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Amazon Aurora vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora is 3.4%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 7.6%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Rajitha Jatothu - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieve high performance with fault-tolerant and highly available database management
Aurora is a key pillar for us, offering performance and availability. It is faster than RDS and supports multi-region clusters and scalability. One feature we value is Aurora's ability to provide a reader endpoint, allowing applications to connect without tracking replicas. It supports auto-scaling and offers several options for monitoring and optimizing database performance. Aurora's fault tolerance and ability to handle multiple replicas contribute to its reliability and high performance.
KumarManish - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, cost-effective, and integrates seamlessly with other products
We had planned for an RDBMS version and not NoSQL. We use MariaDB Galera Cluster. It's a good product. It is cheap, scalable, performs well, and is efficient. We use GCP’s BigQuery for machine learning. We must follow the best practices of the tool. We missed some best practices like the storage engine and InnoDB. It was very difficult to identify why we were having performance issues. Then, we realized that some of our tables were still on MyISAM, the default storage engine. When we switched it back to the InnoDB, it was very smooth. InnoDB is the recommended one. We must follow the best practices given in the documentation during the initial setup. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon Aurora stands out for its ease of use in a managed environment, inbuilt security, continuous backups, numerous read replicas, multi-region automated replication, and seamless integration with other AWS services."
"Aurora's features that I find the most beneficial include its database backup strategy, performance options, and input-output operations."
"Aurora is a key pillar for us, offering performance and availability."
"One of the most valuable features is storage scaling."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Amazon Aurora include the global instance with the global writer endpoint, which allows failovers and instance switches without requiring changes in my code, thanks to the default global Route 53 endpoint."
"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."
"MariaDB has a straightforward initial setup with easy-to-understand documentation."
"I am editing."
"It is very simple to install, and the commands are exactly the same as MySQL."
"From the user's perspective, the performance of the columnar queries is very good in terms of the database when comparing it to the Oracle, and MySQL."
"Great monitoring and performance stability."
"Installation is straightforward."
"It is a stable solution."
"We use MariaDB for identity provider services. Most of the things that we are doing are deployed in the container mode. All such solutions require a database, and MariaDB is easier to use for these kinds of deployments."
 

Cons

"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."
"One of the most valuable features is storage scaling."
"The product's distributed query process for MySQL needs improvement."
"The pricing could improve. It should be reduced."
"Room for improvement might be in the UI, integrations, or data working capabilities for better user experience."
"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."
"While Amazon Aurora meets your current scaling and storage needs, there is room for improvement in cryptography and scalability compared to other databases."
"I would like to see performance insights on the database based on the queries. Currently, we use SolarWinds as the monitoring tool. I would like to leverage SolarWinds’ performance insights in AWS services. SolarWinds gives larger insights when we run performance issues."
"I would like to see more compatibility going forward. This would help if there is a need to change databases."
"The interface should be more user-friendly. It should be able to connect directly to the database and Interact with it without having to use commands. It needs better integration."
"In future releases, mainly the addition of security features would be beneficial for MariaDB."
"I’m not sure if it can scale."
"Maria DB has to improve from a management perspective."
"An improvement would be scaling it up to the levels of Oracle, especially when it comes to resilience, so that we can do higher transactions for two databases or power our operation."
"In the next release, I would like to see improvements in the scalability and redundancy features."
"MariaDB should provide HA and archive logging... I haven't had the opportunity to use the features provided by the solution since I don't know how to see them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is quite expensive."
"The price could be lower compared to its competitors."
"The tool’s pricing depends on the instance type. For cost optimization purposes, we use the result instance category."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"It is an expensive solution."
"There is no need to buy a license for the product. We can pay as per the use case."
"The tool is open-source."
"MariaDB is available for free."
"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."
"We use the solution's free version."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."
"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
AWS is costlier than self-managed solutions, but this includes the managed service experience. Their pricing is fair and reflects the managed service and additional features AWS offers.
What needs improvement with Amazon Aurora?
AWS RDS doesn't provide an option to apply one-off patches, which can be critical for business due to unexpected product bugs. While self-managed systems allow immediate patch application, RDS has ...
What do you like most about MariaDB?
The integration with other products is seamless.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
I have found the price of commercial MariaDB to be pretty steep, although not as high as Oracle. Customers often prefer the Community Edition because it's free.
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dow Jones, Arizona State University, Verizon, Capital One, United Nations, Nielsen, Autodesk, Fanduel
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Aurora vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.