Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon Aurora vs Amazon RDS on Outposts 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
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (5th)
Amazon RDS on Outposts
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora is 3.1%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon RDS on Outposts is 0.9%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon Aurora3.1%
Amazon RDS on Outposts0.9%
Other96.0%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

SP
Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA
High availability and operational efficiency achieved with reliable managed services
We have primarily used Amazon Aurora for handling our databases. We migrated from PostgreSQL to Amazon Aurora about a year ago. It serves as a customized PostgreSQL database that we utilize Amazon Aurora offers a 99.9% SLA compared to PostgreSQL. This ensures a high level of availability for our…
Junilson Souza - PeerSpot reviewer
Membro Do Conselho Consultivo at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has reduced database management efforts and supported student learning through smooth deployment
The most important feature of Amazon RDS on Outposts for me is the self-managed aspect. The user doesn't have to worry about putting the service online, scaling the solution, and they don't have to worry about backups and other administrative tasks. The self-managed feature by AWS is very interesting. I use the automated backups in Amazon RDS on Outposts, and I recommend it. I work as a consultant for AWS products, and I have recommended Amazon RDS on Outposts and the automatic backup. Automated backups are helpful because the technical team doesn't have to worry about backups, making it much easier. It frees the technical team to deal with other kinds of questions within their projects. Amazon RDS on Outposts positively impacted my organization by being very useful to migrate, freeing the technical team to think about other matters instead of focusing just on backups and provisioning the database.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Amazon Aurora is SQL standardization, it doesn't have its own syntax which is good. It has a lot of hands-off self-management type of activities, such as log rolling and auto-scaling."
"Amazon Aurora's best features are about scaling up and scaling down, which is perfect."
"One of the most valuable features is storage scaling."
"Aurora's compatibility with MySQL or PostgreSQL benefited our database management. The migration from on-premise MySQL to Aurora was similar, so we didn't need to change our source code."
"Amazon Aurora is built on community databases and AWS has added additional features to it, allowing customers to have enterprise-level features at a lower cost."
"The migration process to Amazon Aurora is the best part; it's one of its key strengths, as we hardly had any hiccups during migration, which was very smooth and pretty straightforward given our data was mostly in English."
"The most valuable feature is that the maintainability is offloaded to the service provider. I don't have to maintain a database or do any administrative tasks, which comes in handy."
"We had better control over the parameters that we could tweak in terms of intermediate storage and better indexing capabilities."
"The product's initial setup phase is simple and straightforward."
"Amazon RDS on Outposts positively impacted my organization by being very useful to migrate, freeing the technical team to think about other matters instead of focusing just on backups and provisioning the database."
"The solution reduces the configuration and maintenance of the database."
"The scalability and cost-effectiveness of AWS were beneficial during spikes in database usage, as it allowed our platform to adjust and remain operational."
"The solution is easy to manage."
 

Cons

"There is improvement needed to have more developer focus. Additionally, it would be helpful to have a stand-alone solution outside of Amazon. Amazon has a tendency to favor developing web-based clients, which may not always provide the fastest or most responsive solution as desired."
"The pricing could improve. It should be reduced."
"I don't use Amazon Aurora's global database feature; I just use the local feature."
"There are tuning challenges."
"The product's distributed query process for MySQL needs improvement."
"I would like to see more AI-related features in future releases."
"A challenge I noticed is during migration from PostgreSQL RDS to Amazon Aurora. There are technical challenges, such as the inability to provision the database using a PostgreSQL snapshot directly."
"It is a bit costly. The features are quite good, and I wouldn't say it requires any technical improvements. But from a cost perspective, some clients wouldn't go for Aurora because of that."
"The tool should include features to clone the RDS instances and have more central management for a lot of RDSs, not just every instance."
"Areas that could be improved with Amazon RDS on Outposts for Brazilians include the cost because it remains a very important consideration."
"I would like to see some improvements in its version upgrades because its upgrade from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8 was not straightforward."
"I find the pricing to be expensive."
"If our database is too big, we sometimes face glitches in it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool’s pricing depends on the instance type. For cost optimization purposes, we use the result instance category."
"The price could be lower compared to its competitors."
"There is no need to buy a license for the product. We can pay as per the use case."
"It is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"It is quite expensive."
"Amazon RDS on Outposts is expensive compared to other solutions."
"The licenses are included with the subscription my company purchases from Amazon."
"The solution can get expensive fast."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
University
8%
Retailer
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise13
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Aurora?
Aurora's compatibility with MySQL or PostgreSQL benefited our database management. The migration from on-premise MySQL to Aurora was similar, so we didn't need to change our source code.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Aurora?
The pricing for Amazon Aurora is different from DocumentDB because DocumentDB is cheaper. However, when you manage the administration more closely, you can control costs better with Amazon Aurora. ...
What needs improvement with Amazon Aurora?
I would like to see some tutorials from Amazon for Aurora because I'm too new to it. I believe Amazon can make more tutorials for the product since there's a lot of reading required, and a short tu...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS on Outposts?
Regarding price, using Amazon RDS on Outposts was a little bit more expensive than using EC2.
What needs improvement with Amazon RDS on Outposts?
Areas that could be improved with Amazon RDS on Outposts for Brazilians include the cost because it remains a very important consideration. The general self-managing service is a concern as well be...
What is your primary use case for Amazon RDS on Outposts?
I have experience with AWS. I have about five years of experience with AWS products. The AWS products I deal with include virtual machines, EC2, database, basic storage, S3, and basic usage. I have...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dow Jones, Arizona State University, Verizon, Capital One, United Nations, Nielsen, Autodesk, Fanduel
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Aurora vs. Amazon RDS on Outposts and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.