Databases · head to head
DynamoDB vs Keycloak
DynamoDB
Databases
AWS-only managed key-value and document database with fixed per-partition throughput limits and no ad hoc queries.
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
Keycloak
Developer Tools
Open-source identity and access management server.
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Keycloak is an open-source IAM platform supporting OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.
- Keycloak is free; DynamoDB starts at $0.625/mo.
- Where Keycloak falls short: requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain.
- Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which DynamoDB and Keycloak actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).
Not yet recorded: founded for Keycloak.
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in DynamoDB
- Managed and serverless
- Predictable latency
- On-demand or provisioned capacity
- Global secondary indexes
- Transactions
- DynamoDB Streams
- Global tables
- Point-in-time recovery
Only in Keycloak
Nothing recorded that DynamoDB does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
DynamoDB
- High-volume keyed workloads such as sessions, shopping carts, device state or user profiles where the access pattern is fixed and knownnot Keycloak
- Traffic that spikes unpredictably, where on-demand capacity absorbs a burst without a capacity-planning exercisenot Keycloak
- Serverless applications on Lambda, where an HTTP-based datastore avoids the connection pooling problem relational databases havenot Keycloak
- Event or telemetry ingestion where writes vastly outnumber reads and each record is retrieved by a known identifiernot Keycloak
Keycloak
- Organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residencynot DynamoDB
- Companies with existing LDAP/Active Directory systems needing federated authenticationnot DynamoDB
- Open-source projects and communities requiring free IAM without licensing costsnot DynamoDB
- Enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisationnot DynamoDB
- Teams with sufficient operational expertise to manage infrastructurenot DynamoDB
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
DynamoDB
- Access patterns must be designed into the key schema before launch; a query nobody anticipated needs a new global secondary index, which is a full extra copy of the projected attributes billed as storage and as writes, or an offline migration
- Global secondary indexes are eventually consistent and cannot be read strongly, so a read-after-write against an index can legitimately miss the item that was just written, and application code must be written to tolerate that
- Per-partition throughput is capped at roughly 3,000 read and 1,000 write units, so a hot key throttles even when the table has spare capacity overall, and the only real fix is changing the key design to spread the load
- Items are limited to 400 KB and query results paginate at 1 MB, so large or list-shaped data has to be split, offloaded to S3 with a pointer, or read through pagination loops that complicate every consumer
- It runs only on AWS and the API is proprietary rather than a standard, so moving the data layer means rewriting it; ScyllaDB's Alternator is the only meaningfully compatible target and it brings a much smaller ecosystem
Keycloak
- Requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain
- No managed cloud option provided by Red Hat; organisations must operate infrastructure themselves or use third-party distributions
- Clustering and high-availability configurations require additional operational knowledge
- Community support only; commercial support requires third-party vendors or distributions
Pricing, plan by plan
DynamoDB
Free- On-Demand CapacityOn request
- Pay-per-request pricing with automatic scaling
- Read: 0.5 RRU per 4 KB (eventually consistent), 1 RRU per 4 KB (strongly consistent), 2 RRU per 4 KB (transactional)
- Write: 1 WRU per 1 KB
- Provisioned CapacityOn request
- Fixed hourly charges based on reserved capacity
- RCU rate: $0.00013 per hour (Standard)
- WCU rate: $0.00065 per hour (Standard)
- Standard Table Class Storage$0.25/per gb/month
- $0.25 per GB/month after free tier
- First 25 GB free per month (free tier)
- Standard-Infrequent Access Table Class$0.1/per gb/month
- $0.10 per GB/month
Keycloak
Free- Open-sourceFree
- Full platform functionality
- Self-hosted deployment
- Community support
Which should you pick?
Choose DynamoDB if
- You need managed and serverless.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on AWS.
- You also want predictable latency.
Choose Keycloak if
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Self-hosted, Linux, Windows, API.
Questions people ask
- Is DynamoDB or Keycloak better?
- Neither clearly leads. DynamoDB starts at Free and Keycloak at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, DynamoDB or Keycloak?
- DynamoDB starts at Free and Keycloak at Free.
- Does DynamoDB or Keycloak run on more platforms?
- DynamoDB runs on AWS. Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Linux, Windows, API.
- Can I use DynamoDB for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is DynamoDB best used for?
- DynamoDB is most often used for high-volume keyed workloads such as sessions, shopping carts, device state or user profiles where the access pattern is fixed and known, traffic that spikes unpredictably, where on-demand capacity absorbs a burst without a capacity-planning exercise, serverless applications on lambda, where an http-based datastore avoids the connection pooling problem relational databases have, event or telemetry ingestion where writes vastly outnumber reads and each record is retrieved by a known identifier. Of those, high-volume keyed workloads such as sessions, shopping carts, device state or user profiles where the access pattern is fixed and known and traffic that spikes unpredictably, where on-demand capacity absorbs a burst without a capacity-planning exercise are not what Keycloak is typically brought in for.
- What can DynamoDB do that Keycloak cannot?
- DynamoDB covers Managed and serverless, Predictable latency, On-demand or provisioned capacity, Global secondary indexes.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
DynamoDB: On-demand or provisioned capacity?
On-demand suits unpredictable or spiky traffic and removes capacity planning. Provisioned with autoscaling is considerably cheaper for steady high-volume workloads. Tables can be switched between them, though not arbitrarily often.
Keycloak: What protocols does Keycloak support?
Keycloak supports OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0 and SAML 2.0 protocols for authentication and authorisation.
SourceDynamoDB: Can I run DynamoDB outside AWS?
No. DynamoDB Local exists for development and testing only. For a production-compatible alternative elsewhere, ScyllaDB's Alternator implements the DynamoDB API, but it is a different system with a different ecosystem.
Keycloak: Can Keycloak integrate with existing user directories?
Yes. Keycloak supports user federation with LDAP and Active Directory systems, allowing organisations to leverage existing user directories.
SourceDynamoDB: Can I run ad hoc queries or analytics?
Not on the table itself. Scans are slow and expensive at scale. The usual pattern is to export to S3 or stream changes out and query them in Athena, Redshift or another analytical engine.
Keycloak: Is Keycloak free?
Yes. Keycloak is fully open-source and free to deploy and use. No licensing fees are required.
SourceDynamoDB: Is single-table design necessary?
It is the pattern that gets the most from DynamoDB when access patterns are well known, because it lets related items be retrieved in one query. It also makes the model harder to evolve, so many teams reasonably choose multiple simpler tables and accept extra requests.
DynamoDB: What are the real limits I should design around?
400 KB per item, 1 MB per query or scan page, 100 items per transaction, roughly 3,000 read and 1,000 write units per partition, and eventual consistency on global secondary indexes.
Related pages
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- Keycloak vs MongoDB
- Keycloak vs Elasticsearch
- Keycloak vs Cassandra
- Keycloak vs BigQuery
- Keycloak vs FaunaDB
- Keycloak vs Memcached
- Keycloak vs ScyllaDB
- Keycloak vs PlanetScale
- Keycloak vs Couchbase
- Keycloak vs DataGrip
- Keycloak vs Firebase Realtime Database
- Keycloak vs Microsoft SQL Server
- Keycloak vs QuestDB
- Keycloak vs Vitess
- Keycloak vs Aiven
- Keycloak vs CouchDB
- Keycloak vs Google Cloud SQL
- Keycloak vs CosmosDB
- Keycloak vs Jenkins
- Keycloak vs Atlantis
- Keycloak vs Soketi
- Keycloak vs Kubernetes
- Keycloak vs GitLab
- Keycloak vs Vite
- Keycloak vs Depot
- Keycloak vs Ansible
- Keycloak vs Buildkite
- Keycloak vs Coder
- Keycloak vs Bitbucket
- Keycloak vs Sweep
- Keycloak vs Git
- Keycloak vs GitHub Desktop
- Keycloak vs GoLand
- Keycloak vs Hookdeck
- Keycloak vs Istio
- Keycloak vs JFrog Artifactory