No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Amazon RDS vs MariaDB 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
2.6
Organizations benefit financially from Amazon RDS's cost-effectiveness, agility, and scalability, despite varying results and AWS expense concerns.
Sentiment score
6.6
MariaDB offers cost savings, secure AI data handling, SQL integration, and community-driven features, benefiting up to 90% of users.
Since it handles vector storage and similarity searches natively alongside your relational data, I can seamlessly combine precise SQL filters with vector queries, which guarantees that the data retrieved for my AI application is always up-to-date and consistent.
Student at Raisoni Group
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Amazon RDS support varies by level and location; premium is efficient, but US standard support often lacks expertise.
Sentiment score
6.2
MariaDB offers enterprise support but most users rely on clear documentation and community assistance to resolve issues.
The documentation is quite good.
Corporate Database Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The official AWS technical support for Amazon RDS is helpful, providing 24/7 assistance for all business support cases with tools such as the health dashboard and AWS trusted advisor.
AWS Architect at Virtual University
I would rate the support from AWS very high, maybe nine, but it also depends on what kind of support you have signed in your contract, whether the premium support or the standard support.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
They came and tuned our queries with one-to-one assistance.
Architect at LTIMindtree
Compared to MongoDB, there are some platform deficiencies, but the support team shouldn't bear that burden.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Amazon RDS is praised for its scalability and reliability, though some express minor concerns with large dataset management.
Sentiment score
6.8
MariaDB is scalable, excelling in small to medium setups but needing extra tools and configuration for larger environments.
Its automated scaling, both in storage and instances, is vital as it eliminates manual interventions.
AICE Graduate at alx_africa
The installation of Amazon RDS is quite easy and quite scalable.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Despite being a strong feature, scalability could be improved due to the lack of full functionality in autoscaling.
VP engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
A specific challenge I have faced is troubleshooting performance degradation during heavy write transaction tables.
Student at Raisoni Group
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon RDS is praised for reliability, performance, and uptime with minimal issues, especially with Multi-AZ enhancing stability.
Sentiment score
7.7
MariaDB is stable and reliable, though specific configurations like clustering may pose occasional stability issues.
Amazon RDS is very stable when deployed correctly across different zones with the right configurations.
AICE Graduate at alx_africa
It is a stable product overall, with very few issues.
VP engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
So far, I have not had any outages, crashes, or downtime.
Dev Ops Engineer at MyRobin.ID
We haven't found issues with the stability of MariaDB.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon RDS users seek improvements in security, documentation, scalability, integration, and support, with enhanced customization and cost reduction.
MariaDB enhances integration and UI but needs improved stability, replication, views, BI tool integration, and complex query performance.
Simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments.
AICE Graduate at alx_africa
Having native Change Data Capture (CDC) support would be beneficial, allowing for seamless integration with Kafka without relying on external technologies like Debezium.
VP engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enabling performance insights to view query formats where the bottlenecks occur, identifying the fixes, slow queries, and missing indexes.
AWS Architect at Virtual University
MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Oracle is very advanced compared to MariaDB, and those advanced features are not available in MariaDB.
Architect at LTIMindtree
The key area where MariaDB could be improved is its native GUI tooling; while the command-line interface works perfectly fine, the built-in visual tools for administration, management, and query design feel outdated compared to some competitors.
Student at Raisoni Group
 

Setup Cost

Amazon RDS pricing is usage-dependent and cost-effective, offering savings on admin costs but can be expensive compared to alternatives.
MariaDB is a cost-effective, open-source database solution offering a free Community Edition and affordable enterprise alternatives to Oracle.
While Azure provides great services, long-term plans on AWS are 20% to 30% cheaper.
AWS Engineer at Neurolov.ai
I find the pricing of Amazon RDS fair, as AWS operates on a pay-for-what-you-use model.
AICE Graduate at alx_africa
I rate the price for Amazon as eight on a scale from one to ten.
Corporate Database Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
 

Valuable Features

Amazon RDS provides scalability, security, and flexibility with multi-engine support and simplified operations for diverse applications.
MariaDB is reliable and scalable, offering open-source benefits, SQL compliance, excellent performance, and broad community support for various needs.
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.
AICE Graduate at alx_africa
Database management is effective in Amazon RDS because it offers automated backups, high availability, read replicas, and support from multiple database engineers, while also providing security, monitoring and metrics, scalability.
AWS Architect at Virtual University
In some cases, we are using the read replica feature, and it does improve our application performance because we do not allow any downstream system to come to the main storage or main databases and perform a query.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Encryption is available in MariaDB, so we are secure for transmitting data without concern about moving over networks.
Architect at LTIMindtree
Being able to store unstructured JSON directly into a column while still using standard SQL functions such as JSON_EXTRACT to query specific keys has saved me from having to constantly alter our database schemas.
Student at Raisoni Group
Configuration, setup, and schema design are good features in MariaDB.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon RDS
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (2nd)
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 1.2%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 3.5%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon RDS1.2%
MariaDB3.5%
Other95.3%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2592669 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Positive experiences with database services, with minor room for feature enhancements observed
I don't really see any disadvantages of Amazon RDS. With Oracle, I think AWS doesn't provide the RAC stability. If you have Oracle installed in your own data centers, you can set up various clusters and we can set up the RACs, but in Amazon RDS, we cannot have the RAC feature of Oracle. They could add that feature. Amazon RDS has limitations regarding RAC. If we talk about installing Oracle in RDS, we cannot have the RAC, but if you deploy Oracle on GCP, then there is probably the RAC feature available. I observed that around two or three years back, but I'm not sure whether they have added the RAC feature in AWS. Amazon RDS is expensive compared to GCP. GCP also has the same features, and although it is quite extensive and feature-rich, I see Amazon RDS as slightly expensive compared to other clouds.
AB
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Has supported web application data needs but requires design adjustments to manage complex queries efficiently
Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues. For small and medium-size volume, it is pretty good. If it goes beyond certain data and complex queries, we see performance issues. We tried the advanced replication feature between different regions, replicating data specifically residing on MariaDB to two different regions of MariaDB data, and there were some technical snags in terms of slowness and longer processing time. Point-in-time recovery in MariaDB is good for small databases. When data volume increases beyond 5 GB or 10 GB per day or runs into double-digit GBs, we found some performance issues. For data below 10 GB, it works fine. Performance is the primary focus area for MariaDB, particularly during transactions or complex query jobs where slow performance is observed. MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise26
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?
Currently, I cannot think of any major improvements. Perhaps more platforms in terms of database engine versions would be beneficial. Right now, Amazon RDS supports MySQL and PostgreSQL, but there ...
What is your primary use case for Amazon RDS?
I am a Solutions Architect, so I design solutions for our clients. Prior to this role, I was an implementation engineer, so I also implement solutions for our customers.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data. The cost depends on the volume of data and different features enabled during configuration, such as backup ...
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
Sometimes, complex queries that were supported in Oracle are not available in MariaDB. Advanced indexing is not available. Oracle is very advanced compared to MariaDB, and those advanced features a...
What is your primary use case for MariaDB?
My client has been using MariaDB for the last four years. We are using MariaDB in the cloud.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

RDS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edmodo
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.