Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Google is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 24.0% mindshare in DS, compared to Google’s 15.4% 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 56 Amazon RDS reviews

4,390 Views
3,675 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud SQL

Read 22 Google Cloud SQL reviews

2,671 Views
2,416 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

Google Cloud SQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL compete in the managed database services category. Amazon RDS appears to have the upper hand due to its deployment agility and extensive feature set, though Google Cloud SQL offers more competitive pricing within Google's ecosystem.

Features: Amazon RDS provides automated backups, multi-availability zone resilience, and supports multiple database engines such as MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL, simplifying deployment and scalability. Google Cloud SQL features high availability, seamless integration with Google services, and automatic scaling, although it lacks the diverse database support offered by RDS.

Room for Improvement: Amazon RDS could improve in areas like migration processes, shell access for experienced DBAs, and its pricing structure that requires careful cost provisioning. Google Cloud SQL can enhance its user interface, documentation, and connectivity with additional tools, while also improving support for data migration and advanced configuration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL are public cloud solutions, with Amazon RDS offering stronger hybrid and on-premises support. Customer service varies for both, influenced by the purchased support level, though Amazon is often noted for additional costs associated with comprehensive support.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon RDS tends to cost more due to its extensive capabilities, requiring careful management to avoid unexpected charges. It provides value by reducing operational overhead. Google Cloud SQL is more budget-friendly, with straightforward and lower base costs, appealing to those who prioritize cost over features. Each solution's ROI differs based on organizational needs and existing tech stacks.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

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 RDS

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google Cloud SQL

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 24.0%, down from 27.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 15.4%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

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

"Amazon RDS fulfills PCI requirements, which is a valuable feature for us."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The tool is very easy to use and configure."

"The impact of Amazon RDS scalability and backup has been positive, with good vertical scaling, scale up and down, horizontal scaling, and storage scaling."

"The provisioning is much faster. You don't have to prepare hardware or install software. You just need to create an instance and you have a database."

"Amazon RDS handles database backup mechanisms and patch management."

"It is easy to use, flexible, and powerful."

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

More Amazon RDS pros

"Its most valuable feature is that it's scalable. I can start off with a base of a lot of data and move as much as I want and it's the same as if asked to do a lot of infrastructure changes."

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

"The deployment model allows for significant control and flexibility."

"Google Cloud SQL is easy to start with and allows me to scale as needed, which is advantageous from a developer perspective."

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

"Google Cloud SQL is highly scalable."

"The product is scalable."

More Google Cloud SQL pros

Cons

"Technical support could be better."

"A lot of the features are disabled by default. The solution should enable more features. I understand this could cause challenges to management for many clients using RDS, however."

"You can only get access from the sales support. That means if you want to buy something or renew your subscription or upgrade, all these services are easily available. Yet, if you would like to get some technical support, you have to pay for it. You have to pay for an additional subscription."

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

"Some of the features will not be there. For example, some on-premises things we want to set up will not be supported there. There are some challenges that they are fixing."

"The running cost could be improved."

"The Amazon RDS engine could provide features for additional databases, such as Db2. It could also provide support for other databases, such as NoSQL databases, DynamoDB, and Apache Cassandra. They could all stay under one hood."

"Currently, speaking of Microsoft SQL on RDS, you don't have a full option to be able to use it directly on RDS. So, it needs improvement."

More Amazon RDS cons

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

"The product's user interface could be more user-friendly to improve the overall user experience."

"The overall documentation and the connectors need improvement."

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

"The purging of the data could be better."

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

"The most challenging part is dealing with legacy data from your old systems and migrating it into the new setup, but once you've completed the data migration, it becomes quite convenient to use."

"I would appreciate more flexibility with specific extensions applicable to engines like PostgreSQL. This would enhance the capabilities of Google Cloud SQL."

More Google Cloud SQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price is good."

"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Amazon RDS is less expensive than other solutions."

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

"Amazon RDS could improve by reducing the price."

"The cost is manageable because you can see the expense associated with each instance and utilize tools for tagging and cost control."

"The price of Amazon RDS is expensive."

"The price could be better."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

"The solution is affordable."

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

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

University

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

University

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

One key improvement would be adding support for multi-storage paradigms, including columnar support, as seen in TiDB. The serverless support with Aurora could also be enhanced. Additionally, having...

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 use, with no fixed cost.

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 perform better, as Google Cloud SQL takes more time to handle the same tasks. T...

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 26% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Amazon RDS

Compared 15% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Amazon RDS

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 39% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 8% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 4% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 3% of the time

More Google Cloud SQL Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

June 2025

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud SQL

June 2025

Download Google Cloud SQL product report

Also Known As

RDS

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)

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

June 2025

Free Report: Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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