Amazon RDS vs Azure SQL Database
Amazon RDS
aws.amazon.com
Azure SQL Database
azure.microsoft.comSide by side
| Figure | Amazon RDS | Azure SQL Database |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 6 | 5 |
| Spec score · Spatial Databases | 8.9 (#5) | 9.0 (#4) |
| Spec score · Relational Databases | 8.8 (#5) | 8.9 (#3) |
| Spec score · Databases And Backend | 8.8 (#5) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Database Software | 8.8 (#14) | 9.0 (#7) |
| Spec score · Transaction Data Store Software | 8.7 (#7) | 8.8 (#6) |
| Compliance | AWS states that RDS participates in compliance programs including SOC, PCI, FedRAMP and HIPAA. | Microsoft states that Azure has more than 100 compliance certifications, including over 50 for specific regions and countries. |
| Documentation depth | AWS provides a user guide, engine-specific guides, getting-started material, API reference and release-history documentation. | Microsoft Learn provides conceptual guidance, quickstarts, tutorials, API references, resource-limit tables, code samples and troubleshooting material. |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Licence | Amazon RDS is a proprietary hosted AWS service; the database engines it hosts may be open-source or commercial under their respective licences. | Azure SQL Database is a proprietary Microsoft cloud service rather than an open-source database; licensing is bundled or discounted through Azure pricing and Azure Hybrid Benefit. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 907 reviews | 4.5 out of 5 from 242 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.6 out of 5 from 386 ratings | 4.5 out of 5 from 340 ratings |
| Rating on Google Play | 4.7 out of 5 from 28.8K reviews for the AWS Console app, which supports RDS management | 4.4 out of 5 from 11K reviews |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 1.3 out of 5 from 431 reviews for AWS overall | 1.7 out of 5 from 60 reviews |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 8.2 out of 10 from 290 reviews and ratings | 8.3 out of 10 from 291 reviews and ratings |
| Security controls | RDS supports VPC network isolation, security groups, IAM permissions, SSL/TLS in transit, and AWS KMS encryption at rest using AES-256. | Network firewalls block access until IP addresses or virtual-network traffic are explicitly allowed. |
| What it does | Amazon RDS is a managed relational database service that sets up, operates and scales databases in AWS while handling common administration. | Azure SQL Database is Microsoft’s managed cloud relational database service for transactional and analytical workloads. |
Plans
Amazon RDS
- AWS Free TierFree
- AWS Free Tier for RDSFree
- On-demandPrice not published
- On-Demand InstancesPrice not published
- Reserved InstancePrice not published
- Reserved InstancesPrice not published
Azure SQL Database
- Free offerFree
- Azure SQL Database free offerFree
- Azure SQL Database free tierFree
- Azure SQL Database pay-as-you-goPrice not published
- Pay as you goPrice not published
In their own words
Amazon RDS
Amazon RDS has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database is a cloud-native relational database service built on the SQL Server engine and delivered as a fully managed PaaS. Microsoft manages provisioning, patching, backups, monitoring, and high availability. The service supports standard T-SQL and can be accessed through the Azure portal, SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio Code's MSSQL extension, and compatible application frameworks. It supports native JSON and REST and GraphQL APIs through Data API builder. Hyperscale independently scales compute and storage and supports scale-out with up to 30 named replicas. For AI application development, it offers native vector search and connections to Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search. It can connect to Azure Functions and replicate SQL data into Microsoft Fabric for near-real-time querying and analysis. Security and governance include a multilayered approach with Microsoft Defender for SQL; recovery features include disaster recovery and snapshot-based backups. The free offer allows up to 10 General Purpose databases per subscription, each with 100,000 vCore seconds, 32 GB of data, and 32 GB of backup storage monthly. Once limits are reached, a database can auto-pause or remain online with excess use billed at standard rates.