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 8.2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 20.4% mindshare in MND, compared to Microsoft’s 17.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon DynamoDB

Read 41 Amazon DynamoDB reviews

2,062 Views
1,772 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Read 78 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews

3,384 Views
1,298 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Amazon DynamoDB

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Amazon DynamoDB and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are prominent contenders in the NoSQL database space. Cosmos DB holds a slight advantage with its multi-model and global distribution capabilities.

Features: Amazon DynamoDB offers scalability, speed, and the ability to handle unstructured or semi-structured data. It integrates seamlessly with AWS services like EC2 and Lambda, allowing schema flexibility without upfront design, making it suitable for on-demand use cases. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is known for its multi-model support and global distribution, optimizing latency and integrating smoothly with Azure services. It provides robust document storage and data querying across various APIs, offering versatility in handling diverse data types.

Room for Improvement: Amazon DynamoDB could benefit from improved documentation and user interface. The absence of server-side encryption and complex query handling are notable concerns. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB faces challenges with API compatibility and cross-container querying, and its pricing structure is often considered high and complex. While both databases can enhance their offerings, Cosmos DB receives more criticism due to its extensive feature set and management complexities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon DynamoDB is widely used in both public and private clouds, with technical support generally rated positively, though specific problem resolution can be slow. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is mainly deployed in public cloud environments, offering robust technical support with rapid response times but needs improvement in resolving prolonged bugs. Both provide good customer service, although DynamoDB occasionally lacks understanding of specific use cases.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon DynamoDB offers a lower starting cost with a pay-as-you-go model, but expenses can rise with increased volume and usage. Its pricing simplicity makes it economical for smaller datasets. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, also pay-as-you-go, presents a more complicated and often perceived expensive pricing model, especially due to RU/capacity units. While comprehensive features can justify its costs for enterprise-level applications, its pricing is seen as less transparent. Both solutions deliver strong ROI, especially when well-integrated, though Microsoft's offering can be financially demanding if not properly managed.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

December 2024

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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 DynamoDB

Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

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

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), NoSQL Databases (3rd), Vector Databases (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Amazon DynamoDB is 20.4%, down from 27.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 17.6%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

Prabin Silwal

Senior Engineering Consultant at ASSURANCE IQ, INC.

Offers exceptional performance to users

Previously, when in my company, we used to store 64 KB of data, we used to get problems and errors, and due to such reason, at such a point in time, we had to find a different storage system or modify the system so that the size of the value is not more than 64 KB. The main aforementioned issue in the tool can be considered for improvement for Amazon DynamoDB. In our company, we have some data which can be stored as we want. Previously, only 64 KB could be used, and later, I think, it was about 400 KB. If the tool could have an additional 10 MB to offer, then the tool could be easier to use. The tool is a key value storage, where the key will be long. In terms of value, we couldn't store more than 64 kb previously in the tool, but later on, it was increased to 400 KB, which is a limitation that I don't like in the tool.

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MichaelJohn

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

Very efficient for application-facing scenarios

There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.

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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

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. I've never faced any problems."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the non-relational database."

"The platform is easy to develop and configure."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its performance."

"I appreciate the visibility of DynamoDB, as I can observe everything on the Console."

"AWS technical support is very friendly."

"It has helped us build our product from zero point to the end."

"Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database that stores unstructured data and provides high performance."

More Amazon DynamoDB pros

"Cosmos DB has helped us by providing faster response times for everything, which significantly improved our search results quality."

"It is a cloud-based solution that is easy to deploy, easy to access, and provides users with more features compared to other clouds like AWS and GCP."

"Scaling the workloads is one of the key advantages of Cosmos, preventing the database from becoming a performance bottleneck."

"The graphical representation of data is the most valuable feature of the solution."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers the response times needed for advanced analytics applications."

"Our customer is very satisfied with it."

"I appreciate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's robust document management and consistent availability."

"Latency and availability are incredible."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

Cons

"There are some issues like if we missed something or somehow were not able to store the data, then it was quite difficult for us to get back that data."

"I initially faced issues with the solution's stability, performance, and security."

"The solution's initial setup is a bit complex if you want it for something more specific."

"I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. We faced some configuration issues."

"Querying data on the solution is quite limited, but this is like any other NoSQL database. It's the most common criticism of the NoSQL database in general."

"If you purchase the support plan, their support team is good. If not, it takes two to three days to respond, sometimes even more."

"As more data comes in, it becomes more expensive."

"Amazon DynamoDB has a very complex configuration if you go very advanced."

More Amazon DynamoDB cons

"While Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is generally easy to use, it has some limitations."

"One of the primary challenges with Cosmos DB as a non-relational data store is the careful data modeling required due to the lack of collection-level joins when using the SQL API."

"Sometimes, the solution's access request takes time, which should be improved."

"I have been a devoted Microsoft fan, but Redis DB's memory caching capabilities are really making progress. Even if Cosmos DB is continuously improving and is quite advanced in the field of internal memory optimization, I would still recommend Redis DB to a customer."

"The one thing that I have been working on with Microsoft with regard to this is the ability to easily split partitions and have it do high-performance cross-partition queries. That is the only place where either our data size or our throughput has grown beyond one partition, so being able to do cross-partition queries efficiently would be my number one request."

"The integration with other solutions needs to improve because Cosmos DB's interoperability is lacking in some scenarios. For example, I'm currently implementing Fabric. That involves migrating from environments without apps, processing data and users, and taking them to Fabric."

"The customer service is lacking. We have a premier support agreement, but support is hit and miss."

"One area that could be improved is indexing. Some of the developers struggle with the way the indexing works. We are exploring vector indexing, which we haven't examined fully yet. Indexing is an aspect we're looking to improve upon potentially."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its subscription cost is lower than similar databases offered by other vendors."

"Compared to a high-end relational database, it's cheap."

"The pricing is based on Lambda function usage. So, if a Lambda function is invoked with every call, and we receive 5,000 calls daily, that means 5,000 Lambda invocations."

"It's an expensive solution"

"For our use case usage, DynamoDB's pricing was okay. However, for high-traffic applications, the pricing structure becomes less attractive."

"Amazon DynamoDB is cheap."

"I can say that it is not the cheapest one because if we had our own kind of storage solution, our own hosting, and instead of using the cloud, we opted for some other method, it would have been a tool of a lower cost."

"You can get committed capacity or transaction-based pricing. If you're doing it on demand, they charge based on whether you're reading or writing. They charge $1.25 for every million rights to the database and 25 cents for every million reads from the database. The first 25 gigabytes of storage are free, and they charge 25 cents a gigabyte a month. So, it's a very different world. It's a quarter a gigabyte a month. You can store a lot of data. They have a separate fee for automated backup, and if you want it globally distributed, where it's distributed around the world, there's a slightly different price."

More Amazon DynamoDB pricing and cost advice

"Cosmos DB gave us three accounts for $400. We pay according to the usage."

"The tool is not expensive."

"Our experience with the pricing and setup cost is that it aligns with what we expect based on the pricing we see. However, I would absolutely like it to be less if possible."

"The solution is very expensive."

"The pricing for Cosmos DB has improved, particularly with the new pricing for Autoscale."

"Its pricing is higher compared to solutions like Aerospike. However, it is justified because of the out-of-the-box features that are provided. The availability and resiliency that we have make it worth the price."

"Cosmos DB is expensive compared to any virtual machine based on conventional RDBMS like MySQL or PostgreSQL."

"Its pricing structure is quite flexible."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

There is nothing that I can think of for improvements.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Amazon DynamoDB?

My company has a fleet management system, and we primarily use DynamoDB to store location data.

See all answers

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?

Azure Cosmos DB's pricing is competitive, though there is a need for more personalized pricing models to accommodate small applications without incurring high charges. A suggestion is to implement ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

For streaming platforms, Azure Cosmos DB could improve efficiency in data storage. Indexing can also be better. Enhanced capabilities are necessary to manage increased data amounts more effectively...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon Keyspaces vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 33% of the time

Amazon Neptune vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon DocumentDB vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 14% of the time

Google Cloud Bigtable vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon Timestream vs Amazon DynamoDB

Compared 8% of the time

More Amazon DynamoDB Competitors

Amazon Neptune vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 14% of the time

Chroma vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 13% of the time

Pinecone vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 8% of the time

Neo4j AuraDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon DocumentDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon DynamoDB

January 2025

Download Amazon DynamoDB product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

December 2024

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Microsoft

Overview

Amazon DynamoDB is a scalable NoSQL database valued for its speed and cost efficiency, adept in handling unstructured data and delivering fast data retrieval without predefined schemas.

Amazon DynamoDB is recognized for seamless integration with AWS services and its ability to accommodate large datasets. It provides powerful performance with automatic scaling, JSON document storage, and requires no external configurations. Users appreciate the predictable performance and ease of use, although the documentation lacks clarity, and local access necessitates third-party tools. Complex queries can be challenging due to limited API options. Desired improvements include better integration with other services and an enhanced interface. The cost structure and data storage limitations present challenges with improvements needed in backup, restore, caching, and query performance.

What are the standout features of Amazon DynamoDB?

Scalability: Automatically adjusts capacity to accommodate workloads.
Integration: Seamless with various AWS services for comprehensive solutions.
NoSQL Flexibility: Adapts to diverse unstructured data needs.
JSON Storage: Stores and manages data in JSON format efficiently.
Automatic Scaling: Ensures efficient resource usage and cost management.

Which benefits should users consider in reviews?

Performance: Provides fast and efficient data retrieval.
Cost Efficiency: Manages data storage costs effectively.
Ease of Use: Offers a straightforward setup and management experience.
Flexibility: Adaptable to different data requirements and workloads.

Amazon DynamoDB is implemented in industries for IoT data management, weather data storage, localization automation, and large stream indexing. It's utilized for user data management in web services and e-commerce, providing high-performance, scalable storage solutions. Companies benefit from serverless architecture, JSON storage, and integration with Lambda for optimized data handling.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service providing scalability, user-friendliness, and seamless integration, suitable for managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data across diverse applications.

Azure Cosmos DB is renowned for its scalability, stability, and ease of integration, offering robust support for multiple data models and APIs. Its capacity for handling unstructured data efficiently and providing real-time analytics makes it ideal for applications requiring high performance and global distribution. With features like automatic failover and integration with Microsoft products, users benefit from cost optimization and secure data handling. Enhancement opportunities include simplifying queries, improving documentation, and expanding backup and analytics functionalities.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Scalability and Autoscaling: Efficiently handles growing data and user demands.
Multi-Model Support: Adapts to different data models seamlessly.
Global Distribution: Provides low-latency access across multiple regions.
Automatic Failover: Ensures high availability and reliability.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Offers seamless connectivity with Azure services.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews?

Performance and Speed: Exceptionally fast processing for real-time data analytics.
Cost Optimization: Tools for managing expenses effectively.
Secure Data Handling: Implements strong data security measures.
Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports diverse data ingestion methods.

Azure Cosmos DB is frequently used in sectors like web, mobile, IoT, and analytics. It supports applications as a key-value store, processes real-time data, and enables global scalability with low-latency access. Its big data management capabilities and integration with Azure services enhance its utility across industries.

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 2024

Free Report: Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

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