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Amazon Aurora Serverless vs SQL Server 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 Serverless
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
21st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
274
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora Serverless is 1.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 10.7%, down from 17.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server10.7%
Amazon Aurora Serverless1.3%
Other88.0%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

MohitGupta3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Infrastructure Architect - AWS at Infopro Digital
Seamless growth management through serverless efficiency and reasonable pricing
The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora Serverless is its serverless nature, which means I do not have to maintain the underlying infrastructure. Additionally, it is highly scalable, and its pricing model is favorable. Aurora's automatic scaling greatly enhances our operational efficiency by eliminating the need to set specific thresholds and preventing client data access issues due to uneven growth. Its serverless setup allows us to manage costs effectively. Other notable features include direct integration with tools like SFTP Go for media file uploads, automatic backups ensuring data recovery, and its scalability in terms of handling growing database demands.
Peter Larsson - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
Ledger and seamless integrations have strengthened trusted analytics and unified workloads
SQL Server's high availability and disaster recovery features work for supporting mission-critical applications, but there is much more to wish for. These features are not quite ready yet, although they do function. However, they could be significantly better. High availability and disaster recovery features should be improved in the next releases. I have noticed that everything could be improved or enhanced in the future, particularly temporal tables and window functions. Sometimes, I believe Microsoft releases features to stay ahead of competitors, but they do not make them feature-rich or feature-complete. They release something to be ahead of leaders and then seem to forget to maintain and upgrade them. I want Microsoft to pay more attention and be more mindful about the things they implement. It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements. You must continue to build on features rather than forgetting about them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon Aurora Serverless helps in reducing costs by allowing scalable solutions that split read and write endpoints, effectively managing database load and saving on capacity costs compared to our previous solution."
"Aurora could improve its affordability, even though its price is very completive compared to DBs as SLQ Server."
"Aurora makes it easier for me to create an environment within the network, offering faster recovery and 100% availability by replicating databases across two availability zones, and its scalability features for peak workloads are very beneficial."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora Serverless is its serverless nature, which means I do not have to maintain the underlying infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora Serverless is its serverless nature, which means I do not have to maintain the underlying infrastructure, and it is highly scalable with a favorable pricing model that greatly enhances our operational efficiency by eliminating the need to set specific thresholds and preventing client data access issues due to uneven growth."
"Amazon Aurora Serverless is easy to scale, offering a cluster-based shared scaling model with options for Autoscale."
"It is easy to use for a BI specialist."
"SQL Server's Management Studio is very user friendly. I like their database and the additional features it offers. It's also easy to integrate SQL Server with things like CLR, PowerShell, and command shell"
"I have experience with this product for many years. I never have problems with it. It can handle a PC, and it can also handle huge data. It is fast and efficient."
"It provides the ability to create an end-to-end automated BI platform through data management and provisioning, transformation and publication."
"SQL Server has a dynamic resource allocation feature that allows disk and memory usage to scale to meet changing database demands, providing better performance and simplifying software management."
"We've found it to basically be pretty problem-free."
"The solution has a reliable database."
"We operate in difficult locations, such as Mombasa in Kenya and Mozambique in Maputo, where power is a big problem, and instead of desktop computers, we went for thin end-computing clients, and it worked really well with SQL Server."
 

Cons

"Aurora could improve its affordability, as it is currently considered a bit expensive."
"Aurora could improve its affordability, as it is currently considered a bit expensive."
"Amazon Aurora Serverless could benefit from a few more security features, particularly in terms of its accessibility."
"Amazon Aurora could improve its detailed monitoring, especially in CloudWatch, to provide more precise query level insights."
"Amazon Aurora could improve its detailed monitoring, especially in CloudWatch, to provide more precise query level insights."
"Amazon Aurora Serverless could benefit from a few more security features, particularly in terms of its accessibility."
"An area for improvement would be the SQL Server process monitoring, which is quite basic and could sustain more information."
"Other than Synapse and the other version of SQL Server, they face some problems while processing the data."
"SQL Server has good performance, but it could be better."
"Primarily, the data replication and the backup areas can be improved. It should have data replication capabilities and uptime capabilities."
"They could improve the solution by allowing more portability between on-premise and the cloud."
"Its support for JSON should be improved. It does support JSON, but the support is not good enough currently. They should also improve the way indexes work. Its performance can also be improved because sometimes it becomes very slow for certain table designs. It cannot have more than a certain amount of data. As compared to other databases, its capability to handle large volumes of data is not very good."
"The solution could be better when it comes to security."
"Access validation rules and expressions need improvement while converting into SQL Server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"There is a license required for servers and for the POS we use the free version. The free version allows you to have tables and a total database size of approximately 10 GB, which is enough for our requirements."
"There is a license required for this solution and we pay monthly. The price is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"It is annual."
"SQL Server's pricing has proven satisfactory for our market range."
"The solution is on a pay-per-use pricing model."
"The price of SQL Server could be better in the African market. The licensing model needs to be improved, it is confusing."
"This is a very cheap product."
"It comes with the bundle package that we have. We have Microsoft Volume Licensing, so we don't have to pay for it separately. It is a part of the package."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
32%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
40%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
4%
Comms Service Provider
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise118
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Aurora Serverless?
In my experience, Aurora is a bit expensive. The costs depend on the size of the database.
What needs improvement with Amazon Aurora Serverless?
Aurora could improve its affordability, as it is currently considered a bit expensive. There is room to make it more cost-effective for users even though its price is very completive compared to DB...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Aurora Serverless?
I use Aurora mainly for creating and maintaining databases, such as Aurora (MySQL version) databases, within the system. I value it for its network security and quicker recovery options.
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Aurora Serverless vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.