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Amazon Aurora vs MySQL 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.4
Migrating to Amazon Aurora cut costs by 30%, boosting performance, reliability, and customer satisfaction with operational efficiencies.
Sentiment score
6.6
Quantifying MySQL ROI is challenging due to variable costs, but users report high return and cost-effectiveness without licensing fees.
Using Amazon Aurora has saved us significantly in terms of manpower costs, with nearly fifty percent savings compared to an on-premises solution.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.6
Subscription level dictates Amazon Aurora's support quality, with premium users receiving better service and others relying on documentation.
Sentiment score
6.8
MySQL users rely heavily on community support, with mixed reviews on paid support due to cost and variable responsiveness.
Technical support from Amazon is rated very highly.
We have no issues and usually receive timely responses.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon Aurora provides automatic, efficient scalability, benefiting various sectors with pay-as-you-go pricing, scoring high in user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.8
MySQL scales well for small to medium databases but may face challenges with horizontal scaling in larger datasets.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon Aurora is praised for stability, high availability, and performance, with minor issues not impacting applications significantly.
Sentiment score
7.7
MySQL is highly stable and reliable, praised for ease of integration and requiring proper resources for optimal performance.
We face certain integration issues, especially when we integrate the database with security solutions like IBM QRadar.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Aurora requires cost improvements, Oracle integration, better scalability, tuning, migration, comparison tools, and enhanced performance features.
MySQL struggles with performance, scalability, and ease of use, needing improvements in tools, features, backup, and system integration.
There are technical challenges, such as the inability to provision the database using a PostgreSQL snapshot directly.
It could be more beneficial if MySQL can enhance its data masking functionality in the same way it has improved data encryption.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Aurora is costly compared to competitors but cost-effective for enterprises, praised for performance and pay-per-use model.
MySQL offers free and enterprise editions, with flexible licensing and cost-effective options for diverse business needs and support.
The pricing is reasonable and not overly expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Aurora provides scalable, reliable, and efficient database management with integrated AWS features, ensuring high availability and reduced maintenance.
MySQL offers cost-effective, reliable, and scalable performance with extensive support, flexibility, and advanced features for versatile applications.
Amazon Aurora offers a 99.9% SLA compared to PostgreSQL. This ensures a high level of availability for our applications.
With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Aurora
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MySQL
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
148
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon Aurora is 3.3%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 8.5%, down from 8.8% 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.
Muzzamil  Hussain - PeerSpot reviewer
Native encryption ensures secure data management with a simple deployment
The most valuable feature is the on-premises data encryption facilities. By default, we can provide encryption, and this feature in MySQL is why we prefer it over other databases. The native encryption in MySQL encourages us to use this database model more frequently compared to Oracle and other databases. With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment. It perfectly supports our ROI, and we have no issues with its functionality.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

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 ...
Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?
MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...
Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?
I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...
What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?
One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Aurora vs. MySQL and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
841,302 professionals have used our research since 2012.