# Amazon RDS Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra > With the help of Capterra, learn about Amazon RDS Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Database products and more. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/192201/Amazon-RDS --- # Amazon RDS Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on March 25, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[Pros and Cons](#pros-cons)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Integrations](#integrations)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) Amazon RDS ## What is Amazon RDS? Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) allows users to set up, operate, and scale a database in the cloud. Amazon RDS provides cost-efficient and resizable capacity while automating time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, setup, patching, and backups. It frees you to focus on applications so you can give them the performance and security they need. Available Amazon RDS database engines: Amazon Aurora, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and SQL Server. ## What is Amazon RDS used for? [Database](https://www.capterra.com/database-management-software/)[Database Monitoring](https://www.capterra.com/database-monitoring-software/)[Data Entry](https://www.capterra.com/data-entry-software/) Top alternative Featured Overall rating Based on 218 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive 98% Neutral 2% Negative 0% Pros & cons Versatile managed database service Automated backup and recovery tools High and unpredictable costs Starting price $0.01 Per Feature, Per Month Free trial available Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for Amazon RDS?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=https://aws.amazon.com/&name=Amazon RDS) ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### Amazon RDS 4.7 (218) VS. [4.6 (2,222)](https://www.capterra.com/p/146652/Airtable/reviews/) Starting Price $0.01 Per Feature, Per Month Starting Price $20 Per User, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 4.4 (218) Ease Of Use 4.4 (1,974) Value For Money 4.3 (174) Value For Money 4.5 (1,505) Customer Service 4.4 (155) Customer Service 4.4 (1,431) ## Amazon RDS alternatives [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.capterra.com/p/1417/SQL-Server/) [4.6 (1,974)](https://www.capterra.com/p/1417/SQL-Server/reviews/) Starting price $13748.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 97% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/1417/SQL-Server/) [MySQL](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/) [4.6 (2,094)](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/reviews/) Starting price $2000.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/) [MongoDB](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/) [4.7 (468)](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 99% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/) Highest Rated [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) [4.7 (2,259)](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) [View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/192201/Amazon-RDS/alternatives/) ## Pros and Cons Versatile managed database service 87% positive reviews out of 91 Most reviewers find database management straightforward, with broad engine support and minimal manual setup required. Mrinmai S Developer, 2 - 10 employees. "Amazon RDS has a lot of great features, what I like the most is that how easy it is to manage a database in Amazon RDS. And also Amazon RDS keeps all the infrastructure management at bay, and I can focus just on using the database for my products." High and unpredictable costs 60% negative reviews out of 48 Some users report pricing is expensive, difficult to estimate, and may be prohibitive for smaller businesses. Automated backup and recovery tools 86% positive reviews out of 37 Most reviewers report backup and recovery features are reliable, automated, and simplify restoring data after issues. Rehan J Software Engineer, 201 - 500 employees. "It automatically backs up data and we can restore our data even if we lost it." Effortless database scaling options 91% positive reviews out of 34 Most reviewers describe scalability as seamless, allowing quick resource adjustments and supporting growth for any business. ## Features Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically. Backup and Recovery 4.5 (48) 68.75% of 48 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Create backups and provide methods to recover deleted/lost data Data Storage Management 4.5 (48) 64.58% of 48 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Manage and store data in a database Access Controls/Permissions 4.3 (47) 59.57% of 47 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Data Replication 4.2 (37) 54.05% of 37 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Process of copying and storing data in more than one site or node Performance Analysis 4.3 (33) 57.58% of 33 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Monitor and analyze the performance and status of a server or system/application Multiple Programming Languages Supported 4.4 (32) 56.25% of 32 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Run stored procedures and queries in multiple programming languages, such as JSON, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, and SQL Amazon RDS 21 features Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases Data is backed up automatically to prevent data loss Create backups and provide methods to recover deleted/lost data Assembly of graphs and charts for visualizing and tracking statistics/metrics Import, collect, and capture data from multiple sources Stores definitions of the data elements and their relationships (metadata) and how they are retrieved for the user Move from one database to another, or upgrade the version of database software being used Process of copying and storing data in more than one site or node Search and find data in a structured format Manage and store data in a database Retrieve and use data without requiring technical details about the data Access software remotely via mobile devices Observe and track the demand, usage, progress or quality of a system, product, or user Run stored procedures and queries in multiple programming languages, such as JSON, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, and SQL Operate multiple applications in a shared environment Monitor and analyze the performance and status of a server or system/application Monitoring and measurement of relevant metrics to assess the performance of IT resources Database management based on relationships between data Manage user accounts, profiles, roles, permissions, and other details across applications, devices or networks Get Advice We can help you find the software with the features you need. Features 4.6 (218) 4.6 Based on 218 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 4.3 (174) Free Trial Free Version [View pricing plan details](https://www.capterra.com/p/192201/Amazon-RDS/pricing/) Basic $0.01 Per Feature,Per Month Value for money 4.3 (174) 4.3 Based on 174 reviews ## Integrations [ Amazon EC2](https://www.capterra.com/p/219781/EC2/)[ Amazon Aurora](https://www.capterra.com/p/199608/Aurora/) Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs. ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 4.4 (155) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 4.4 (155) 4.4 Based on 155 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 4.7 Based on 218 reviews Filter by rating 5(158) 4(56) 3(4) 2(0) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent Prateek G. Senior Software Engineer Computer Software ### "One of the best managed services for Postgres" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 January 7, 2026 Overall the experience has been wonderful with RDS. Given that it's managed service it serves you really well with High Availability, Disaster recovery, Replication The Blue green deployment is also a really good feature for testing out schema related or major version changes. This was really helpful when moving away from Older versions of Postgres for larger DBs Reserved Instances is another option you can use to save some dollars if you know about your workloads Pros I've mainly used Amazon RDS for Postgres so can't speak for other database engines. For Postgres the most liked thing about RDS is how quickly they make the major versions available. You don't have to wait too long to try out latest Postgres updates when you are with RDS Cons Couple of drawbacks with RDS I've seen over the years - there is not a great way to enable encryption if you started of with an unencrypted database. You need to create a new database and migrate all your data - same applies for reducing storage of the database, you can increase the storage but cannot lower the storage - columnar extensions are not made available on RDS - Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Monica G. Cloud Engineer Telecommunications ### "Reliable, reliable, I/O cost are pricey, Aurora write forwarding is neat" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 3.0 3.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 June 9, 2025 Overall, reliable RDS service. I wish the I/O costs were a little more affordable. I really like Aurora write forwarding feature. Pros I use mostly RDS MySQL, RDS Postgresql, and RDS Aurora services. The multiple writers for Aurora is helpful to latency for global traffic. The service is reliable. I've only had 1 issue in the past 6 years with RDS. Cons I wish the service was cheaper, especially Aurora. The I/O charges are killer. Other than that, it is a good relational database service. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RR Richard R. IT Support Analyst Real Estate ### "Simple solution to rapidly implement new platforms" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 May 30, 2025 Overall, a simple way to start testing/piloting new applications with minimal support required. Ease of use, access, and speed to deploy. We also had issues migrating out of AWS due to a supplier changing platforms, we needed to migrate to MS Azure. Pros Ease of setup. Configuration and out-of-the-box setups allowed for the rapid testing and then replication and rollout across the business. Reduction in management tasks such as, automation of tasks, provisioning, patching, backups and Recovery. Failover with alerts to a reporting platform ensures issues are dealt with in a timely manner. Cons On the odd occasion, we have had trouble diagnosing a performance issue, and access/management control. In particular, Lack of OS and Database Root Access. While RDS supports popular database engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, MariaDB), the way AWS manages them introduces some proprietary elements. Switched from [Microsoft 365](https://www.capterra.com/p/227157/Microsoft-365/) More ease of use, better setupand suppliers recommended Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Intern Computer Software ### "Scalable & Reliable But Hard To Configure" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 7/10 March 7, 2025 It provides seamless database management but limited control over configurations. Pros It supports multiple database engines like PostgreSQL, Aurora, and MySQL Cons It is costly for high performance workloads and complex while setting up in multi AZ deployments. Switched from [MongoDB](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/) [MySQL](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/) I made switch because Amazon RDS provides scalability, automation and easy backups. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Lead Engineer Information Technology and Services ### "Overall Good Experience" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 3.0 3.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 7/10 February 20, 2025 Pros RDS giving lot of features with better performance. Cons Doing setup become little bit difficult. Switched from [MySQL](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/) They are not providing that much features so i switch. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Software Engineer Information Technology and Services ### "Simple, Reliable, and Ready-to-Use Database Solution" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 February 13, 2025 Pros One of the best thing about it is that no configuration & setup required in order to work with any database, it could be relational or non relational DB eg: MySQL, MongoDB, SQL or Oracle anything with just few clicks on aws console we can start working. Cons There are no major issue but pricing model comparison to on premise setup is costly & cluster updates sometimes delay the business operation & any production deployment. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. SB Swaibu B. AWS Solution Architecture Information Technology and Services ### "Amazon RDS" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 February 10, 2025 Amazon RDS is a reliable and convenient managed database service. It is great for automation and scaling, but it lacks deep customization and fine-tuned control. Pros Amazon RDS simplifies database management with automated backups, scaling, and maintenance, reducing operational overhead. Cons Compared to self-managed databases, there is limited customization and control, especially for configurations and performance tuning. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AN alessandro n. administrator Medical Practice ### "amazon rds review" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 7/10 April 18, 2024 Pros i really appreciate easy dashboard and possibility to write new records quickly Cons some problems occoured in our management software while using program Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. TG Tami G. Controller Automotive ### "Good Product" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 6/10 March 19, 2024 Pros I tried it but it just was not what I was looking Cons Our business is too small for this product Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Menka T. Software engineer analyst Information Technology and Services ### "Amazon RDS review" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 January 26, 2024 Pros Amazon RDS is easy to use .It helps to maintain the relational database in the cloud.Also it’s flexible and secure to use. Cons It has higher cost compared to other softwares.And also we can only increase the allocated storage in Amazon RDS we can’t reduce it. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. [View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/192201/Amazon-RDS/reviews/) Popular comparisons [Microsoft SQL Server vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/1417-192201/SQL-Server-vs-Amazon-RDS)[MySQL vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/11482-192201/MySQL-vs-Amazon-RDS)[MongoDB vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/127374-192201/MongoDB-vs-Amazon-RDS)[Google Cloud vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/192201-268690/Amazon-RDS-vs-Google-Cloud-Platform)[Oracle Database vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/5938-192201/Oracle-Database-vs-Amazon-RDS) [Airtable vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/146652-192201/Airtable-vs-Amazon-RDS)[Microsoft Access vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/192201-233275/Amazon-RDS-vs-Microsoft-Access)[PostgreSQL vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/48791-192201/PostgreSQL-vs-Amazon-RDS)[DbVisualizer vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/192201-197030/Amazon-RDS-vs-DbVisualizer)[Amazon Aurora vs Amazon RDS](https://www.capterra.com/compare/192201-199608/Amazon-RDS-vs-Aurora)  Independent research methodology Capterra's researchers use a mix of verified reviews, independent research and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. 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