What is Amazon Aurora used for?

Amazon Aurora is an AWS relational database built for the cloud, compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL and offered as a managed service. It is a good fit for running high-traffic SQL applications on AWS and migrating MySQL or PostgreSQL to a managed engine.

How much does Amazon Aurora cost?

Amazon Aurora is a paid product with no free plan. Usage-based. Examples show storage at $0.10 per GB-month with $0.20 per million I/Os on Standard, or $0.225 per GB-month with no I/O charge on I/O-Optimized; instance hours are billed separately.

Is Amazon Aurora open source?

No. Amazon Aurora is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Amazon Aurora include MySQL, Neon and TiDB.

What are some alternatives to Amazon Aurora?

Amazon Aurora competes with Amazon RDS, PlanetScale and Google Cloud Spanner. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Amazon Aurora alternatives.

Amazon Aurora: features, pricing and alternatives

About Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora is a relational database engine from Amazon Web Services that is built for the cloud and is compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL. Existing applications written for those databases can usually use Aurora with little change, while AWS handles storage, replication, backups and failover.

AWS describes it as a global-scale relational database service with full MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility, with serverless options available. Aurora is a proprietary AWS service with no self-hosted edition, and it is billed on usage; AWS documents its architecture, global database features and pricing on its site.

Key features

MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility
Managed storage, replication and failover
Serverless deployment option
Global database support
Automated backups and recovery

Good fit for

→Running high-traffic SQL applications on AWS
→Migrating MySQL or PostgreSQL to a managed engine

Tags: aws; relational-database; mysql; postgresql; managed-database; serverless; dbaas

Amazon Aurora: questions and answers

What is Amazon Aurora used for?: Amazon Aurora is an AWS relational database built for the cloud, compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL and offered as a managed service. It is a good fit for running high-traffic SQL applications on AWS and migrating MySQL or PostgreSQL to a managed engine.
How much does Amazon Aurora cost?: Amazon Aurora is a paid product with no free plan. Usage-based. Examples show storage at $0.10 per GB-month with $0.20 per million I/Os on Standard, or $0.225 per GB-month with no I/O charge on I/O-Optimized; instance hours are billed separately.
Is Amazon Aurora open source?: No. Amazon Aurora is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Amazon Aurora include MySQL, Neon and TiDB.
What are some alternatives to Amazon Aurora?: Amazon Aurora competes with Amazon RDS, PlanetScale and Google Cloud Spanner. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Amazon Aurora alternatives.