive."
"I would rate the pricing for this solution a four out of five."
Information not available
"Azure is a pay as you go subscription."
"Its price is very good for the basic stuff. When you go to a more complicated use case, especially when you need replication and availability zones, it gets a little costly."
"The pricing is perceived as being on the higher side. However, if you have large data operations, it might reduce costs due to performance efficiencies."
"We are not consuming so much yet since we are at the beginning of using this solution. I would rate the pricing of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a six out of ten."
"This cost model is beneficial because it allows for cost control by limiting resource units (RUs), which is ideal. However, for our needs, we can't engage with their minimum pricing, which ranges from 100 to 1,000 RUs. At the bare minimum, we need to use 4,000 RUs for a customer. I would like to find a way to gain some advantages from the lowest tier, particularly the ability to scale down if necessary. It would be helpful to have more flexibility in cost management at the lower end."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing is based on RUs. Reading 1 KB document costs one RU, whereas writing one document costs five RUs. Pricing for querying depends on the complexity of the query. If you increase the document size, it will automatically increase the RU cost."
"From a startup point of view, it appears to be expensive. If I were to create my startup, it would not have the pricing appeal compared to the competition, such as Supabase. All those other databases are well-advertised by communities. I know there is a free tier with Azure Cosmos DB. It is just not well advertised."
"The pricing model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a bit complex."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
5%
University
16%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Legal Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon DynamoDB?
The user interface could be improved to make it more intuitive. From a design and solution perspective, it's really g...
What is your primary use case for Amazon DynamoDB?
We use Amazon DynamoDB for data lookups with the consultancy.
What do you like most about Google Cloud Bigtable?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Bigtable?
One point for improvement in Google Cloud Bigtable is that people have confusion in mapping. There are many similar p...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Bigtable?
My main use case for Google Cloud Bigtable is mainly for advertisement-related analytics-related use cases.
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like av...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The pricing for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good, but there is a developer factor to consider. It could be economica...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The only area Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB can improve on is its documentation; while it is solid and very useful, enhan...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Samsung, Snapchat, Capital One, Expedia, Tinder, Airbnb, Comcast, Lyft, Redfin, Netflix, Adobe
Cognite, Dow Jones, Loblaw Digital
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Managed NoSQL Databases. Updated: July 2025.
864,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.