Databases · alternatives
Alternatives to Amazon Aurora
24 databases tools sit alongside Amazon Aurora in this directory. Below is what separates each from Amazon Aurora on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 24
- With a free tier
- 19
- Cheaper to start
- 0
- Amazon Aurora starts at
- Free
Why people look past Amazon Aurora
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. Amazon Aurora has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $25/month. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
The cloud-native distributed SQL database
- Sold on a freemium model rather than usage-based.
The MySQL-compatible serverless database
- Starts $15 a month dearer, at $15/month.
- 4 tiers to Amazon Aurora's 2.
Serverless Postgres for modern developers
- 3 tiers to Amazon Aurora's 2.
The open source Firebase alternative
- Starts $25 a month dearer, at $25/month.
- 4 tiers to Amazon Aurora's 2.
MPP analytical database with a MySQL wire protocol and sub-second aggregation on wide tables
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
- 1 tier to Amazon Aurora's 2.
The Meta-lineage distributed SQL query engine, distinct from the Trino fork
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
- 1 tier to Amazon Aurora's 2.
Every Amazon Aurora alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Aurora (this page) | Free | Usage-based | 2 | |
| Cockroach LabsOpen-source distributed SQL database with PostgreSQL compatibility and multi-region replication | Free | Freemium | - | vs Amazon Aurora |
| PlanetScaleMySQL-compatible serverless database built on Vitess with instant scaling | Free, then $15/month | Usage-based | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| NeonServerless PostgreSQL database with branching and autoscaling features | Free | - | 3 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| SupabaseOpen-source Firebase alternative with PostgreSQL database and real-time capabilities | Free, then $25/month | - | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Apache Doris | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Presto | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| EMQX | Free, then $234/month | Per month by connection and session volume | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| StarRocks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Solace PubSub+ | Free | Quote | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Tinybird | Free, then $25/month | Per month by compute and storage | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Dremio | Free, then $0.2/hour | Per Dremio Compute Unit consumed | 3 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| VerneMQ | Free | Quote | 3 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Timeplus | Free, then $199/month | Per month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted | 3 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| RisingWave | Free, then $0.227/hour | Per RisingWave Unit hour | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| NATS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Redpanda | Free | Source-available community edition with paid enterprise and cloud tiers | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| RabbitMQ | Free | Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Canary Labs | $3000/year | Per tag band per year | 4 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Instaclustr | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Immuta | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Privacera | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| TIBCO Enterprise Message Service | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Apache Solr | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
| Apache Pulsar | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Amazon Aurora |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Amazon Aurora badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (19)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- Cockroach Labs , Free
- PlanetScale , Free, then $15/month
- Neon , Free
- Supabase , Free, then $25/month
- Apache Doris , Free
- Presto , Free
- EMQX , Free, then $234/month
- StarRocks , Free
What you would be giving up
Amazon Aurora is most often brought in for transaction processing, data storage, application backend, reporting, data analytics. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Amazon Aurora is broadly right and the question is cost, the Amazon Aurora pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Databases category lists everything the directory holds, and best databases tools ranks them.
Amazon Aurora runs on aws cloud. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Amazon Aurora alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Amazon Aurora?
- 24 other databases tools are listed in this directory, led by Cockroach Labs, PlanetScale, Neon, Supabase. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Amazon Aurora?
- 19 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Cockroach Labs, PlanetScale, Neon, Supabase, Apache Doris.
- Is there a reason to switch away from Amazon Aurora?
- Nothing in the data flags one. Amazon Aurora has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $25/month. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from Amazon Aurora?
- Amazon Aurora is most often brought in for transaction processing, data storage, application backend, reporting, data analytics. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Amazon Aurora?
- None of the databases tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Amazon Aurora alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Databases, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Amazon Aurora against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Amazon Aurora covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every databases tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Databases category, 24 tools beside Amazon Aurora. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.