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Amazon RDS vs PostgreSQL
Short answer: Pick Amazon RDS if you want managed relational databases with high availability; pick PostgreSQL if you want advanced open-source relational database. Amazon RDS has a free plan; PostgreSQL is free and open source.
Which to pick
Pick Amazon RDS if you want…
- Managed relational databases with high availability
- Managed PostgreSQL on AWS
Pick PostgreSQL if you want…
- Advanced open-source relational database
- A free, open-source tool
Side by side
- What it is
- Amazon RDS:Amazon RDS is a fully managed relational database service that simplifies setup, operation, and scaling of multiple database engines on AWS.
- PostgreSQL:PostgreSQL is an open-source object-relational database system known for reliability and performance.
- Best for
- Amazon RDS:Managed relational databases with high availability
- PostgreSQL:Advanced open-source relational database
- Who it’s for
- Amazon RDS:Developers and enterprises needing managed relational databases on AWS
- PostgreSQL:Developers and organizations needing a robust relational database.
- Pricing
- Amazon RDS:Freemium
- PostgreSQL:Open source
- Starting price
- Amazon RDS:—
- PostgreSQL:Free
- Free plan or trial
- Amazon RDS:Free trial
- PostgreSQL:Free to use
- Open source
- Amazon RDS:—
- PostgreSQL:Yes, 22,836 GitHub stars
- Works with
- Amazon RDS:AWS Outposts, Amazon RDS Proxy
- PostgreSQL:—
Amazon RDS features
- Automated management. Handles provisioning, configuration, backups, and patching automatically.
- Multi-AZ high availability. Provides automated failover with Multi-AZ deployments for resilience.
- Engine choice. Supports eight database engines including Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Db2.
- Flexible deployment. Offers on-premises (Outposts), custom OS/database environments, and proxy services.
- Scalable storage. Provides General Purpose SSD and Provisioned IOPS storage options up to 64 TiB.
- Pricing flexibility. Pay-as-you-go on-demand, Reserved Instances, and Free Tier with no minimum fees.
PostgreSQL features
- Object-relational engine. Combines relational and object-oriented features for flexible data modeling.
- Reliability. Proven stability with over 35 years of active development.
- Feature robustness. Rich SQL support, extensions, and advanced indexing.
- Performance. Optimized query execution and concurrency handling.
- Extensive documentation. Official docs cover installation, usage, and administration.
- Community support. Mailing lists, events, and user groups help users collaborate.
- Security updates. Regular releases fix vulnerabilities, e.g., 52 CVEs in the latest minor release.
- Versioning policy. Clear support timelines; version 14 ends support on 2026-11-12.
Amazon RDS vs PostgreSQL FAQ
What is the difference between Amazon RDS and PostgreSQL?+
Amazon RDS offers managed PostgreSQL instances, handling operations for you; PostgreSQL itself is the database engine.
Should I use Amazon RDS or PostgreSQL?+
Pick Amazon RDS if you want managed relational databases with high availability or managed PostgreSQL on AWS. Pick PostgreSQL if you want advanced open-source relational database or a free, open-source tool.
Is Amazon RDS or PostgreSQL free?+
Amazon RDS has a free plan and paid plans. PostgreSQL is free and open source.
Is Amazon RDS or PostgreSQL open source?+
PostgreSQL is open source (postgres/postgres on GitHub). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Amazon RDS.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.