Amazon Aurora vs Aiven for PostgreSQL

Amazon Aurora8.5Visit Aiven for PostgreSQL7.3Visit

Higher score Amazon Aurora #2 in Managed Database Hosting 8.5/10 Paid ✓ 2 of 3 features Visit Amazon Aurora

vs

Aiven for PostgreSQL #6 in Managed Database Hosting 7.3/10 Free plan · paid from $5/mo Free plan✓ 2 of 3 features Visit Aiven

• Amazon Aurora fits best

  High-scale AWS relational workloads

• Aiven for PostgreSQL fits best

  PostgreSQL teams seeking low-cost managed hosting

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Side by side

Feature	Amazon Aurora 8.5/10 Visit ↗	Aiven for PostgreSQL 7.3/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.5	7.3
Ranking	#2 in Managed Database Hosting	#6 in Managed Database Hosting
Best for	High-scale AWS relational workloads	PostgreSQL teams seeking low-cost managed hosting
Pricing model	Paid	Free plan + paid
Starting price	Not published	$5/mo
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Email, Live chat, Phone, Tickets, Community, Docs · 24/7	Tickets, Docs, Email
Compliance	SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS	SOC 2, GDPR, 2FA
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Amazon Aurora 2/3 · Aiven for PostgreSQL 2/3
High availability	✓	✓
Point-in-time recovery	Not published	Not published
Read replicas	✓	✓
Specs
Database type	Not published	Not published
Scaling model	Not published	Not published
Backup retention	Not published	Not published
Our review
Pros	PostgreSQL- and MySQL-compatible engines plus Aurora DSQL Automatic scaling, failover, backups, and point-in-time recovery Multi-region deployment with up to 15 Aurora read replicas	Free plan with no time limit and a $5/month Developer tier Managed patching, scaling, backups, monitoring, and failover options API, Terraform, CLI, Kubernetes, and Aiven service integrations
Cons	No permanent free plan Pricing varies by region, capacity, storage, I/O, and options AWS-centered integrations may not suit non-AWS environments	Free and Developer plans use a single node or VM Free plan includes only 1 GB RAM and 1 GB disk storage Higher availability features begin on the Business plan
Our verdict	Amazon Aurora is a fully managed, cloud-based relational database service from Amazon Web Services. It supports PostgreSQL- and MySQL-compatible engines alongside Aurora DSQL, with automated provisioning, patching, backups, scaling, and… Read the review →	Aiven for PostgreSQL is a fully managed, cloud-hosted relational database service based on open-source PostgreSQL. It is aimed at teams that want Aiven to handle provisioning, maintenance, patching, scaling, backups, monitoring, and… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Amazon Aurora — where it wins

  • PostgreSQL- and MySQL-compatible engines plus Aurora DSQL
  • Automatic scaling, failover, backups, and point-in-time recovery
  • Multi-region deployment with up to 15 Aurora read replicas

  Where it doesn't

  • No permanent free plan
  • Pricing varies by region, capacity, storage, I/O, and options
  • AWS-centered integrations may not suit non-AWS environments

• Aiven for PostgreSQL — where it wins

  • Free plan with no time limit and a $5/month Developer tier
  • Managed patching, scaling, backups, monitoring, and failover options
  • API, Terraform, CLI, Kubernetes, and Aiven service integrations

  Where it doesn't

  • Free and Developer plans use a single node or VM
  • Free plan includes only 1 GB RAM and 1 GB disk storage
  • Higher availability features begin on the Business plan

• Amazon Aurora8.5/10 · Paid

  A managed AWS database for scalable relational workloads and global deployments.

  Visit Amazon AuroraFull verdict →
• Aiven for PostgreSQL7.3/10 · Free plan · paid from $5/mo

  A low-cost managed PostgreSQL service with useful automation and cloud tooling.

  Visit AivenFull verdict →