StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Relational Databases
  4. SQL Database As A Service
  5. Amazon RDS vs DigitalOcean Managed Databases

Amazon RDS vs DigitalOcean Managed Databases

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Amazon RDS
Amazon RDS
Stacks16.2K
Followers10.8K
Votes761
DigitalOcean Managed Databases
DigitalOcean Managed Databases
Stacks64
Followers67
Votes0

Amazon RDS vs DigitalOcean Managed Databases: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will compare the key differences between Amazon RDS and DigitalOcean Managed Databases.

  1. Scalability: One major difference between Amazon RDS and DigitalOcean Managed Databases is the scalability options they offer. With Amazon RDS, you can easily scale your database by increasing or decreasing the compute and storage resources. It provides automatic scaling capabilities based on your workload and requirements. On the other hand, DigitalOcean Managed Databases do not offer automatic scaling. However, you can manually resize your database cluster by upgrading to a higher plan with more resources.

  2. Cloud Provider: Amazon RDS is a managed database service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), while DigitalOcean Managed Databases is a similar service provided by DigitalOcean. As a result, each service operates on separate cloud platforms with their own specific features and capabilities. It is essential to consider the overall cloud ecosystem and tools offered by each provider when making a decision.

  3. Database Support: Amazon RDS supports a wide range of database engines including Amazon Aurora, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server. It provides a comprehensive set of tools and features specific to each database engine. On the other hand, DigitalOcean Managed Databases currently only supports PostgreSQL and MySQL as database options. While these two database engines are widely used, it may be a limiting factor if you require other database engines for your application.

  4. Pricing Model: The pricing models of Amazon RDS and DigitalOcean Managed Databases differ in some aspects. Amazon RDS offers multiple pricing options, including On-Demand instances, Reserved instances, and Provisioned IOPS. Additionally, you can choose to pay as you go or opt for long-term contracts for cost optimization. DigitalOcean Managed Databases, on the other hand, follow a straightforward pricing model based on clusters, instances, and storage used. It is important to consider the specific pricing requirements and cost structures that align with your budget and application needs.

  5. Managed Operations: Amazon RDS provides a range of managed operations, including automated backups, software patching, database monitoring, and performance optimization. It handles routine administrative tasks, allowing you to focus on your applications rather than infrastructure management. DigitalOcean Managed Databases also offer similar managed operations, such as automated backups and monitoring, but the feature set may not be as extensive as Amazon RDS. It is necessary to evaluate the specific managed operations offered by each service based on your operational requirements.

  6. Community and Support: Amazon RDS benefits from being part of the extensive AWS ecosystem, providing access to a large community of users, comprehensive documentation, and active customer support. It offers a wealth of resources for troubleshooting issues, learning, and staying up-to-date with the latest developments. While DigitalOcean also has an active community and provides support, it may not have the same level of resources and support options compared to Amazon RDS.

In summary, the key differences between Amazon RDS and DigitalOcean Managed Databases lie in scalability options, cloud provider, database support, pricing model, managed operations, and community/support resources available. Consider your specific requirements and preferences before choosing the appropriate managed database service for your application.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on Amazon RDS, DigitalOcean Managed Databases

Phillip
Phillip

Developer at Coach Align

Mar 18, 2021

Decided

Using on-demand read/write capacity while we scale our userbase - means that we're well within the free-tier on AWS while we scale the business and evaluate traffic patterns.

Using single-table design, which is dead simple using Jeremy Daly's dynamodb-toolbox library

29.3k views29.3k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Amazon RDS
Amazon RDS
DigitalOcean Managed Databases
DigitalOcean Managed Databases

Amazon RDS gives you access to the capabilities of a familiar MySQL, Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server database engine. This means that the code, applications, and tools you already use today with your existing databases can be used with Amazon RDS. Amazon RDS automatically patches the database software and backs up your database, storing the backups for a user-defined retention period and enabling point-in-time recovery. You benefit from the flexibility of being able to scale the compute resources or storage capacity associated with your Database Instance (DB Instance) via a single API call.

Build apps and store data in minutes with easy access to one or more databases and sleep better knowing your data is backed up and optimized.

Pre-configured Parameters;Monitoring and Metrics;Automatic Software Patching;Automated Backups;DB Snapshots;DB Event Notifications;Multi-Availability Zone (Multi-AZ) Deployments;Provisioned IOPS;Push-Button Scaling;Automatic Host Replacement;Replication;Isolation and Security
Multi-node database clustering;Automated failover support;Daily backups with Point in Time Recovery (7 days);Horizontal read scaling;Data encrypted on disk and network;Performance graphs (per minute);Multiple logical databases per cluster;Database cluster forks;Connection pooling;One-click upgrades to new versions;Seamless switching of plans and regions;All Regions except AMS2, NYC2, SFO1 and SGP1
Statistics
Stacks
16.2K
Stacks
64
Followers
10.8K
Followers
67
Votes
761
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 165
    Reliable failovers
  • 156
    Automated backups
  • 130
    Backed by amazon
  • 92
    Db snapshots
  • 87
    Multi-availability
No community feedback yet

What are some alternatives to Amazon RDS, DigitalOcean Managed Databases?

Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora is a MySQL-compatible, relational database engine that combines the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases. Amazon Aurora provides up to five times better performance than MySQL at a price point one tenth that of a commercial database while delivering similar performance and availability.

Google Cloud SQL

Google Cloud SQL

Run the same relational databases you know with their rich extension collections, configuration flags and developer ecosystem, but without the hassle of self management.

ClearDB

ClearDB

ClearDB uses a combination of advanced replication techniques, advanced cluster technology, and layered web services to provide you with a MySQL database that is "smarter" than usual.

Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database

It is the intelligent, scalable, cloud database service that provides the broadest SQL Server engine compatibility and up to a 212% return on investment. It is a database service that can quickly and efficiently scale to meet demand, is automatically highly available, and supports a variety of third party software.

Cloud DB for Mysql

Cloud DB for Mysql

It is a fully managed cloud cache service that enables you to easily configure a MySQL database with a few settings and clicks and operate it reliably with NAVER's optimization settings, and that automatically recovers from failures.

PlanetScaleDB

PlanetScaleDB

It is a fully managed cloud native database-as-a-service built on Vitess and Kubernetes. A MySQL compatible highly scalable database. Effortlessly deploy, manage, and monitor your databases in multiple regions and across cloud providers.

Azure Database for MySQL

Azure Database for MySQL

Azure Database for MySQL provides a managed database service for app development and deployment that allows you to stand up a MySQL database in minutes and scale on the fly – on the cloud you trust most.

Books

Books

It is an immutable double-entry accounting database service. It supports many clients and businesses at global scale, leaning on Google Cloud Spanner and Google Kubernetes Engine to make that possible.

Aiven

Aiven

A fully-managed and hosted database as a service (DBaaS) that provides enterprises of every size access to secure and scalable open-source database and messaging services on all major clouds across the globe.

Amazon Aurora Serverless

Amazon Aurora Serverless

It is an on-demand, autoscaling configuration for Amazon Aurora. It automatically starts up, shuts down, and scales capacity up or down based on your application's needs. You can run your database on AWS without managing database capacity.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase