Amazon Aurora vs IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL

Amazon Aurora9.4Visit IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL8.7Visit

Higher score Amazon Aurora #1 in PostgreSQL Hosting 9.4/10 Paid ✓ 2 of 4 features Visit AWS Aurora

vs

IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL #8 in PostgreSQL Hosting 8.7/10 Paid ✓ 4 of 4 features Visit IBM Cloud

• Amazon Aurora fits best

  Scalable AWS PostgreSQL-compatible workloads

• IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL fits best

  IBM Cloud teams needing governed PostgreSQL

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Side by side

Feature	Amazon Aurora 9.4/10 Visit ↗	IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.4	8.7
Ranking	#1 in PostgreSQL Hosting	#8 in PostgreSQL Hosting
Best for	Scalable AWS PostgreSQL-compatible workloads	IBM Cloud teams needing governed PostgreSQL
Pricing model	Paid	Paid
Starting price	—	—
Free plan	—	Not checked yet
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Email, Live chat, Phone, Tickets, Community, Docs · 24/7	Community, Docs, Tickets · 24/7
Compliance	SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS	SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS
Integrations	9 integrations	6 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Amazon Aurora 2/4 · IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL 4/4
High availability	✓	✓
Point-in-time recovery	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Read replicas	✓	✓
Custom extensions	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Specs
Maximum storage	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Backup retention	Not checked yet	30 days
Our review
Pros	Provisioned and serverless deployment with automatic capacity scaling Up to 15 read replicas, automatic failover, and continuous backups Multi-Region operation with point-in-time recovery support	Automatic cross-zone failover with highly available clusters Seven-day point-in-time recovery and 30-day backup retention BYOK encryption plus API, CLI, Terraform, and extension support
Cons	Paid service with pricing that varies by region and configuration Cloud-based deployment tied to the AWS ecosystem Not an open-source database product	Consumption-based billing can make monthly spend variable Standard starts with two data members by default Its strongest ecosystem fit is centered on IBM Cloud tooling
Our verdict	Amazon Aurora is a fully managed, cloud-based relational database service from Amazon Web Services. It supports PostgreSQL- and MySQL-compatible database engines, along with Aurora DSQL, and is designed for enterprise applications, SaaS… Read the review →	IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL is a fully managed PostgreSQL service for teams running web, mobile, analytics, and enterprise applications on IBM Cloud. IBM handles infrastructure, patching, scaling, monitoring, logging, backups, and… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Amazon Aurora — where it wins

  • Provisioned and serverless deployment with automatic capacity scaling
  • Up to 15 read replicas, automatic failover, and continuous backups
  • Multi-Region operation with point-in-time recovery support

  Where it doesn't

  • Paid service with pricing that varies by region and configuration
  • Cloud-based deployment tied to the AWS ecosystem
  • Not an open-source database product

• IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL — where it wins

  • Automatic cross-zone failover with highly available clusters
  • Seven-day point-in-time recovery and 30-day backup retention
  • BYOK encryption plus API, CLI, Terraform, and extension support

  Where it doesn't

  • Consumption-based billing can make monthly spend variable
  • Standard starts with two data members by default
  • Its strongest ecosystem fit is centered on IBM Cloud tooling

• Amazon Aurora9.4/10 · Paid

  A managed AWS database for scalable PostgreSQL-compatible and distributed SQL workloads.

  Visit AWS AuroraFull verdict →
• IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL8.7/10 · Paid

  A governed, highly available PostgreSQL service for teams already building on IBM Cloud.

  Visit IBM CloudFull verdict →