Amazon DynamoDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Managed NoSQL Databases category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 10.6% mindshare in MND, compared to Microsoft’s 16.4% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon DynamoDB

Read 45 Amazon DynamoDB reviews

1,253 Views
1,253 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Read 109 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews

9,934 Views
3,676 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Amazon DynamoDB

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Amazon DynamoDB and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are two leading NoSQL database services. Amazon DynamoDB has an edge in speed and scalability, while Cosmos DB provides broader API support and integration within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Features: Amazon DynamoDB offers fast performance with automatic scaling and secondary indexes that enable efficient queries. It is well-integrated with Amazon services like CloudWatch for monitoring and supports low-cost EC2 hosting. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is known for its multi-model and API-agnostic approach, supporting a diverse range of APIs, robust scalability, and high availability through its global distribution capabilities. Its integration with Microsoft tools enhances its ecosystem support, especially for applications involving data ingestion and real-time analytics.

Room for Improvement: Amazon DynamoDB could enhance its service with improved documentation, more automation in scaling, better native encryption, and more comprehensive querying capabilities. Users often have to handle certain setups manually, like encryption, which can hinder efficiency. On the other hand, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB users find the pricing model complex and costly, and face challenges with API compatibility. Moreover, they call for improved documentation and better support for executing complex queries alongside a smoother integration process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon DynamoDB is often noted for its quick deployment capabilities on the public cloud with some private cloud options. The customer service is regarded as responsive and effective in troubleshooting. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, mainly operating in public cloud environments with hybrid deployment options, boasts easy integration within the Azure ecosystem. However, the customer service could improve its localization and documentation to meet various user needs more effectively.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon DynamoDB employs a pay-as-you-go pricing model that is cost-effective for smaller workloads, although scalability with large datasets can be pricey. The regional pricing variations can affect overall cost efficiency. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB also offers a scalable pay-as-you-go model, which is suitable for high-performing cloud-native architectures but is perceived as expensive. While both services provide flexibility to scale as needed, impacting ROI positively, Cosmos DB tends to have a greater cost implication due to its comprehensive service offerings.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

December 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

5.5

Organizations gain significant ROI from Amazon DynamoDB via reliability, scalability, reduced personnel needs, and native data replication.

Sentiment score

6.2

Organizations report cost savings and efficiency with Azure Cosmos DB, but some experience complexity and difficulty achieving expected savings.

AWS makes money from Amazon DynamoDB, and our involvement is more about professional services engagement.

MichaelCole

Senior Business Solutions Consultant at Conn3ct

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

Getting an MVP of that project would have taken six to eight months, but because we had an active choice of using Azure Cosmos DB and other related cloud-native services of Azure, we were able to get to an MVP stage in a matter of weeks, which is six weeks.

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

You can react quickly and trim down the specs, memory, RAM, storage size, etc. It can save about 20% of the costs.

Bernard Parinas

Co-Founder at arpa

When I have done comparisons or cost calculations, I have sometimes personally seen as much as 25% to 30% savings.

Alexander Hughes

Solutions Architect at CompuNet

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.1

DynamoDB support is efficient with responsive assistance, though local support and specific use case understanding need improvement.

Sentiment score

6.7

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB support is generally responsive, but experiences vary, with premium users often reporting better satisfaction.

They follow up on support tickets until the issue is resolved.

Blessing Ogechi Nwojiji

Sales Director for West Africa at Atomic Computing

Sometimes we cannot connect with the correct team to resolve issues.

DeepakGurung

Lead SRE at JavaTech

Technical support is quite good, with a rating of eight out of ten.

MichaelCole

Senior Business Solutions Consultant at Conn3ct

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.

reviewer2595951

Head of IT, Infrastructure, Operations & Applications Development at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

The response was quick.

Joel Hulen

Lead Cloud Architect at Solliance, Inc

I would rate customer service and support a nine out of ten.

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

8.0

Amazon DynamoDB excels in scalability, handling traffic variations efficiently with minimal scaling concerns despite potential cost increases.

Sentiment score

7.7

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalable, flexible solutions with efficient cost management, ideal for large enterprises, despite partition size limits.

Scalability is the most valuable feature, and I rate it a ten out of ten.

MichaelCole

Senior Business Solutions Consultant at Conn3ct

Amazon DynamoDB is highly scalable.

Blessing Ogechi Nwojiji

Sales Director for West Africa at Atomic Computing

In terms of scalability, Amazon DynamoDB handles increases in data and traffic well for our team.

Aedpuganti Ipuganti

Software Engineer 2 at Guidewire Software

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

The system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.

Hashir Ali Shuja

Associate Software Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

We like that it can auto-scale to demand, ensuring we only pay for what we use.

Tiago Duarte

CTO at Stellium Consulting

We have had no issues with its ability to search through large amounts of data.

reviewer2678751

Full Stack Software Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.2

Amazon DynamoDB is stable and reliable, with high performance ratings, though issues may arise when throughput limits are exceeded.

Sentiment score

7.6

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers high availability and reliability, with users praising its scalability, integration, and minimal downtime.

I have not faced any issues with bugs or a breakdown in Amazon DynamoDB.

Blessing Ogechi Nwojiji

Sales Director for West Africa at Atomic Computing

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

We have multiple availability zones, so nothing goes down.

reviewer2596239

Hands on user at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Azure Cosmos DB would be a good choice if you have to deploy your application in a limited time frame and you want to auto-scale the database across different applications.

HarshitGaur

Associate Data Analytics L1 at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of availability and latency.

Aroosh Kumar

Azure Consultant at Deloitte

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Room For Improvement

Amazon DynamoDB has encryption, querying, interface, integration, setup, consistency, pricing, size, schema design, and query optimization issues.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB needs improvements in query complexity, API integration, performance, documentation, cost management, and user-interface enhancements.

The main area requiring attention is the cost aspect.

DeepakGurung

Lead SRE at JavaTech

To improve Amazon DynamoDB, the challenge I faced is that you cannot essentially query with anything that you want from the table.

Aedpuganti Ipuganti

Software Engineer 2 at Guidewire Software

The user interface could be improved to make it more intuitive.

MichaelCole

Senior Business Solutions Consultant at Conn3ct

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

We must ensure data security remains the top priority.

Mohamed Ait Salah

Cloud Solutions Architect and Microsoft Principal Consultant for EMEA at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

You have to monitor the Request Units.

Bernard Parinas

Co-Founder at arpa

The dashboard could include more detailed RU descriptions, IOPS, and compute metrics.

Fabien GOUINEAU

Architecte Cloud at Visiativ SA

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Amazon DynamoDB pricing varies with usage; affordable at low traffic, costly at high, with flexible options.

Azure Cosmos DB pricing varies, appreciated for scalability but seen as costly with high demand and complex environments.

Amazon DynamoDB can be quite expensive due to regional differences, so I have to be careful with the pricing.

Blessing Ogechi Nwojiji

Sales Director for West Africa at Atomic Computing

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

Initially, it seemed like an expensive way to manage a NoSQL data store, but so many improvements that have been made to the platform have made it cost-effective.

Joel Hulen

Lead Cloud Architect at Solliance, Inc

Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing.

Christian Gomez Rua

IT Data Architect & Manager at Ternium Mexico S.A. de C.V.

Cosmos DB is great compared to other databases because we can reduce the cost while doing the same things.

Rusty Coulbourne

Lead Software Architect at CPower

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Valuable Features

Amazon DynamoDB offers scalable, high-performance NoSQL storage with automatic scaling, seamless AWS integration, and efficient data management.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is valued for scalability, ease of integration, global distribution, security, and support for diverse applications.

The primary feature is constant availability without concerns about server maintenance or ensuring database uptime, as AWS manages everything from their end.

DeepakGurung

Lead SRE at JavaTech

The best features Amazon DynamoDB offers are its performance and Global Tables, which stand out because of their capabilities and speed.

Aedpuganti Ipuganti

Software Engineer 2 at Guidewire Software

Scalability has significantly enhanced data retrieval speeds.

MichaelCole

Senior Business Solutions Consultant at Conn3ct

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon DynamoDB report

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its real-time analytics capabilities, which allow for turnaround times in milliseconds.

reviewer2227599

Vice President, Machine Learning at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Performance and security are valuable features, particularly when using Cosmos DB for MongoDB emulation and NoSQL.

Christian Gomez Rua

IT Data Architect & Manager at Ternium Mexico S.A. de C.V.

The performance and scaling capabilities of Cosmos DB are excellent, allowing it to handle large workloads compared to other services such as Azure AI Search.

Tiago Duarte

CTO at Stellium Consulting

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report

Categories and Ranking

Amazon DynamoDB

Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

109

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (4th), NoSQL Databases (2nd), Vector Databases (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Amazon DynamoDB is 10.6%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 16.4%, down from 17.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed NoSQL Databases Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB	16.4%
Amazon DynamoDB	10.6%
Other	73.0%

Managed NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

DeepakGurung

Lead SRE at JavaTech

Has improved infrastructure availability and simplified integration through reliable cloud-based data management

Amazon DynamoDB is readily available, and we do not have to worry about downtime unless there is a global outage. From a cost perspective, it presents a challenge. The primary feature is constant availability without concerns about server maintenance or ensuring database uptime, as AWS manages everything from their end. We simply set up the database and allocate it to customers according to their requirements, making it an easy and smooth transition. Regarding security, being in the cloud provides numerous security features. Amazon DynamoDB operates at the backend within our three-tier architecture. We have front hosting, business logic or application server in the middle, and databases at the backend. Additionally, we implement security layers such as SSL, creating a highly secure environment. The solution has proven to be reliable thus far.

Read full review

reviewer2724105

Senior Director of Product Management at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides super sharp latency, excellent availability, and the ability to effectively manage costs across different tenants

For integrating Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB with other Azure products or other products, there are a couple of challenges with the current system. Right now, the vectors are stored as floating-point numbers within the NoSQL document, which makes them inefficiently large. This leads to increased storage space requirements, and searching through a vast number of documents in the vector database becomes quite costly in terms of RUs. While the integration works well, the expense associated with it is relatively high. I would really like to see a reduction in costs for their vector search, as it is currently on the expensive side. The areas for improvement in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are vector pricing and vector indexing patterns, which are unintuitive and not well described. I would also like to see the parameters of Fleet Spaces made more powerful, as currently, it's somewhat lightweight. I believe they've made those changes intentionally to better understand the cost model. However, we would like to take a more aggressive approach in using it. One of the most frustrating aspects of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB right now is that you can only store one vector per document. Additionally, you must specify the configuration of that vector when you create an instance of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Once the database is set up, you can't change the vector configuration, which is incredibly limiting for experimentation. You want the ability to try different settings and see how they perform, as there are numerous use cases for storing more than one vector in a document. While interoperability within the vector database is acceptable—for example, I can search for vectors—I still desire a richer set of configuration options.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Legal Firm

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	58

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon DynamoDB?

We don't have to administer the tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon DynamoDB?

The only challenge I face with Amazon DynamoDB is that with the partition key and secondary key, the query doesn't become very easy. The construction of that schema is a bit tricky because once you...

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What is your primary use case for Amazon DynamoDB?

Our main use case for Amazon DynamoDB is storing quick metadata information about any of the image artifacts that we collect from our customers. We generally store this in Amazon DynamoDB in multip...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model has aligned with my budget expectations because I can tune the RU as I need to, which helps a lot. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's dynamic auto-scale or server...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

I have not utilized Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB multi-model support for handling diverse data types. I'm not in the position to decide if clients will use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB or any other datab...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon Keyspaces vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 19% of the time

Google Cloud Bigtable vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud Firestore vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon Neptune vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon Timestream vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 9% of the time

More Amazon DynamoDB Competitors

Pinecone vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 7% of the time

Chroma vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 7% of the time

Neo4j Graph Database vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 6% of the time

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 6% of the time

PostgreSQL vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon DynamoDB

January 2026

Download Amazon DynamoDB product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

January 2026

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

Overview

Amazon DynamoDB offers unmatched scalability, fast performance, and seamless cloud integration. It's designed to handle diverse data types with NoSQL flexibility, providing automatic scaling, low latency, and easy AWS integration.

Amazon DynamoDB stands out for its ability to efficiently manage unstructured and semi-structured data, integrating smoothly with AWS services. It features automatic scaling, global tables, and predictable latency, supporting both JSON storage and serverless operations. Users appreciate the flexibility offered by its schema design, ensuring data accessibility and security. Despite its strengths, improvements such as better documentation, enhanced querying, and expanded integration with AWS services could enhance usability. Additional features like built-in server-side encryption, cross-region replication, and data refresh scheduling would be beneficial.

What are Amazon DynamoDB's most important features?

Unmatched Scalability: Handles large data volumes effortlessly.
Automatic Scaling: Adjusts capacity based on demand.
Global Tables: Simplifies data replication across regions.
JSON Storage: Stores data in a versatile format.
Predictable Latency: Ensures consistent response times.

What benefits and ROI should be considered in reviews?

Data Flexibility: Manages both structured and unstructured data seamlessly.
Cost Efficiency: Offers competitive pricing for large data storage.
Fast Retrieval: Delivers quick data access and response.
Seamless AWS Integration: Smoothly integrates with other AWS services.

Amazon DynamoDB is utilized in industries like IoT, e-commerce, and gaming for handling sensor data, managing real-time analytics, and storing game states. Its scalability and flexibility make it ideal for companies managing extensive metadata and localization tasks. Many also utilize it for MongoDB emulation and integrating with services like AWS Lambda for streamlined automation processes.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalable, geo-replicated, multi-model support with high performance and low latency. It provides seamless Microsoft service integration, benefiting those needing flexible NoSQL, real-time analytics, and automatic scaling for diverse data types and quick global access.

Azure Cosmos DB is designed to store, manage, and query large volumes of both unstructured and structured data. Its NoSQL capabilities and global distribution are leveraged by organizations to support activities like IoT data management, business intelligence, and backend databases for web and mobile applications. While its robust security measures and availability are strengths, there are areas for improvement such as query complexity, integration with services like Databricks and MongoDB, documentation clarity, and performance issues. Enhancements in real-time analytics, API compatibility, cross-container joins, and indexing capabilities are sought after. Cost management, optimization tools, and better support for local development also require attention, as do improvements in user interface and advanced AI integration.

What are the key features of Azure Cosmos DB?

Scalability: Effortlessly handles scaling for large workloads.
Geo-replication: Provides global data access with low latency.
Multi-model Support: Compatible with diverse data types.
NoSQL Flexibility: Offers a non-relational database experience.
Real-time Analytics: Facilitates data-driven decision-making.
Automation: Simplifies scaling and maintenance processes.

What benefits can users expect from Cosmos DB?

High Performance: Ensures rapid processing and low latency.
Ease of Use: Features a user-friendly interface enhancing deployment speed.
Seamless Integration: Connects effortlessly with Microsoft services.
Security: Offers robust measures to protect data integrity.
Consistent Availability: Ensures continuous access to data worldwide.

Industries use Azure Cosmos DB to support business intelligence and IoT data management, using its capabilities for backend databases in web and mobile applications. The platform's scalability and real-time analytics benefit sectors like finance, healthcare, and retail, where managing diverse datasets efficiently is critical.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Samsung, Snapchat, Capital One, Expedia, Tinder, Airbnb, Comcast, Lyft, Redfin, Netflix, Adobe

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify

Buyer's Guide

Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

December 2025

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