The Ultimate Guide to AWS Databases: Relational and Non-Relational Options and Costs

Gabriel Varaljay
trendfingers
Published in
3 min readFeb 28, 2023

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a wide range of options when choosing a database for your cloud infrastructure. From traditional relational databases to modern non-relational databases, AWS provides scalable and reliable solutions for all types of applications. However, with so many options available, deciding which database service is right for your business can take time and effort. This guide will explore AWS’s relational and non-relational database services and their costs so that you can make an informed decision.

Relational Databases

AWS offers several relational database options, including Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon Redshift. These databases are designed to handle structured data and provide SQL-based querying capabilities.

Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS is a managed relational database service that supports several database engines, including MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is a good option for businesses that need a simple and scalable database without worrying about infrastructure management. The pricing for Amazon RDS ranges from $0.017 to $3.55 per hour, depending on the database engine and instance type.

Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database with high performance and availability. It is a good option for businesses that need a high-performance database for their mission-critical applications. The pricing for Amazon Aurora ranges from $0.022 to $6.624 per hour, depending on the instance type and region.

Amazon Redshift

Amazon Redshift is a petabyte-scale data warehouse that provides fast querying and analytics capabilities. It is a good option for businesses that need to analyze large datasets and generate business insights. The pricing for Amazon Redshift ranges from $0.25 to $25 per hour, depending on the node type and region.

Non-Relational Databases

AWS offers several non-relational database options, including Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon DocumentDB, and Amazon Neptune. These databases are designed to handle unstructured data and provide flexible querying capabilities.

Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database that provides low-latency, high-performance access to unstructured data. It is a good option for businesses that need a flexible database for their web and mobile applications. The pricing for Amazon DynamoDB ranges from $0.00013 to $13.431 per hour, depending on the provisioned capacity and region.

Amazon DocumentDB

Amazon DocumentDB is a MongoDB-compatible document database that provides scalability and performance. It is a good option for businesses that need a flexible database for their document-based applications. The pricing for Amazon DocumentDB ranges from $0.038 to $6.096 per hour, depending on the instance size and region.

Amazon Neptune

Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database that provides fast querying and processing of graph data. It is a good option for businesses that need to store and analyze complex relationships between their data. The pricing for Amazon Neptune ranges from $0.23 to $4.56 per hour, depending on the instance size and region.

Querying Data

Amazon Athena is a serverless interactive query service that allows you to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. It is not a traditional database service like the one in the article but a critical data analytics tool on the AWS platform. With Athena, you can quickly analyze large amounts of data without setting up or managing infrastructure.

Athena’s pricing model is based on the amount of data scanned, costing $5 per TB. This makes it a cost-effective solution for businesses that analyze data stored in S3.

Amazon Athena is a good option for businesses with large amounts of data stored in S3 and needing to analyze it quickly and cost-effectively. With Athena, you can write standard SQL queries to extract insights from your data, and the results are displayed in seconds. This allows you to make data-driven decisions faster and more efficiently.

In conclusion, AWS offers a wide range of relational and non-relational database options to suit the needs of any business. The cost of each database service varies based on the instance type, storage, and region. By understanding the benefits and costs of each database service, you can choose the one that best meets your business requirements. With AWS databases, you can achieve high application performance, scalability, and reliability.

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Gabriel Varaljay
trendfingers

Multi-Cloud & DevOps | AWS | Microsoft Azure | Google Cloud | Oracle Cloud | Linux | Terraform | digital problem solver