Cloud SQL for MySQL vs Amazon Aurora

Cloud SQL for MySQL9.0Visit Amazon Aurora8.8Visit

Higher score Cloud SQL for MySQL #4 in MySQL Hosting 9.0/10 30-day trial Free trial✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Google Cloud

vs

Amazon Aurora #6 in MySQL Hosting 8.8/10 Paid ✓ 1 of 4 features Visit Amazon Aurora

• Cloud SQL for MySQL fits best

  Google Cloud application backends

• Amazon Aurora fits best

  Scalable AWS MySQL-compatible workloads

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Side by side

Feature	Cloud SQL for MySQL 9.0/10 Visit ↗	Amazon Aurora 8.8/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.0	8.8
Ranking	#4 in MySQL Hosting	#6 in MySQL Hosting
Best for	Google Cloud application backends	Scalable AWS MySQL-compatible workloads
Pricing model	Paid	Paid
Starting price	30-day trial	—
Free plan	—	—
Free trial	30 days	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Docs	Email, Live chat, Phone, Tickets, Community, Docs · 24/7
Compliance	ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS	SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS
Integrations	6 integrations	9 integrations
Built for	Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Cloud SQL for MySQL 4/4 · Amazon Aurora 1/4
Automated backups	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Point-in-time restore	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
High availability	✓	✓
Private networking	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Specs
Scaling mode	Both	Not checked yet
Included storage	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	Point-in-time recovery and automated daily backups Automatic failover across zones with replica support Private connectivity and broad Google Cloud integrations	Provisioned and serverless options with automatic capacity and storage scaling Up to 15 read replicas plus automatic failover to an Aurora Replica Continuous backups, point-in-time recovery, and multi-Region operation
Cons	Paid service with no free plan Usage-based pricing varies by region and resources Not an open-source database service	Paid service with pricing that varies by Region and capacity Costs also vary with storage, I/O, and optional features Backup retention and maximum connections vary by configuration
Our verdict	Cloud SQL for MySQL is a fully managed relational database service for running MySQL Community Edition databases on Google Cloud. It is designed for application teams and organizations running production MySQL workloads, including backends… Read the review →	Amazon Aurora is a fully managed, cloud-based relational database service from Amazon Web Services. It supports PostgreSQL- and MySQL-compatible relational database engines, along with the Aurora DSQL distributed SQL engine. The service is… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Cloud SQL for MySQL — where it wins

  • Point-in-time recovery and automated daily backups
  • Automatic failover across zones with replica support
  • Private connectivity and broad Google Cloud integrations

  Where it doesn't

  • Paid service with no free plan
  • Usage-based pricing varies by region and resources
  • Not an open-source database service

• Amazon Aurora — where it wins

  • Provisioned and serverless options with automatic capacity and storage scaling
  • Up to 15 read replicas plus automatic failover to an Aurora Replica
  • Continuous backups, point-in-time recovery, and multi-Region operation

  Where it doesn't

  • Paid service with pricing that varies by Region and capacity
  • Costs also vary with storage, I/O, and optional features
  • Backup retention and maximum connections vary by configuration

• Cloud SQL for MySQL9.0/10 · 30-day trial

  Managed MySQL with recovery, failover, replicas, and Google Cloud integrations.

  Visit Google CloudFull verdict →
• Amazon Aurora8.8/10 · Paid

  A scalable managed database for AWS workloads needing replicas, recovery, and global operation.

  Visit Amazon AuroraFull verdict →