Amazon RDS vs Aiven for PostgreSQL

Amazon RDS9.0Visit Aiven for PostgreSQL7.3Visit

Higher score Amazon RDS #1 in Managed Database Hosting 9.0/10 Paid ✓ 2 of 3 features Visit Amazon RDS

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 RDS fits best

  AWS teams needing broad managed SQL coverage

• Aiven for PostgreSQL fits best

  PostgreSQL teams seeking low-cost managed hosting

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Side by side

Feature	Amazon RDS 9.0/10 Visit ↗	Aiven for PostgreSQL 7.3/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.0	7.3
Ranking	#1 in Managed Database Hosting	#6 in Managed Database Hosting
Best for	AWS teams needing broad managed SQL coverage	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, Self-hosted	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Phone, Live chat, Email, Community, Docs · 24/7	Tickets, Docs, Email
Compliance	SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS	SOC 2, GDPR, 2FA
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Amazon RDS 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	Supports eight database engines in the AWS environment Automates provisioning, patching, backups, and point-in-time recovery Combines Multi-AZ failover, read replicas, monitoring, and AWS integrations	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 free plan Usage-based pricing varies by region, engine, instance, and configuration The feature set is closely tied to the AWS environment	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 Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a managed relational database service for deploying, operating, and scaling databases in AWS. It is suited to teams that want AWS to handle infrastructure provisioning, patching, backups,… 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 RDS — where it wins

  • Supports eight database engines in the AWS environment
  • Automates provisioning, patching, backups, and point-in-time recovery
  • Combines Multi-AZ failover, read replicas, monitoring, and AWS integrations

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan
  • Usage-based pricing varies by region, engine, instance, and configuration
  • The feature set is closely tied to the AWS environment

• 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 RDS9.0/10 · Paid

  A broad AWS-managed SQL service with high availability, scaling, and operational automation.

  Visit Amazon RDSFull 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 →