Actian Zen vs Amazon Aurora
Actian Zen
actian.com
Amazon Aurora
aws.amazon.comSide by side
| Figure | Actian Zen | Amazon Aurora |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Relational Databases | 8.4 (#7) | 8.1 (#13) |
| Spec score · Sql Databases | 8.4 (#9) | 8.0 (#12) |
| Founded | 1980 | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California, United States | Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Integrations | The product page says Zen Enterprise integrates with existing ERP, point-of-sale, and accounting applications. | Aurora MySQL can invoke AWS Lambda functions and load data from or save data to Amazon S3. |
| Product | Actian Zen is an embedded database for edge-to-cloud data management that combines relational data, vector search, semantic queries, and AI-agent connectivity in a lightweight engine. | Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database service with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and DSQL engines. |
| Support | Actian Support Services says technical expertise, guidance, and knowledge are available 24/7. | Customers with an active AWS Premium Support plan can contact AWS for Aurora-specific troubleshooting and guidance. |
Plans
Amazon Aurora
- Free planFree
- Paid planPrice not published
- Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless Free planFree
- Aurora PostgreSQL and Aurora MySQL On-DemandPrice not published
In their own words
Actian Zen
Actian Zen is an embedded database for managing data from edge devices through on-premises and cloud applications. Its lightweight engine combines relational storage, native vector search, semantic queries, and connectivity for AI agents. Vector search supports up to 1 million vectors, while hybrid queries combine relational filters with semantic similarity. A native MCP server allows agents such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to query local data. Zen supports SQL through ODBC and JDBC, and NoSQL through Btrieve and Btrieve 2 APIs. Semantic search, vector queries, and agent workflows can run offline, including in air-gapped environments. Zen Enterprise is designed for embedded, on-premises, and cloud deployments, including branch and remote field settings, and supports Windows, Linux, macOS, Intel, ARM, VMware, Hyper-V, and Docker. Zen Mobile supports Android and iOS with AES 256-bit encryption for stored data. Edge supports over 100 concurrent users; Enterprise is designed for thousands. A 30-day trial is available, with paid pricing from $417/mo (annual).
Amazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.