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 8.4, while Google is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.8. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 13.5% mindshare in DS, compared to Google’s 7.8% 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 58 Amazon RDS reviews

3,802 Views
3,650 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud SQL

Read 23 Google Cloud SQL reviews

2,134 Views
2,070 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

Google Cloud SQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL are competitive products in the database as a service category. Amazon RDS appears to have the upper hand with robust features and reliability, while Google Cloud SQL excels in cost efficiency and ease of management.

Features: Amazon RDS offers support for a wide range of databases, automated management, and high availability, enhancing microservices architecture integration. It also provides scalability and performance optimization across multiple engines. Google Cloud SQL ensures robust data safety with redundancy options and offers automated scaling, minimizing operational concerns. It focuses on flexible customization potential but covers fewer on-premises enterprise features than RDS.

Room for Improvement: Amazon RDS users encounter migration challenges and limited shell access, hindering deep database management. Some features could be enabled by default for user convenience. Google Cloud SQL requires enhancement in supporting high I/O operations and improving documentation clarity. Better integration and analytics capabilities would strengthen its competitive position.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL offer flexible deployment, accommodating public and hybrid cloud environments. Google Cloud SQL is notable for its user-friendly interface, while Amazon RDS receives mixed feedback on customer support quality, necessitating improvement in response times and support quality. Both services provide substantial documentation, although RDS charges additional support fees unless on premium plans.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon RDS is regarded as expensive but valuable, with potential ROI from reduced DBA workloads. Careful resource provisioning aids in managing costs. Google Cloud SQL is typically more affordable, aligning with industry standards, though additional costs arise from backup and replication requirements. Its predictable pricing model often leads to quicker ROI, aided by reduced management resource expenses.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

February 2026

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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

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google Cloud SQL

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

6th

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

19th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database Management Systems (DBMS) (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 13.5%, down from 25.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 7.8%, down from 16.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon RDS	13.5%
Google Cloud SQL	7.8%
Other	78.7%

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2592669

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.

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Victor Danso

Database Engineer at Springer Nature

Migration to cloud eases management but needs better support for high I/O operations

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. There is also difficulty in changing the time zone after the database is set up. Moreover, some features available in MSSQL on-prem are missing on Google Cloud SQL, affecting migration potential.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The IT is easy to set up, which is the best."

"The solution is good for on-premise deployments."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon RDS is its performance."

"The product is very, very easy to use."

"The initial setup is straightforward, and technical support is good."

"Amazon RDS is lightweight and flexible."

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

"It's a fully managed database, so that makes our life easier from the operational standpoint. That is the key, basically."

More Amazon RDS pros

"What I like the most about Google Cloud SQL is that it handles the management, which allows us to concentrate on our applications."

"My suggestion to anyone thinking about this solution is to jump into it head-first!"

"From a database management perspective, it provides services without the need for me to worry about backups, scaling, or other operational issues."

"Google Cloud SQL is very easy to use and easy to set up; it brings the benefits of being simple to perform queries, store data that I needed to store, and extract data when I needed to extract it quite quickly, without having to set up a full database and queries around it."

"I found its storage and security to be the most valuable. It was a good experience. It is also very stable and scalable, and its support is perfect."

"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."

"This is a stable solution and offers good performance."

"It directly provides robust data safety. It also offers various other storage options, such as Google Cloud Storage. These services ensure data security and redundancy. Furthermore, it includes different storage classes, allowing flexible data management tailored to specific needs."

More Google Cloud SQL pros

Cons

"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."

"Amazon RDS could improve by having more sophisticated. I use other solutions that have better technology for more difficult tasks."

"The security features could be improved."

"Amazon has a policy of automatically restarting the server every seven days."

"The product should support new databases."

"When you are using it for the first time, it is a little bit hard to configure. The first-time configuration is not very easy. It should be easier to configure. Its installation should also be simpler. Currently, its installation is very complex. With SQL Server, we have access to the SQL Server analysis services and reporting services, but such services are not available with Amazon RDS."

"Technical support could be better."

"There are a few aspects of database management that have room for improvement. There are a few parameters in the solution that are a bit unclear at our end as it's not understandable."

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 purging of the data could be better."

"I would like to see better integration with all the different tools on the platform."

"I would appreciate more flexibility with specific extensions applicable to engines like PostgreSQL."

"It is hard to do logging with the solution."

"I am yet to explore a lot of features that are present in this solution. However, it would be good if more documentation is available for this solution. This would help us in preparing for the certification exam and understand it better. Currently, we don't have much documentation. We do the labs for 20 or 25 minutes, but we can't capture and download anything."

"In the case of Google, they need to work on a more easy interface for users."

"The most vulnerable problem with Google SQL is that while you can customize your access control list, it provides you with a public IP address."

More Google Cloud SQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."

"AWS is becoming pretty expensive because cheap or absolutely free services have become paid services. Amazon RDS is not an expensive product, but Amazon's ecosystem is becoming increasingly expensive."

"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."

"We are paying for a service license."

"The product is expensive."

"The prices for different regions are different."

"Amazon RDS is less expensive than other solutions."

"The cost of using this solution is similar to that of having your own data center."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."

"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."

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

"The solution is affordable."

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

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Educational Organization

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	23

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	9

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?

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 ...

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?

We have set up automated patch management for Google Cloud SQL, and it does on a daily basis what needs to be done, so it is pretty good overall for maintaining our database security.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?

Sometimes the sharing with third parties or configuring that in Google Cloud SQL is not the most intuitive. From a user perspective, if Google Cloud SQL integrated AI directly into the query so tha...

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Amazon RDS

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Amazon RDS

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 30% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 14% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 5% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 4% of the time

More Google Cloud SQL Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

February 2026

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud SQL

January 2026

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

February 2026

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: February 2026.

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