Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL vs Google Cloud Spanner comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2, while Google is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 20.1% mindshare in DS, compared to Google’s 5.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon RDS

Read 57 Amazon RDS reviews

3,673 Views
3,636 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Spanner

Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews

872 Views
811 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Google Cloud SQL

Read 22 Google Cloud SQL reviews

2,189 Views
2,189 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

Google Cloud Spanner

Google Cloud SQL

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon RDS, Google Cloud Spanner, and Google Cloud SQL based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS).

To learn more, read our detailed Database as a Service (DBaaS) Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

September 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 20.1%, down from 25.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 5.1%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 11.3%, down from 17.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon RDS	20.1%
Google Cloud SQL	11.3%
Google Cloud Spanner	5.1%
Other	63.5%

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Samuel Ebite

AICE Graduate at alx_africa

Ensure high availability with robust encryption and seamless backups

Amazon RDS provides data encryption using services like KMS, crucial for securing high-sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. The best practices we've employed with RDS help design a well-architected framework, encompassing security, encryption, scalability with multi-availability zone deployment, and operational excellence with automated backups. RDS features, such as reserved instances, storage auto-scaling, monitoring with technologies like CloudWatch, and proxies, contribute to cost optimization. The solution enhances security with IAM authentication and offers high availability to end users.

Read full review

Saurav Krishna

Data Engineering and AI Intern at .3Lines Venture Capital

A stable but expensive solution that needs to look into the horizontal scaling feature

The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling. I have been using the product for a year. Google Cloud Spanner is stable. My company has 15-20 users for the product. The tool's deployment is easy. The solution is expensive. You need to look at the data set and company requirements. I rate…

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Prathap Sankar

Analytics Delivery Manager at Tredence Inc.

Gain control and flexibility with customizable tools but has slower performance

I am majorly working in Google Cloud SQL for building my applications Google Cloud SQL provides complete customization options, along with a dashboarding tool and a comprehensive suite of tools that can be used to customize and build any application needed. The deployment model allows for…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Amazon RDS features I found most valuable are snapshots and automatic backups."

"The solution’s scalability, usability, and availability are valuable to us."

"The most valuable aspect of Amazon RDS is it is on the cloud."

"The most valuable features of Amazon RDS are its scalability, reliability, and intelligence."

"One of the most valuable features is that it is serverless, so we don't have to worry about scaling."

"The IT is easy to set up, which is the best."

"The product's installation phase is easy."

"Relational databases excel in extensive normalization, eliminating data redundancy and efficiently structuring tables which leads to a clear and efficient relationship between tables using primary keys."

More Amazon RDS pros

"We can scale the solution if we need to."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."

"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."

"It's SQL. SQL is so easy if you know something about databases. It's easy to learn."

"This is a stable solution and offers good performance."

"The setup was straightforward. Just a couple of clicks, and we were done."

"The implementation part of the product was easy."

"It directly provides robust data safety. It also offers various other storage options, such as Google Cloud Storage. These services ensure data security and redundancy. Furthermore, it includes different storage classes, allowing flexible data management tailored to specific needs."

"Google Cloud SQL is highly scalable."

"The valuable feature of Google Cloud SQL is its high availability option. The product is stable."

"Ease of management and the ability to oversee the statistics of your SQL."

More Google Cloud SQL pros

Cons

"I feel Amazon RDS should have a lot of functionalities to make monitoring within the database easier."

"Amazon RDS could improve by having more sophisticated. I use other solutions that have better technology for more difficult tasks."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"They could provide better integration for the solution with Microsoft products."

"One notable improvement that could enhance the database management experience, particularly during migration scenarios, is the accessibility of the root user."

"For improvements, Amazon RDS could work on more features for multi-availability zone deployment to enhance higher availability, and on simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments."

"The product should support new databases."

"Amazon cannot guarantee the stability of some extensions, and there is a need for different extensions to meet PCI requirements."

More Amazon RDS cons

"The tool lacks to offer AI features."

"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."

"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."

"The cost can be a bit high."

"The monitoring part could be better."

"The most vulnerable problem with Google SQL is that while you can customize your access control list, it provides you with a public IP address."

"The only thing that could be better is the pricing."

"When discussing media files, such as images and audio files, stored in Google Cloud, concerns about handling large amounts of data arise."

"It is hard to do logging with the solution."

"For data analysis, the AI area of the product has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"They could improve documentation and dashboard stability for efficient user experience and database management."

"I would like to see better availability of the product in different regions. It should also improve the security with encryption."

More Google Cloud SQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of using this solution is similar to that of having your own data center."

"The solution is fairly priced."

"The pricing of RDS is a little bit high compared to Microsoft... However, it is a good price compared to other solutions."

"Amazon RDS is less expensive than other solutions."

"The platform pricing is on the higher side, but given its capabilities and ease of use, it remains competitive."

"The price of Amazon RDS is expensive."

"The solution's pricing needs improvement."

"In my case, MySQL is free, and if there are any costs, then it is much less than other solutions since all such things usually come bundled with the hardware."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is expensive."

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."

"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."

"The solution is affordable."

"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."

"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."

"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."

"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."

"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

University

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	23

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?

The product's installation phase is easy.

See all answers

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

The pricing for Amazon RDS is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?

I don't really see any disadvantages of Amazon RDS. With Oracle, I think AWS doesn't provide the RAC stability. If yo...

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What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?

Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud SQL?

The implementation part of the product was easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud SQL?

The cost is expensive, especially for services like BigQuery, which charge based on query operations. We pay as we us...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?

Google Cloud SQL needs to improve its support for high-end I/O operations. On-prem systems with high I/O capabilities...

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 22% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Amazon RDS

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS

Compared 6% of the time

Yugabyte Platform vs Amazon RDS

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 20% of the time

SingleStore vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 10% of the time

Redis vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 10% of the time

Yugabyte Cloud vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 6% of the time

More Google Cloud Spanner Competitors

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 34% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 15% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 2% of the time

IBM Db2 on Cloud vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 2% of the time

More Google Cloud SQL Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

September 2025

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

September 2025

Download Google Cloud Spanner product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud SQL

September 2025

Download Google Cloud SQL product report

Also Known As

RDS

Google Spanner

No data available

Overview

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizeable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

Google Cloud SQL is a fully-managed database service that makes it easy to set up, maintain, manage, and administer your relational PostgreSQL and MySQL databases in the cloud. Google Cloud SQL offers high performance, scalability, and convenience. Hosted on Google Cloud Platform, Cloud SQL provides a database infrastructure for applications running anywhere.

Google

Sample Customers

Edmodo

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel

BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

September 2025

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